comodo time machine.

I just wondered how people felt about the up and coming new release of comodo time machine..?
Does anyone consider this program to be a safe alternative to rollback etc.?
Its curious to note that in the comodo forum there is a lengthy bugs section on this program and the amount of hard drives being corrupted and computers being made unbootable is staggering to say the least.
It is an excellent idea if put into practice in a safe way.
Just wondered what forum members thought of this program?

Kind regards.

 

just some of earlier comments
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=300667

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=309742

 

I used it for a while without problems, and when the time came I was able to successfully uninstall it. Others have not been so lucky. Apparently it sometimes corrupted the MBR when being uninstalled which made the system unbootable. I believe there are also issues with imaging and defragmenting (which may apply to all software of this ilk). It's important to be clear about the limitations and risks, and have a good Plan B.

What are you trying to do with CTM? I eventually stopped using it because I really didn't need the ability to take snapshots of the OS and "rollback" on a regular basis. I'm better served by making images saved to an external hard disk.

 

They're baking the version 3 of CTM.
It was promised to March, but seems to had been postponed...
The stability is the keyword for the developers right now.

 

I was never able to get 2.8 or 2.9 to work on my W7 Laptop.

And I cannot give thoughts or feedback about 3.0 because it's not out and may not be released until 2013+

 

I've used it on an XP desktop, now basically retired, since at the young age of 64 I built (my first) a desktop last weekend, and on a Vista laptop since it was released. Whats that, like two years or more? I monthly uninstall both, defrag, image and then reinstall. One time, I repeat, one time, I nuked the laptop because I uninstalled CTM with Revo instead of its own uninstaller. Using my Paragon image, I repaired the MBR and reinstalled CTM and never looked back. I love it and wish I could use it on this machine I just built. It only has a SSD drive so I'm thinking I'll purchase RB next time it's on sale as it's supposed to be good to go with SSDs. Really like the convenience of the snapshot apps!

 

I'm looking forward towards the new CTM and hope that this time around they'll get it right. I have been lucky with the older CTM, had been using v2.8 for ages without any problems; but when I added SSDs to my systems I was forced to switch to Rollback RX for TRIM compatibility.

 

Well the comodo forum would seem to indicate that this program is rather unsafe to use.
Also it would seem that comodo tend to use the public as testing guinea pigs.
There are so many threads about this over at comodo.
The earlier versions were far too unstable to be released so why should we have any faith in the new version?

 

Well, not faith but maybe very cautious optimism They often eventually get it right/stable/reliable. It's always good to tread carefully with system level apps regardless of the vendor.

 

Actually I'm quite taken back on the Rollback forums with all there problems too!

 

Back when I was playing with malware inside VMware, I would install CTM and take a snapshot before I started testing different AVs and FWs.
If anything when haywire it was a "snap" to restore the VM.
I never had a problem with CTM - however - the VM usually only had a few programs installed, so, maybe it's only stable on an un-cluttered machine.

 

There are always incompatibilities to worry about when dealing with LV and snapshot programs. The point is what each one of us does in advance in order to safeguard our systems before installing and trying such software. CTM worked great for years for me in 3 different computers. I only switched to RX because I now use SSDs and I need a snapshot app that supports TRIM. People bitch & moan about disasters caused by buggy software when in fact everything would be reversible in minutes if only they had the presence of mind to backup before trying new stuff (and by this I don't mean you Beethoven, it's just a general statement).

I remember ther was an idiot at the CTM forums who had installed CTM on a mission-critical production machine without backing up first! When it all went tits-up he started bitching on the forum about CTM breaking his system, and threatening to sue because he had to send his hard disk to a specialist lab in order to have his data recovered. Sue for what? His own ignorant idiocy? Sue the makers of a free BETA software because he was stupid enough to use it without backing up his disk first? The guy was using a mission-critical machine without a backup whatsoever anyway, how is that for total ignorance? I despair at the sheer brainless audacity of some people.

Sorry guys, rant over!

You shouldn't worry too much mate, when it comes out make a full backup and then try it. The worst that could happen would be for you to have to restore your backup; in a few minutes you'd have the system back.

Comodo has taken onboard user input and have re-written the code from scratch for CTM3. Personally I loved v2.8, it never gave me trouble, so I can't wait to try the new beta (which BTW will be TRIM compatible).

 

CTM v3 will be interesting to see, but I read somewhere that it won't be released until after W8 is released.

 

This could be the case for the full version, however a beta should appear hopefully by the end of the summer (at least this is the latest I've heard about).

 

Maybe, maybe not

Could be released soon or maybe not soon at all. Nobody knows for sure I suppose.

I am looking forward to it though. Hoping it will do what Rollback RX does.

 

I seriously doubt this. Your putting a lot of stock into believing what the Comodo people tell you. I don't think that's very wise.

Comodo did not make/code/create this program, Comodo Time Machine to begin with. They obtained a copy of Rollback RX and used that for their base. This is one of the reasons the various versions of CTM had so many problems - none of their guys were experts on the technology and coding. This is like taking your car to a lawnmower mechanic. If they did rewrite the code from scratch as you say, those lawnmower mechanics would have had to learn to design and build a complete automobile complete with working and tested bells and whistles. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to trust CTM.

 

Completely agree with you. And nice analogy!

 

Other than sometimes requiring reactivation when uninstalling-reinstalling I have found RB v9.1 completely problem-free!

I headed over to the RB forum, but I don't see why you were 'taken back'? - I couldn't find much in the way of programmatic problems over there either - mostly user issues/questions.

Scott

PS. When I tried CTM v2.8 (quite some time ago) I experienced a couple of system crashes, so I quickly abandoned it!

 

It seems that there are a lot of negative comments about CTM.
I am glad I read this thread.

 

@ Stigg, you can find a lot in Comodo forum also... Mainly after users uninstall CTM and they stay with troubles in their OS...

 

I am looking forward to the release of version 3.0 and hope it demonstrates that Comodo can get it right
I've been using CTM version 2.6.138262.166 on XP/SP-2 for about 18 months with few problems.
I did experience repeated crashes with version 2.8 and version 2.9 never made it out of Beta, did it ?

I'm using and staying with ver. 2.6 unless/until something better in the freeware category comes along because for me, it works and I do have a library of images via Paragon and Macrium, just in case...

When CTM 3.0 is released I will grab one of my spare Western Digital 40 GB SATA drives, install an image, and play away.

 

CTM 2.8.155286.178 has worked perfectly for me on Win.7 x86. I have reset the baseline 6 or 8 times and usually have 4 to 6 snapshots I jump around in between. But I do only use it on my C Drive and have come to trust it completely but I also have no reason to try to uninstall it which seems to cause some people problems. I am in no hurry to see version 3 as good as 2.8 is performing for me.

 

I gave the earlier version a try about a year ago and found it useful and without any issues. Unfortunately CTM wasn't compatible with either Acronis or Ghost, so was of little value to me as CTM won't save your data from a hard drive failure.

 

It's not designed to that. It's not a backup tool. It's an advanced system restore one.

 

I do realize that. The point I was trying to make is that one can't use normal imaging software (that can protect one from HD failure) if CTM is being used.

If they would just implement the ability to let CTM save whatever it saves to another drive I would still be using it.