PrivaZer Discussion Thread

Just upgraded to PrivaZer 2.6.3

The pagefile.sys delay issue is CORRECTED! on the windows 8.0 and PrivaZer is working perfectly.

Very rapid response and solutions from PrivaZer Team!

Keep up the tremendous nice work and Thank You.

Regards Easter

 

Although I currently use CCleaner and have done for some time, I am interested in trying Privazer. So I downloaded and scanned through the user manual and I am a bit worried that all clean-ups sound as though they are completed without first giving you the option to either backup the registry or create a restore point? I mean, secure delete is great, as long as you don't accidentally delete something that prevents Windows or other programs from working

 

yes pagefile.sys issue complet solved on my win 8.1
Thank you very mouch

 

I'm not connected with Privazer and can't give you an "official" response. But I can tell you I've used Privazer for quite a long time now (since it first appeared on the forums here), on a daily basis. I had the same worries as you; various "cleaners" produce various and sometimes unfixable problems. To my surprise I've had not a single problem caused by Privazer. And Privazer does, BTW, provide the option to back up the Registry.

EDIT Took a look at the PrivaZer Website/User Guide. Couldn't find discussion of "Registry Back Up" option (perhaps it was added after documentation completed, or I just missed it). At any rate, the registry back-up option is accomplished via either of the two check boxes you will find in the lower right corner of the screen with the "SCAN" button (The screen you will see after you click "OK" on the first screen). The two, self explanatory check boxes are labeled as follows:

Create a restore point
Save registry​

END EDIT



__

 

Hello to all,

1. registry backup and restore point creation are features suggested by many users so that they were added to PrivaZer.
2. Pdf documentation on our website is out–of–date. Lack of time...

 

I've just tried Privazer for the first few times and after double checking with
Directory Snoop (free trial for first 25 runs) I was disappointed to see numerous filenames still listed in the mft.

Directory Snoop purges the lot swiftly and with ease.

 

Hello,
could you send us a screenshot of the remaining folders
or send it here : support@privazer.com
that we can investigate further...

 

I didn't save a screenshot. I used Directory Snoop to purge what it found.

To run your own tests:

In DS,
Select drive and it will quickly scan.
Next click on the 'Filter' tab
In the resultant menu click on 'status'
Select 'deleted'
You can also uncheck < none > in the namespace menu
Name and save the filter.

Then Ds will only show a list of supposedly deleted names of deleted files in the mft.

Select all or whichever filename entries you want to erase and then select Purge.

ccleaner also left filenames last time I tested it.
r-wipe&clean and White canyon's Secure Clean do erase the filenames in mft but leave their own code for their software in lieu of filename. Directory Snoop
makes a cleaner job of it as far as I can tell.

I've been using Ds for years with no problems.

So basically with some secure delete cleaners "big boobed babe" and other similar file names can be read from the mft in less than a minute with the right software.

 

Here is a screenshot of deleted files found after a MFT cleanup with PrivaZer.

Result :
114,522 files with names containing zero's : "00000000000..000" ...

 

I have to just say I am impressed highly with PrivaZer, while ccleaner is great I find its "wipe free space" unusable, who really has a whole day or 2 of leaving the pc on just to wipe any traces hidden on the hdd ?

At least with PrivaZer it deletes any traces within the free space in minutes and allows you to select separate drives also which ccleaner does not.

Running a full data recovery on the hdd after running privaZer, results in nothing but "00000000000..000" files also.

A drive wiper would have been awesome like ccleaner has

I will buy it the moment an hourly or scan upon boot/shutdown option arrives

 

Re: PrivaZer Discussion - Contextmenu - Proposal

Hello PrivaZer fans ,

Proposal: PrivaZer in Right-Click Menu of Explorer
I suggest, that in the right-click menu should be this text: "Shred file/folder with PrivaZer". The addition "with PrivaZer" is needed, because many of us have many different softwares working from the Explorers Context menu!

 

Hello Sweidre,
there is a PrivaZer icon now displayed in the context menu.
That should do the job.

 

Hi guys,

I have used PrivaZer and have to say that I like how thorough it is. However, the start up time of my SSD with Windows 7 roughly doubled when I performed a full scan and cleaned all traces that had been found. It is now slower than my other desktop PC with a conventional hard drive and Windows 7.

I don't have the technical expertise to give you any more information right now but if I can be of help, please let me know.

If you have any ideas what might have caused this significantly longer start up time, I would be glad to know it. In particular, if there is anything that can be done about it.

 

Hello younameit,

we can help.

