PerfectDisk Problem

Discussion in 'FirstDefense-ISR Forum' started by dallen, Jun 11, 2006.

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  1. dallen

    dallen Registered Member

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    I know this is a First Defense ISR forum, but I hope that it is within reason to post a Perfect Disk issue. The issue is as follows:

    The issue arrises consistently when an Offline Defrag. is attempted. The Offline Defrag Settings set as follows:
    http://dustinallen.com/Wilders/PerfectDisk.JPG

    I select Defragment > Offline Defragment and as usual I get the message asking if I want to perform the Offline Defrag during the next reboot. I say yes, then reboot. Here is what happens (This may not be exact because the message is not up long enough for me to get word-for-word):

    Drive Not Dirty
    Perfect Disk could not gain exclusive access to C: Drive.
    There is a possible driver conflict...

    There is more, but I wanted to see if anyone has any idea what may be causing this.
     
  2. crofttk

    crofttk Registered Member

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    I haven't had that specific message myself. I would be curious or wonder if there is a clue in your registry at

    "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager",
    in the value named "BootExecute". The normal entry for ME there is: "pdboot.exe autocheck autochk *"

    If something gets funky at boot time, that's where I check first, if I can.
     
  3. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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  4. jbarr

    jbarr Registered Member

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    dallen, I experienced the same issue this morning for the first time. I submitted an online support request on Raxco's PerfectDisk Support website referencing your Wilder Security Forum inquiry link.

    Hopefully someone from Raxco will provide us with an explanation and solution soon. Will reply back if they do not respond directly to this forum.

    BTW, I had to provide Raxco with a "Support" file generated from my PerfectDisk program, via "Help > About > Support" button, with pertinent details needed from my personal computer settings and log files. Hopefully the solution is generic in nature and not a case by case basis.

    Anyone else out there that may have experienced this problem and resolved it, please share it with us in the meantime. Thanks.
     
  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Kind of funny, in that I just saw it myself. BUt I knew what caused it. I had set up and offline defrag, and when I rebooted, I had a screwed up shutdown. I rebooted to ensure all was well, setup another offline defrag and it went fine.

    Pete
     
  6. dallen

    dallen Registered Member

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    jbarr,
    Do you use Zone Alarm? If so, did you recently install the new version, 6.5.700.000?
     
  7. jbarr

    jbarr Registered Member

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    Yes, I recently installed the latest version of free Zone Alarm 6.5 firewall and it was enabled when I attempted to perform an offline page file and hard drive defrag using PerfectDisk 7.0.

    Based on wilbertnl's response, I noticed that Zone Alarm 5 was listed as having issues with PerfectDisk. So I uninstalled ZA and downloaded and installed the latest version of Comodo Personal Firewall. (BTW: I was told by PerfectDisk support a while back that PerfectDisk also has an issue with Kerio Personal firewall 2.15 which I had to uninstall as well.)

    After installing and enabling the Comodo firewall I was allowed to initiate an offline page file and hard drive defrag using PerfectDisk last night. However, upon escaping from the offline defrag and rebooting, a Windows' Security window warned me that BitDefender 9 Standard AV and the Comodo Personal firewall did not initiate properly at startup.

    If I'm not mistaken, I believe PerfectDisk support informed me, when I had issues with Kerio firewall, that BitDefender AV had to be disabled in order to perform an online, hard drive defrag. Does anyone know if the BitDefender AV has to be disabled in order to perform an offline defrag too?

    I rebooted my computer again and BitDefender AV and Comodo firewall appeared to be functioning properly again. Still waiting for a response from PerfectDisk support concerning the intial issue. Will keep you aprised.
     
  8. dallen

    dallen Registered Member

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    I am certain that this issue is due to a conflict between the new ZA and PerfectDisk. An official response from Raxco is warranted. I will attempt to contact them via telephone.
     
  9. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Good grief, I was about to update my ZA from version 4.5 to 6; I think that I'll just keep 4.5. :doubt:

    Acadia
     
  10. crofttk

    crofttk Registered Member

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    The new ZA versus a pre-existing build of PerfectDisk, and Raxco should respond o_O

    Whether I agree in principle or not, you probably ARE more likely to get a useful response from Raxco than from ZoneLabs.;)

    P.S. I'm not unduly biased against ZoneLabs. I have 4 licensed installs of ZA Security Suite and am into the second subscription year. I'm just speaking from personal experience.
     
  11. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I wonder if all these problems are due to the self protections these programs have, and nothing can touch these programs.

    KAV is pretty stringent with self protection, but I always disable it for both defrag and FDISR. Just that they run faster.

    Actually I remember when I was using ZA it had self protection that was a pain, but I always turned if off, since I was using other programs to protect it.
     
  12. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    The only problem I had with FirstDefense & PerfectDisk was when I tested out having an archived snapshot on my system. When it came to doing an offline defrag, the system just seemed to hang at 53%. Either that or it was taking far too long to do the defrag. I removed the archive - it was only a test anyway - and the next time I did the boot-time defrag, it happened as it should.
     
  13. dallen

    dallen Registered Member

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    The primary reason that I ask for Raxco to respon is three-fold.

    First, you are correct that Raxco provides better service than Zone Labs, but I hate to "punish" them for doing a good job while rewarding Zone Labs for not.

