Virtualisers and imaging programs?

Discussion in 'sandboxing & virtualization' started by Dregg Heda, Dec 23, 2008.

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  1. Dregg Heda

    Dregg Heda Registered Member

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    I would like to know the difference between these two programs and the pros and cons of each. Also a rundown of the strengths and weaknesses of the major programs in each category would be nice (e.g. returnil, shadow defender, shadow protect, etc). TIA.
     
  2. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Dregg, there are hundreds of posts here describing just what you are asking. You might just use the forum search function to find them.
     
  3. innerpeace

    innerpeace Registered Member

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    An imaging program makes an exact copy or image of everything on your hard drive or partition which ideally is saved to another drive or media. This image can be restored at anytime to revert changes typically caused by OS corruption, hard drive failure, malware infections, or to go back to a known good configuration. I'm sure there are other reasons I'm forgetting. These images are typically saved to another hard drive, cd/dvd media, flash drives, and online storage spaces.

    As far as 'virtualizers', I think you talking about light virtualization applications. In that case, this thread may help.
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=196103

    There are also full Virtual Machines which is like running a whole other separate operating system and hardware within a host machine. For example, your host could be running Windows XP while in the Virtual Machine your running Vista or Linux.

    Here is link that may help with understanding Virtualization and a list of apps.
    This link is now dead http://wiki.castlecops.com/Different_classes_of_security_software#Virtualisation:-

    Here is a cached link posted by Gerard Morentzy in another thread http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache...eware_virtualization&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

    Edited to correct a dead link.
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2008
  4. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    The main difference is virtualizers are far quicker to restore your system. All it takes is a simple reboot. The main disadvantage here is if your hard drive crashes a virtualizer won't save you and everything will be lost.
    An imaging app is a lot slower to restore your system however should your drive crash you can easily restore to a new drive.
     
  5. GreenWhite

    GreenWhite Registered Member

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    Nope. You can backup as many copies of your virtualized OSes as you like. Oh, and to your secondary or backup drive, by the way.
     
  6. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    Yes but the actual virtualization program (like returnil) won't backup your drive. You would need an imaging program to do that.
     
  7. GreenWhite

    GreenWhite Registered Member

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    Nope, you don´t even need an imaging program. Just right-click copy the vmdk ( vmware, virtualbox) file to your other drive(s) as many as you like. You just have to periodically do it maybe once a month, like image your harddrive.
     
  8. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    Yeh thats exactly what i do but i don't think the OP was referring to full virtualization solutions like vmware.
     
  9. GreenWhite

    GreenWhite Registered Member

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    I must have been drunk.
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2008
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