1. Can you check the sectors of your storage by running "chkdsk /F /R c:" It will need a reboot.
2. run "sfc /scannow" to check system files integrity

Keep us informed please

 

Re: mft

@Privazer Team.
I get similar to your screenshot with a USB stick but not on my operating system, win7 64-bit. I'm travelling at the moment or I'd try it on my other systems.

To be more precise after first using privazer on a usb stick directory snoop found an entry for privazer.ini and another privazer entry I forget what it was.

There is no point really in having a portable or hidden install because Privazer like Ccleaner and most other cleaners leaves it's own trademark (first column in your picture) ccleaner for instance leaves zzzzz's

Has anyone else checked with directory snoop on their c drive after cleaning the mft
with Privazer?

I came at Privazer openminded but after using it there's something about Privazer I'm not happy about and I haven't recommended it to anyone because I can't quite put my finger on it. Plus I find this thread to be rather fanboy for a supposedly discriminating security forum. An earlier short thread here wasn't so gung-ho.

Aren't there any security experts here who can give an indepth review of exactly what it is doing? I notice others around the web have some misgivings
about it and similar problems such as boot time slowing have cropped up as they have here.

I'm not 'agin' it but I'm not for it.

I think it all needs more looking into, because guys like this do exactly that.
http://computer-forensics.sans.org/blog/2012/10/15/resident-data-residue-in-ntfs-mft-entries

 

Re: PrivaZer - How to scan many disks to save time?

Hello,
I have no SSDs, only HDDs, but with many disks (partitions).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Volume 0: 350 GB Fixed into computer with 3 partitions (NTFS)
Disk (partition) No Letter: Reserved by the system
Disk (partition) C: SYSTEM (Win 7 SP1 Pro 64-bit + installed programs)
Disk (partition) Q: PAGEFILE VOL 0
Volume 1: 1 TB Fixed into computer with 7 partitions (NTFS)
Disk (partition) D: ARKIV (Archive of program-setup files with credentials)
Disk (partition) E: BIBLIOTEK (= Library)
Disk (partition) U: PAGEFILE VOL 1
Disk (partition) F: DOKUMENT (= Documents incl. emails)
Disk (partition) G: MUSIK (= Music)
Disk (partition) H: BILDER (= Pictures, photos)
Disk (partition) I: FILMER (= Movies, videos)
Volume 2: 438 MB with 1 partition (FAT32)
Disk (partition) J: RAMDISK (for Temporary Internet files)
Volume 3: 1 TB Connected to USB-port with 1 partition (NTFS)
Disk (partition) V: GHOSTAR (Dated Norton Ghosts files of C:\SYSTEM)
Volume 4: 500 GB Connected to USB-port with 3 partitions (NTFS)
Disk (partition) W: GHOSTAR 2 (Norton Ghosts of C:\SYSTEM ctd.)
Disk (partition) X: SPRÅK (My Swedish translations of softwares)
Disk (partition) Z: TRANSFER (for export and import of files)
Volume 5: 1 TB Connected to USB-port with 6 partitions (NTFS)
(for data Back-Ups = BU of partitions of Volum 1 above)
Disk (partition) K: BU ARKIV
Disk (partition) M: BU BIBLIOTEK
Disk (partition) N: BU DOKUMENT
Disk (partition) O: BU MUSIK
Disk (partition) P: BU BILDER
Disk (partition) R: FILMER
(2 CD-ROMS with BURNER)
------------------------------------------------------------------
To scan all the disks in alphabetical order will take ages. After some testing, I now consider the following facts:
A. Scans of disks in fixed volumes take much shorter time than of disks in volumes connected to USB-ports.
B. Scans of disks on the same volume will take much longer time, than if disks from different volumes are scanned together.
C. New computers have USB-ports for faster transmission! Use these ports!
D. Big disks take much longer time to scan than small disks.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Therefore, I am using the fast USB-ports of the computer. I scan the disks in batches of max 6 disks (one disk from each volume). If the disks are really big, I reduce the size of batches to max 2-3 disks! I am still testing and I am greatful for advice how to reduce the total scan time further!

PS. I use Norton Ghosts instead of the Restoration Points! DS
PS2. For efficiant cooling of the fixed volumes in the computer, I have reduced the fixed volumes to only 2. But for reducing PrivaZers scanning time, many fixed volumes are better! This is a real contradiction! DS2

 

How does Privazer works on SSD drives, especially on cleaning empty space? does it affect on the life of SSD hard drive?

