Comodo Time Machine

I removed Shadow Defender a day ago to test out Comodo Time Machine against malware,and haven't had any issues,images that were clean were restored etc.

So,anyone else here done any testing with Comodo Time Machine?

I'm debating on whether I'm going to keep it,might go back to Shadow Defender

 

I've been using CTM since it was released.. I haven't had any problems

Regards

 

Very nice piece of software.

I use it for malware testing on XP Home. But rememebr some malware might bypass it.

 

I use it for the same thing I did the exact thing with ShadowDefender and never had any issues,so more or less I'm taking Comodo Time Machine for a test drive with malware, but some reason I felt "safer" with ShadowDefender.

 

I had a bad experience w/ CTM ... after updating it using the built in update feature .. my laptop won't boot anymore and I had no choice but to reinstall windows ... been using rollback RX since then and no problems so far.

 

I've been using CTM for several months and have no complaints; it works exactly as advertised.

For me, CTM, Keyscrambler, and Sandboxie are three excellent and free applications that have become "must haves".

 

I have a paid version of Eaz-Fix Pro but for the last three or four months have been using CTM. I have taken and restored bunches of snapshots without a hiccup. I have updated the baseline and updated the app through the auto update with equal success. Alot of folks on the CTM forum have complained about it trashing their systems when trying to uninstall CTM. I have not tried to uninstall it yet but to be honest, haven't found a reason to do so.

 

I've been using CTM for quite some time now and it's usefulness is quite remarkable.The ability to move back and forward 'in time' between snapshots is great for software testing and we folks that can't stop tweaking.The uninstall issue is a negative for those that don't create a pre-installation disk image,but its a keeper for me anyway.

 

Sounds like a solid program. andyman, any idea if the uninstall issue, or possible issue, will be improved shortly?

 

It really is a remarkable program. In spite of complaints on the forum about installation and especially uninstall problems, I tried it on my test machine and ir ran without fault.

On one occasion I uninstalled a security suite (Comodo if memory serves) and installed the Norton Suite. I then uninstalled Norton, but during the uninstall process rebooted the computer before it finished- normally a very bad idea. As I hoped this procedure totally fried everything. Windows would not load and I couldn't even get into safe mode. Excellent!! I then rebooted and got into the TM boot menu. Restored the saved image. machine restarted with Comodo back in place.

Nonetheless, I don't use TM due to the incompatibility with other imaging software that I find essential (Host and Acronis). Really kind of a loss.

 

CTM is definitely one of my favorite programs. Been using it since the RC with no problems at all.

 

I always had trouble with it personally, always kept saying I was low on space (85GB partition, using 27GB's) so I'd always have to restart, go into the menu, compact the backups, and then it'd work for a few days, when I finally got tired of it and uninstalled it ended up having to restore my MBR after that.

 

It's worked flawlessly for me saraceno.
One example is with Symantec Workspace Virtualization,if you're familiar with it it's a utility that creates virtual software applications.For this to work smoothly you need to run it on a bare system,so I created a layer with just that running after installing Vista.Now when I want to create new packages I simply reboot back in time to that layer,create the package,save it to my external drive then jump forward to the present.Just one example of the many uses of this software.

As for the uninstall issue it's well known to the developers so hopefully it'll be patched with the next release.

 

What snapshot strategy do you all use? I'm so simple minded I can't decide on new snapshot at startup or restore older snapshot at startup or just whenever I feel like it snapshot. As a result, I end up making beau coup snapshots or no snapshots. So, I thought I would see what others do.

Thanks,
SourMilk out

 

I use it as on-demand with nothing auto. Any and every time I install something, update etc.. I manually take a snapshot. I'm dual booting XP + Win 7 both x86 same drive different partitions. Even though CTM and EF have always worked well for me, I was and am leary of the auto settings. I do have CTM on another laptop Win 7 64bit but nothing auto works on it. May have something to do with sleep/hibernate modes, not for sure

 

About the uninstall problem it happened to me

I tried it a few months back for like a day, then just decided to uninstall it for returnil and during the process it totally screwed Windows! It would not boot!

Though, i just repaired the windows boot files with the disk and everything was fine again

 

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When I used it I set it do to a single auto-snapshot daily at boot-up. You can also set it to automatically defrag snapshots and delete older ones.

 

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CTM worked pretty well for me too, but I also quit it because of imaging concerns. Apparently you can successfully create images if you choose the "raw processing mode", but I didn't need CTM enough to really make sure it wouldn't interfere with my backup images. I was fortunate that it uninstalled cleanly.

 

Saturday I have sett up a XP computer for a friend who likes to try new software. CTM is the heart of his setup. To use CTM to the max I did the following

Split his hard disk into 3 partitions
- C for his programs
- T for his temp files, internet explorer temp store, chrome portable
- D for his data files. I moved his documents and outlook express user files (mail and wab) and located the download directory of Chrome in D:

Made an image backup and before installing all others as worsst case fallback plan:

CTM protecting only C partition

Excelent freebie Pretty Good Security with deny execute of D partition and limited user of all internet facing software except IE8 (so windows update works well).

Installed freebie MBRGuard. This blocks all unauthorised access to the MBR. Since CTM preboot lives in the MBR, this implicitely protecs the core restore feature of CTM.

Installed ClamWin/Immunet and excluded C Partition (to check installers and executables on T (you want as less updates on C as possible for CTM performance reasons a cloud based AVis preferred)

Installed Trusteer Rapport (tweaked policy as showed in earlier post

Installed Chrome extentions, new tab behaviour, SiteAdvisor for chrome, Addblockplus and Flashblock

It runs lean and withstood some malware testing I did on it.

 

Used AyRecovery with a one year free license that ended in December. Conveniently CTM came out of beta in January. Have uninstalled - reinstalled it three times each on an XP desktop and Vista laptop to run Jk defragmenter each month without incident (I also just use the CTM defragmenter weekly). One of the uninstalled problems has stemmed from using non-CTM uninstallers. I can attest to this too, because during my year of AyR uninstalls I always just used its UI. When I was going to remove it permanently for CTM I decided to look and see if I'd left ZZoft analyze it the year before and indeed I had. I sat there and watched ZS remove file after file and then finally the laptop just froze. I hard rebooted to the BSOD. Nothing I tried worked. Finally, out of desperation I hit the home key after I hit the power button and woe and behold there was AyR. I selected a snapshot, restored and then used AyR's uninstaller without issue. Pretty amazing stuff!

 

Hmm! MBRGuard, now that is interesting.

 

No Returnil for me,but......i uninstalled CTM twice,and every time it messed up my MBR and i was forced to reinstall windows.Now i'm a very happy user of Rollback.
PS.CTM is a copycat of Rollback,but not as stable.(in fact,not as stable at all!!!!!)
PS2.Please someone could confirm about the CTM and MBR,because it seems i'm not the only one.

 

Why not?

 

Is just a matter of taste...
Honestly,its most properly for me to use a software like Rollback rather than Returnil,because with Returnil as you know,you cant have snapshots of the OS.
With Returnil,testing some software or malware,reboot,and everything is back again,true.But,i repeat myself,what if i want a snapshot of my entire PC?
That's why not.

 

Indeed you were!!!!!