Rollback Rx question

I totally understand what you mean,,,,,but at least we are having fun as we go careening around the bend into the loony bin.

See ya on the flip side.

 

Yeah...I've never seen so many questions (or confusion?) about a product in my life...HAHA. I think I have it down pat now...for now...until v10 comes out.

 

If we can learn to fully understand V9.1 then V10 should be that much easier to understand when it finally comes out, unless Horizon reconfigures it too much.

 

THe thing is apart from the imaging issue for retention of snaps, which Horizon does not support, Rx is just about the easiest program to use. No need to understand it, it just works if you follow a few very simple rules. Under the hood, yup, complex, no doubt about it.

 

Right, RB is really simple to learn how to use day to day.

 

I've had RBRx on my system for a week, and I'm quite impressed so far, the program is very flexible, versatile, easy to use. I have a few questions for the experts.

1)The first computer start (I'm not sure whether that happens with every subsequent reboot) is normal as far as the time to see the desktop, but then the computer is somewhat sluggish, I have to wait a good 2 minutes before I can do anything. Once it is fully operational its speed is normal. Does this happen to other users? If I put the computer in sleep mode, once the system is recovered it is instantly operational, hence it is only happening at start up.

2)My other question is about the number of snapshots: is it advisable to take frequent snapshots, or it doesn't really matter. I've noticed that snapshots really monitor changes to the system therefore before booting into another snapshot it is almost mandatory to take a snapshot if one wants to retain data until that moment in time.

3) Sometimes I can't open the GUI from the tray icon, I have to do it from the Start/Programs.

TIA for any feedback

 

That is something I have found as well. I know of one person who I suggested Rx to that removed the program because he did not have the patience to wait until the longer boot process took place. Shortsightedness IMO but each to their own.

I feel the more snaps the better so I have Rx take a snap each hour. This way, if for some reason I need tr rollback the system I have fewer files to recover from the snap that is made as the rollback is underway. The longer it has been since the rolled back to snap the less likely you are to remember what has been done in the interim and thus the greater the likelihood that you will forget something you want to retain. At the end of the day I delete all unlocked snaps (startup snaps are automatically locked) and I unlock the oldest startup snap so that I retain the last 5 or 6 startups. This works for me but ultimately you will have to decide what will be best for you.

I have never had this problem and have no idea why it may be occurring on your system.

I hope this has helped.

 

Like Osaban, I was also very impressed by this software [RB Rx] and I even felt tempted to purchase it but, all these long discussions about the complexity of it and the like made me feel overly overwhelmed and put me away from it.

I finally decided to purchase its “little brother” called Drive Vaccine PC Restore Plus. The only thing I somewhat don't like about DV is that now my PC takes longer to boot, longer to load the desktop and longer to open applications. I suppose it should be very similar behavior with RB Rx.



Carlos

 

I think I found out the reason for the long boot: originally to test properly RBRx I created two snapshots, one with Avira 2012 Premium and the other with Vipre 2012. Well, the long boot happens with Vipre even though I have excluded RBRx (Shield folder) in both antivirus.

I'm sorry I don't quite understand this sentence. Do you mean you never update your baseline snapshot? Or do you keep several snapshots locked other than the baseline? If I boot into a snapshot that is 'locked' does it mean that any change won't be retained once I reboot the system into the same snapshot or any other for that matter? Sorry, too many questions...

Thanks a lot for your feedback! The program is very intuitive, but one needs to run it for a while in order to use it efficiently.

 

Have you checked for possible conflicts? If you run an AV, I would exclude every file from DV.

 

Thanks very much for replying, Osaban. I will try your suggestion and will exclude Drive Vaccine files from being scanned by ESET NOD32 and will see if this makes a difference on the PC slowness I'm noticing since I installed DV.


Regards,

 

Carlos, no problems!

 

The long discussions are peripheral to using Rx normally. The issues under discussion related to imaging with Rx installed which Horizon does not support. If you use Rx for what it is intended,,,,,being able to rollback the system when need be, then there are few programs that are simpler to use in my experience. Pretty well the only thing you need to know for normal use is to not defrag using 3rd party software while Rx is installed. Doing so will result in an unnecessarily large snapshot after the defrag has been done. This will not hurt your PC but it uses snapshot space up unnecessarily.

EDIT:
OH yes, you also need to know that if/when you reset your baseline not to select to reset baseline (I know, we just said we were reseting it) but you want to select to update the baseline. Reset the baseline & you will wind up putting the PC back to the state the drive was in when the baseline was first created. The dialogue box for this is very clear if you stop to read what the 2 options on offer do. Some folks just go ahead without reading and they wind up in trouble.