    Second, nothing has been presented to convince me that the "driver conflict" is in fact a conflict created by Zone Labs. You presume that because the two products got along before and a new version of Zone Alarm triggers the conflict, that Zone Alarm is responsible for the problem occurring. Your assumption is probably correct, but not necessarily so.

    Third, Raxco has provided with other software conflicts a "work around." Not so with the previous version of Zone Alarm conflict listed on their website. I would like to know if such a work around exists and I would like some response or explanation of the issue.

    The bottom line is that my favorite program if First Defense. Therefore, if anything messes with First Defense, then First Defense trumps. PerfectDisk is my defragmentation software of choice because it plays well with First Defense and it is arguably one of the best defragmentation utilities on the market, Diskeeper being the other. Zone Alarm is a damn good firewall and is another of my favorite programs. Maybe I will give Diskeeper a try, if I cannot get this conflict resolved.
     
  14. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Does disabling ZA resolve the issue, Dallen?
     
  15. crofttk

    crofttk Registered Member

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    Well, yes, and I guess I got distracted by that issue and forgot the rest of the possibilities. My bad.

    But, in addition to hearing the answer to Pete's query, I'm still curious about that registry key. If you're not comfortable peeking at the registry, I understand completely.

    Another thing to try would be to issue the following to a shell command line: "fsutil dirty query C:" and see if that confirms that your C: drive is not dirty.

    You could also try setting it dirty, i.e., running scandisk with "Automatically fix file system errors" and see if that clears the "false positive" dirty flag, if that's what it is (kind of like fixing a bad uninstall by reinstalling and repeating the uninstall).
     
  16. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Yup, same here. I have only ever had one program conflict with FirstDense: KAV 5.0. Yes, I know, KAV 5.0 can be made to work with FD, but KAV never responded to a fully paid customer, so KAV 5.0 went bye-bye.

    If ANYTHING conflicts with FirstDefense, that program is nuked!

    Acadia
     
  17. dallen

    dallen Registered Member

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    Amen to that. Not to derail this thread, but in my testing of AVs, KAV and KIS never worked on my system. The scans would hang at either 8% or 11%. I'm testing scan times right now. So far BitDefender 48 minutes, NOD32 109 minutes.

    Regarding the PerfectDisk issue with ZA, Susie at Raxco has confirmed that there is a driver conflict.

    Peter2150,
    I am currently testing the scan time of F-Secure. Since I do not have Zone Alarm installed on the F-Secure Internet Security snapshot, when it is finished I'm going to run a little experiment. I'm going to see if the PerfectDisk issue shows up using this non-ZA snapshot. I'll post back shortly with the result.
     
  18. dallen

    dallen Registered Member

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    OK...The result is in. When initiating the Offline Defragmentation from a non-ZA snapshot, the offline defradmentation works normally.
     
  19. jbarr

    jbarr Registered Member

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  20. heycarnut

    heycarnut Registered Member

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    Work-around to this issue.

    This is a Zone Labs issue, IMHO. Although either company could architect their product differently to avoid the issue, the fact is that perfectly functioning perfectdisk/diskeeper/o&o/MS Chkdsk boottime were broken by changes in the Zone product, starting at rev. 5, and now with 6.5. I researched and built a workaround that I sent RAXCO for the original problem in rev. 5, which they posted to their site, microsoft used on their site for chkdsk, etc.
    Zone deleted the workaround from their forums, citing 'dangerous code', since it temporarily disabled zone for the purpose of getting boot-time processes to work normally, and likely also because I questioned the quality of their engineering after walking their product with a debugger. In any case, I have sent an updated workaround to Raxco for their use, and for their reference in discussion with Zone. They may post it, they may not, but I have included a link for your use.

    http://home.comcast.net/~rob-cook/PD-ZA-FIX.doc

    The document is in MS WORD, use the free MS word reader or OpenOffice to view.
    Hope this helps,

    Rob
     
  21. tobacco

    tobacco Frequent Poster

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    dallen

    Question for you.Did you try KAV/KIS in a 'fresh XP' snapshot to eliminate any other resourses of conflict?.
     
  22. crofttk

    crofttk Registered Member

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    heycarnut, thanks very much for posting the workaround. Now, if I had a pressing need to update to a buggy release of ZASS, I'll have an interim solution.

    Meantime, Zone Labs, as usual, needs to get their s*** together and they're certain to do that at their convenience, not ours, if at all.:cautious:
     
  23. Gilbertqc

    Gilbertqc Registered Member

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    Just tried the update to 6.5.714 of ZAPro and the problem with PerfectDisk remains. I could not find the update details from 6.5.700

    I'm starting to seriously consider Jetico!
     
  24. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    I always used ZA Free. I don't know if PerfectDisk has a problem with ZA Free too. I have now LooknStop, but that has nothing to do with PerfectDisk or anything else. I just wanted a better firewall, than ZA Free.
     
  25. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    I have used ZA Free for two years and never had any problems with PerfectDisk, BUT, I am still on ZA version 4.5, and with all the problems I keep hearing about with the newer versions of ZA, I think that I am simply going to keep 4.5, I'm behind a router anyway. :cool:

    Acadia
     
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