The unofficial Shadow Defender Support Thread.

Hi Shadow,

I totally agree with your advice to Jo Ann (and in that regard Webroot SecureAnywhere has my back).

Wendi

 

Yes I think that would be easier then doing a re-install. I just don't know how to do it or what software to use. Can you recommend a product? Thanks, Caspian

 

What is different in the new SD? Have there been significant improvements.

 

Surely there is no significant improvement concerning the freezing issue.

A little bit longer than one week SD version 1.4.0.519 ran without problems but now there was again the first freezing: after being about 2 hours in shadow mode it happened all of a sudden without any visible reason.

 

There are several reliable image-backup programs, some are easier to use than others and a few are even free. Rather than get off-topic here, why not peruse the "backup, imaging & disk mgt." forum (right above this one). Than if you have questions, start a new thread in that forum.

TS

 

Absolutely - SD now virtualizes all of track0 as well as the hidden boot partitions when you place your C-drive into shadow mode!

 

Sorry to hear that Peter; this has been an on-going problem with you! If I recall correctly this has happened on more than one of your PCs and with different versions of SD (and Windows?). It would seem as if this might be due to some software conflict, but maybe not. Are you running any other security-related programs besides those listed in you sig? What backup program are you using?

What is your disk and memory configuration? How much RAM (if any) are you allocating for SD's write-cache? Which volumes are you placing into shadow mode? ...and once you have entered shadow mode please list all the status values (inside SD's System Status) for each volume for which you have enabled shadow mode!

TS

 

Yes, The Shadow, you remember correctly, I have the problem already since a long time. Therefore I do not have much hope that something will change. I think I will have to live with it or to leave SD. I just mentioned it again as information because I read above that some other users have (or had) the same or a similar problem (with previous versions of SD).

But to answer your questions: No, there are no other security-related programs besides from those listed in the sig. As backup program I use Paragon Backup and Recovery (but it is not installed, only from the CD), 1 TB HD, 4 GB RAM, not allocating RAM for SD's write cache, always placing volume C in shadow mode. Concerning the status values I will have to look at it the next time I enter SD.

Thanks for your interest.

 

Peter, would you run W7's Disk Management. What are the volumes that are shown for Disk 0 ? What is reported for Layout, Type, Status, Capacity and Free for volume C ?

TS

 

That's how it looks:

http://abload.de/img/dtvjkpm.jpg

http://abload.de/thumb/dtrhz1o.jpg
[Sorry, but publishing pictures does not work well with the new board software. :-( In the preview I see the picture, but after publishing the posting it is not here. Nor can I delet the second link. Please click the first link.]

"Fehlerfrei" means "Without errors" or something like that (don't know the exact english term).

 

Ok, but can you post the values that I requested in my 2nd question? - you should see them in the table above the picture you sent in the first link.

TS

 

Ah, I see (I hope it is ok when I make it with the links, as thumbnails do not appear):

http://abload.de/img/wdmepk2d.jpg

And as I am in shadow mode now I can answer this too:

Here the "Current volume status" of SD:

http://abload.de/img/sdo7arq.jpg

 

Peter, the good new is that I can't find anything wrong, but the bad news is that I can't find anything wrong.
If you haven't already done so, send Tony (support@shadowdefender.com) an account of your problem.

Btw, there's very little to be gained in placing that recovery volume (D) into shadow mode, so do not do that and see if that has anything to do with your problem (I doubt that it does, but no harm in trying).

TS

 

Malware can infect a Recovery partition. It happened once to me.

 

Hey Robin,

I guess that is a possibility but imho after a PC has been operational for a while those recovery partitions become worthless. They only serve to restore your PC to the state it was in when you received it, and after many Windows updates and important personal (data) file additions/changes, who would want to do that? Instead of relying on a recovery partition which is (or soon will be) ancient history, a much smarter alternative is to create system (image) backups on a regular basis. I would recommend that Peter reclaim the 20GB of space that his recovery partition is consuming and put it to better use!

TS

 

I am aware that the recovery partition is of no importance (for me), exactly for the reasons you describe. I simply do not have the courage to eliminate it and to change something with my partitions fearing that this could produce problems for my system.

I have written him quite a long time ago but he could not find out the reason of the freezing.

The positive thing is that with the newer versions of SD the freezing happens much more seldom than in former times.

Thanks a lot for your help, TS.

 

Have you reported the latest problems you have had to Tony the developer of SD? If not then please do so. It is the only way to get the bugs worked out. Tony has been responding, and working on any bugs I have reported lately. He fixed a BSOD we reported just after the latest SD release.

 

Peter,

I can understand your discomfort in 'messing' with your HDD, but I still suggest not placing your D-drive (recovery partition) into shadow mode (for a few days) just to see if that eliminates your freezing problem.

Btw, are you making image backups of C-drive to an external drive? - you really should be doing that!

TS

 

The problem is that the freezing usually (and fortunately) does not take place for quite a long time (weeks or so) so that even a few days without freezing would not automatically mean that it has to do with the exclusion of the D-Drive from Shadow Mode. In any case I would like to avoid the exclusion of the D-drive longer than necessary - for the reason mentioned above by Robin A. ("Malware can infect a Recovery partition."), even though usually I use SD not so much for security reasons but for testing software.

Yes, I always do so!

I have not reported it during the last time, only in the past (when I was still using Windows XP). Tony did his best to find out the reason of the freezing but he was not successful. When I will have time, I will report him the issue again.

 

My mistake Peter, I was under the distinct impression that the freezing was more frequent than that.

As far as your concern about malware infecting your recovery partition, I have to believe the probability of that happening is extremely low (especially with MSE on the job) - even if it did happen there would be no adverse consequences so long as your C-drive is shadowed - but do as you wish.

TS

 

@ virustotal Ikarus SD1.4.0.519_Setup.exe reports Win32.Virut

SHA256 : 8ce1569b97af72e0a8fbb63de2f9c72acaf16166a747a3b77633d4a2a16c934f
File name: SD1.4.0.519_Setup.exe
Detection ratio: 1 / 50
Analysis date: 2014-05-20 16:46:20 UTC ( 2 days, 10 hours ago )

FP right?

Camelia

 

Should be a false positive.

 

I read a little about Track0. I need to read some more. If I had malware in that location, would a scan with malwarebytes pick it up? Would reinstalling the OS get rid of any malware if I were infected in track0? I am not familiar with this. Thanks for all of your help!

 

camelia
Occasionally Shadow Defender setup comes up with a virus warning about setup file but it's just a false positive...I got one myself (Win32.Virut) with the latest version installing on XP...Avast came up with a warning for me...but Malwarebytes said the same file was ok when I tested it with that. I don't think that we have anything to worry about.

Patrick

 

SD is software is master piece of software but sadly not well known, previous version was the cleanest, only the annoying WS.Reputation.1 by Symantec, only because 'Norton' doesn't have enough information about a program, I always recommend SD to my customers. but when a FP appears my clients are not happy....

Patrick did you report to Avast! this FP?
I will try to report to Ikarus about the FP (Never heard of this security software anyway )

Thanks

Camelia