Rollback RX v10.x (Home & Professional)

Hmmmmm... you may be the last one on the planet

 

guest, if most of your "rolling back" is done to recent snapshots rather than snaps taken many weeks/months ago, I would suggest re-trying out the newly named product being released later this month by AX64 (even that name will change as well). This version no longer uses a WinPE BOOT environment to BOOT into, the snapshot restore application actually runs under the Windows offered NATIVE NT API that occurs during a normal BOOT process (same place as ChkDisk, some defrag pre-BOOTs and an agressive Norton AV service if you have it selected in that mode) but before Windows is actually started. For recent snapshots this operation is pretty quick.

A full image restoration (needed for disaster recovery) will still require a WinPE BOOT environment... but that's something Rollback doesn't even offer.

 

In fact , when i use RX or AX64 i used to do this:

1- install windows, update it, install two or three must-have soft. Then install RX or AX and take a baseline snapshot that will never be touched (unless i decide to update it)

2- do many snapshots over the time , those can be deleted and replaced.

Ok, thanks for the infos about AX

 

I find it absolutely amazing that any user, yourself included, only needs 2 or 3 "must have" pieces of software beyond Windows itself. The agony most people suffer with CLEAN INSTALLs is not only what you're doing but then installing their 20-30 additional programs with option setups usually required by most of those programs.

It's that massive amount of work that usually REQUIREs people to image their fully software populated system before any risky snapshot software is put into place.

Are you actually saying you only use "2 or 3" production pieces of software beyond Windows itself? I find that amazing...

 

@TheRollbackFrog :With windows and lately win10, almost all necessary programs are built-in.

Browser, Backup, defragger, AV, FW, resource monitor, partitioner, etc... all are in windows, their quality is good enough so you barely need other softs.

Not saying some softs im using (on specific situations) are portable and sit on a usb stick, or are online/cloud.

Those i install (my "must-have-them") are mostly security softs and better alternatives of system softs, or an office suite.

for Example: 7zip, Virtual Box, Shadow Defender and Appguard are those i always install first on my system.

Actually i have around 10 softs installed, half of them are security softs

Of course , sometimes i try or add other softs but they are on RX or on VM, only if i find one absolutely necessary i install it on my "baseline".

Lighter my system is, better i feel
It is why a clean install is not a pain for me but more a optimization, it allows me to alway have the cleanest system possible with only the softs i deem worthy at that time.

I just saw RX is now Win10 compatible, so i will surely reinstall my system soon, And add it. I have a license for it. I wish i could use AX but i dont have a license.

 

Just installed latest version on RX on my win10 system, no issues at the moment.
Now you have the option to flush the system cache before a snapshot. Any opinion on this feature?

 

Well... it's something they should have done years ago... ever since VSS has been available (which is what they're using now). Without this feature, RBrx has always been vulnerable to "inconsistent" snapshots, those whose file structure may not have been "whole" at the time of the snapshot. These issues have caused data integrity problems with snapshot data as well as FileSystem issues that always required a ChkDisk to repair.

Before the days of VSS, even imaging programs came up with their own VSS-like mechanisms (IFW = phylock, Macrium had such and I believe Drive Snapshot also) to avoid such problems, Rollback never made the approach to solve the potential problems. VSS has been available for quite a while now and imagers have embraced its use... Rollback never did, why... I haven't a clue.

The default setting in the new release (v10.4) is OFF... <duh!>. They claim they did this so System Admins could have more control over the system caches and general data flow through their systems... sounds like another wordsmithing job by HDS to justify the DEFAULT. Really, I have no idea why anyone wouldn't want to use such a mechanism to insure the stability of the image/snapshot they were taking... especially when it comes to dynamic databases running on a system. Without VSS, the consistency of that database would scare the hell out of me during either an imaging or snapshot operation.

 

Another thought on the DEFAULT use of "No VSS" is that, for sure (and I'm sure you can verify this), the snapshots will now take longer and be a bit inconsistent due to the time(s) needed from Windows to grant that VSS FileSystem LOCK request... my observations have show it to be a bit inconsistent in the grant time, and very slow on older/slower systems.

This, of course, looks like things may have gotten a bit worse to users of RBrx... although it definitely is a bit safer.

 

About VSS

I dont see any options to turn it on...

Actually, snapshots takes around 20-30sec for a 20gb snapshot.

 

I don't have it loaded at the moment so I don't know if the option can be permanently set to ON, but here's the snapshot window with the option checked that invokes VSS (from another post on the HDS forum)...

http://support.horizondatasys.com/images/VSS.png

 

Ok so it is the "flush system cache" option. I ticked it to do my snapshots, the duration i gave above take account of this option (it add around 5-10sec).