 

On SSD's it looks for non-0's and over-writes what it finds. Since SSD controllers (some, all?) overwrite deleted data themselves, with 0's, as a part of TRIM, Privazer would probably affect SSD's the least as far as writes go. But I'm not an SSD Controller expert. IMO, worrying about SSD life with the current tech (and improving all the time) is a non-issue - I run BCWipe 'Always On' Transparent Wiping on a Vertex II. I've been doing so for about 2 years, and SSDLife still shows 100% and an EOL date of the year 2021. I did change the BCWipe overwrite pattern to 0's, so it wouldn't fight with Privazer (BCWipe standard is pseudo-random, Privazer is 0, so the cells would be overwritten twice, even though they were "clean").

 

Re: PrivaZer- Can scanning of all disks be reorded?

Hello,

Can scanning of all disks be subjectively be reorded, so that the particular user may experiment with scanning orders in order to attain the most minimal total PrimaZer scanning time! (the disks alphabetical order is proberly not the optimal order)

The optimal scanning-order can only be decided by the particular user thru trials & errors, cause the computers of the users are all differently configured!

Every user will decide Privazers' optimal (shortest) scan-time of all or some selected disks!

 

Re: PrivaZer - Proposal: Scan C:\SYSTEM at the end!

Hello,
If you scan C:\SYSTEM early, you must at last scan C:\SYSTEM again, cause a lot of traces will be created on C:\SYSTEM, when the other disks are scanned!
Proposal: Scan C:\SYSTEM after scanning of the other disks! Otherwise, you must scan C:\SYSTEM at least twice!

 

Because the speed of the PCI or SATA 'bus' is much faster (think highway traffic speeds) than the USB 2 or 3 'bus' (think city traffic speeds).

If you're scanning two partitions on the same HDD at the same time, the 'heads' have to keep moving large distances back and forth. Never do that.

If you mean that on a single HDD the first partition scans faster than the last partition if scans are done separately (not at the same time), that's true only if there's the same amount of data in both partitions and both partitions are the same size AND the data is defragmented so that it's all at the 'beginning' of the partitions. Because the first 'outer' partition is traveling faster than the last 'inner' partition. Tie something heavy to a string and swing it around in a circle, you'll see what I mean.

I assume that you mean USB3, which are faster than USB2. eSATA is about as fast as USB3.

Somewhat obvious and to be expected but it depends on the amount of data too and whether one is an SSD and the other is an HDD.

------------------------------------------------------------------

The total time will be the same but the elapsed time, from when you start to finish, would be shorter by having concurrent scanning, but, can you do that? (have Privazer scan multiple partitions at the same time, not just in sequence)...when I select multiple partitions, the partitions are scanned and cleaned sequentially, not concurrently.

No, it's not a contradiction, internal 'fixed' discs read/write faster than externally attached drives, there's nothing that Privazer can do to change that.

You could buy a NAS box for the extra drives if you wanted the extra speed, but at a cost of course

 

Hi there,
I just DL the program and have noted a couple of glitches after running my first "clean" scan...

1) I have a program named ExploreXP,which I have had for at least 7-8 years now with nary a problem...After the clean,when I opened the Explorer program for my listing of files in the Prefetch directory (C),I noticed immediately that all the dates for created and modified had gone crazy..ie:all changed!! See just a small example,as I have lots more but they have all changed as well!!

2)I have a program called "Unlocker",which was not working when I went to use it....had to Un-install and re-install..

My biggest concern after that was whether my machine was going to boot-up again(and yes I created .reg BU)....Fortunately I never had a problem with that,although I had several good images on store!!

I certainly haven,t had time to check on all my programs just yet,but am hoping I won,t come across any more hiccups,,,,but am leery at this point about using it again!!
System is XP SP3,with all updates,and FFx 25.0

Program version was 2.8 (Privazer)

 

Hello,

Smart cleanup of Prefetch files with PrivaZer
1. to protect your privacy, PrivaZer scrambles modification dates and creation dates of Prefetch files.

2. Prefetch may also contain execution times of programs !
PrivaZer can find them to scrambles them too.

3. To preserve PC performance,
. valid Prefetch files are preserved
. invalid ones are removed
. old Prefetch files are removed (unused in last 6 months)



Concerning Unlocker, we will investigate.

 

Hello,

In regards to post 522,thanks for the info...not sure I understand the logic of it,and whether it is apros for me,but never the less it is was it is!..

 

Hello,
I just noticed from my event viewer on XP SP3,that MS DTC.log was missing and was giving errors..this after running privazer..I have now fixed it..
I would like to know in effort to not repeat this from happening again,what is the best route to accomplish this....Would I put the folder MSDTC in "exclusion",or is there another way that would be better than this..
Thank you...