 

No problem regarding the number of questions, I am happy to provide whatever info I can.

Re your question - I do not at all mean that I never update the baseline. I do that on a monthly basis when I uninstal Rx in order to do PC maintenance. When I reinstall it a new baseline is created. Many folks do not do the uninstal reinstall for much longer periods, some even don't bother with it at all and just periodically update the baseline.

The only difference between a locked and unlocked snapshot is the ability to delete the snap. If its locked, it cannot be deleted, otherwise the two are exactly the same in function.

I see no need to keep a lot of snaps on my PC. Especially since I have Rx set to take a snap on an hourly basis. With this setting snap numbers add up real fast (imaging sitting through the snapshot defrag of 30 or 40 snaps). Since my concern is the stability of my system, at the end of the day I get rid of all of the unlocked snaps (except the current one which will always be unlocked) since at that point my PC is running fine and I feel no need to contemplate rolling back an hour or 2. Each person will have to determin how they treat the snapshot "library". If you feel you need or want to keep more than I do thats what you do. If you feel you require less than I keep then thats what you will, and should, do.

I keep the last 5 or 6 locked (boot) snaps so that if something happened (say a virus) that did not come to light immediately, I can rollback up to 5 or 6 days if need be. I have never had to roll back more than a few hours (so far) but I can if need be.

 

Bgoodman thanks. Now I understand what you meant.

 

Hey all,

I finally installed it this weekend and had a question...on my Windows 7 system I have three partitions...the 100mb System Reserved, a C: drive for OS, and a D: drive for data, apps, photos, etc. When installing Rollback RX, would I want to tell it to protect all three partitions?

 

In default installation, it protects all partitions. In custom installation, you chose the partition(s) you want to protect. I will only protect 100mb System Reserved partition and C partition. I will not protect the D partition.

In fact, I will recommend to you to get rid of the 100mb System Reserved partition. The 100mb System Reserved partition is only good, if:

1. You have BitLocker.
2. And, you plan to use BitLocker, to encrypt your C partition, which contains the OS.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Thanks. I noticed, too, after it installed and I looked at it, the next time I powered on my laptop a check disk ran saying my sytem was not shutdown properly...I let it run and it found and deleted several orphaned files. Of course, I did shut it down properly and I baby the laptop enough to know it's fine and whatever instigated the check disk was Rollback RX. Has anyone else seen this?

 

I had this problem and almost pulled all my hair out. Basically, if you have installed any low level programs you will encounter the above. Programs such as O&O Disk Image, Jetico Bestcrypt and so forth as Rollback Rx doesn't play nice with them. Even Aaron Here couldn't help me. I finally found them out with trial and error.

You can get rid of this situation, by putting these program UpperFilters above the Shield.sys of Rollback Rx in the UpperFilters. However, if you do uninstall and then reinstall Rollback Rx, you have to do this again. See Froggie (TheRollbackFrog) post #72 on page 3.

According to Froggie, it is not good to have any program UpperFilters above the Shield.sys of Rollback Rx, in the UpperFilters, and it is better to uninstall these programs.

The only exception according to him is the UpperFilter of Phylock.sys, which can be above the UpperFilter of Shield.sys. See again his post #72 on page 3.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Ah good call...I do have O&O DiskImage 6 installed on the laptop but never use it (I actually meant to remove it). I will remove it. Thanks!

 

You are welcome!

Once you remove O&O Disk Image, you shouldn't have anymore problems with chkdsk, unless you have some more low level programs on your laptop.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

One last question...the Rollback RX manual states this a few times when talking about taking snapshots:

"**To ensure best snapshot’s integrity, it is recommended you save all the files and close all running applications before taking a new snapshot."

Does it make sense, then, if it's no big deal to take your snapshots offline using the HOME button rather than from within Windows? This should remove any risk of open files, running applications, etc.

 

I didn't know you could defragment you computer hard disk, even having Rollback Rx installed on the same drive [drive C:], by using your 3rd party defragmenter [Diskeeper, PerfectDisk, etc.]

I was browsing Horizon DataSys support portal and came across with this article which I guess, should apply to the software I purchased from them [Drive Vaccine PC Restore Plus], since it's very similar to Rollback Rx with the only difference it doesn't take multiple snapshots like Rollback does, just one.


Here is the article:

http://support.horizondatasys.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4443&task=knowledge&questionID=331


Carlos

 

Thats hardly a SWITCH but from what I understand it does work.

 

Where does one find the setting to exclude avast! anti-virus
from RBRx? thanks