From my memory, it is a bit slower than previous versions , but RX is still very fast.

 

If your system is fairly modern, speed-wise, and has a quick HDD (and isn't too busy when the lock request is made), what you're experiencing is fairly normal.

A VSS LOCK request on my i7 w/SSD takes 3-5 sec to be granted when it's fairly idle.

 

Nice speed, RX is not perfect but at least it becomes a bit more safer and reliable.

I own a laptop i5 with 5400rpm HDD. So i guess my lock time is quite correct.

 

Hi Froggie. For the purpose of accurate information for everybody I thought i'd let you know that the default setting for VSS is actually on.

Like guest, RB v10.4 on Win 10 x64 is also working flawlessly for me.

 

My good friend, Carfal, you are absolutely CORRECT (my bad)... VSS = ON by DEFAULT.

 

You want to see if Rx is robust?

- Do a serie of consecutive hard shutdowns
- hard shutdown while restoring/backuping a snapshot (simulating a power cut)
- hard shutdown during boot

Those are common disasters causes, at best RX will just reload a safe snapshot; at worst you need format the HDD.

I will not do it cause i dont want lose my HDD content again, but if you have a testing machine , go for it

 

@Froggie
Hi mate. Saw your lights on, thought I'd pop in.

@guest
I believe you'd be right. Having said that, I've already had to do a couple of hard shutdowns (was trying to update my Samsung printer drivers after i upgraded to Win 10). Windows rebooted just fine. RB did its "improper shutdown detected" routine (only once out of the 2 shutdowns) and everything was OK. I ran chkdsk to make sure of coarse (the great thing is that Win 10 can now do it on a live system) and no errors reported. I rolled back to my previous snapshot because of the failed removal of the samsumg drivers and that was all good as well.

Now, I'm under no illusions about RB. I know full well that just because nothing happened this time that it doesnt guarantee a successful outcome the next hard reset. I'm well prepared for any and all disasters with AX64, IFW, and now MR at my disposal. These are all excellent and robust imagers but they are not RB when it comes to taking and restoring to snapshots. The speed of RB is just addictive.

 

Yes it is Fast and Furious , we have Need for Speed , whatever our HDD is Dead or Alive and for that RX is the One ! (Wow 4 movie reference in one sentence , im awesome )

 

<jeeesh...> I hate those gushing LUV fests

 

about RX , you must love it while you can before the hate comes

 

Can I use other recovery software like EaseUS Todo Backup or Macrium Reflect together with Rollback RX for emergency cases where Rollback RX destroys Windows?
Can I still use a disk defrag with Rollback RX installed? I use the now unsupported MyDefrag.
Won't Rollback RX conflict with other security softwares? Should I exclude it from these security softwares?

 

If you image your drive with Rx uninstalled you will be fine. Some programs can capture all of the drive and provide a funtional Rx but in most of these cases you would have to do a sector by sector backup. HDS has released an imaging program called Drive Cloner that is supposed to image the drive and the snapshots and upon restore it is supposed to provide a fully functional system along with Rx snaps intact.

No, Rx blocks the ability to defrag your drive while Rx is installed. At least this was the case with all versions prior to the latest which may allow for this now that Rx works with volume shadow service. Someone will no doubt confirm one way or another.

Extreme care must be taken with Rx in this situation. Some anti malware programs see Rx as a root-kit (which it, due to how it works, actually is) and will disable it. This will have serious consequences for your system.

You may find the following thread of value, it is highly recommended that anyone using, or thinking of using, Rx take a serious look at its contents. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/rollback-rx-the-unofishul-faq.374977/

 

Thank you very much! I'll take these points into account.

 

Yes... and no
See BG's referenced link above and PLEASE read the accompanying document... it's important.

These days I believe Rollback will allow you to defrag your disk while it's installed... BUT, you must understand what Rollback is. It keeps track of changes to the utilization of your protected disk's surface... it is not file oriented. Those changes are recorded in its snapshots when requested.

Knowing that, picture what happens to the surface of your disk when you defrag... it's completely shuffled around to re-align disk blocks for more efficient file storage and placement on the disk. After this type of operation, Rollback's next snapshot will be HUGE... containing all those surface changes that occured during the defrag. Sure, it'll work, but not very efficiently. That's why BG suggests you do these types of operations with Rollback uninstalled.

In may cases, yes, and as a result it is a good idea to EXCLUDE Rollback and its files from all security-type software, especially those which look for RootKits.

 

TheRollbackFrog,

Any update on RollbackRX Free & Windows Updates?

Should I install it on Win 10 64 Home, what you say?