Power Shadow

Hi.After reading all this long topic,i decided to give PS a try.It does work and what is schocking is that it is virtually using no system resources looking at the task manager.I had some problems with it initially,which twice gave me "hardware incompatibility" error ,but i think it was just the fact that when i activated the shadow mode,p2p was running and for some reason this is creating problem.No problem if i launch the p2p application after i enter shadow mode though.

Just a curiocity.Is there any way to make Outlook Express save the incoming mails in a non shadowed partition?That's my main problem with PS right now.

Thanks.

 

I think, from what I've experienced anyway, is that the only way to save anything in Powershadow is to move it manually to another partition or drive. I save stuff to my second drive or to a CD.

I don't use Outlook Express or download mail, but think you're going to have to either download your mail out of PS, or move what you want to keep out of PS if you want to save it.

 

Maybe you could save the inbox.dbx file within shadowmode to a partition then copy/cut and paste them back out of shadowmode, overwriting the original.

Or whichever .dbx file you have saved to, i.e.- Hyperion's.dbx

Make sure OE isn't active when doing this.

Or if you want to save an attachment, save to a partition or thumb drive.

DBX location-
C:\Documents and Settings\"username"\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{64CA6B3F-9FCF-4754-83B5-922273040D63}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

Edit:
I have done this when restoring from a ghost image and it worked OK.

 

Although i can turn to alternative hard drives at will (plugin/pullout) some cannot. As Chuck57 suggested you could save to external PLASTIC media like cd/dvd but don't forget you can also save to a USBflash too. Makes Power Shadow ever so more convenient even if you have only a single drive.

The possibilities are endless, not as much as say a FD-ISR or other, but you can really take confidence in this shadowing program. I have.

 

Thank you all fellas.

I have a 2nd hard disk,so i moved them there manually.It works ok.I can reply to the mail directly from the 2nd hard disk,so it's not so bad.

 

My suggestion is closing all running programs before starting powershasow.

 

I found this warning txt just above the "START" button in Powershadow.

"Please save editing file and close all other applications before starting shadow mode"

 

great program from what i read..but can anyone tell me the difference between geswall/sandboxie and powershadow? cos me getting geswall free and duno if its doing same functions more or less with powershadow or if i get ps, then i do not need geswall.

hope vista ready ps will be soon..english too..only 2.6 is english but only 30 days trial whereas chinese 2.8 is free..sigh..

 

The best way I can describe the difference, and I've never used geswall and had sandboxie but had problems is that powershadow virtualizes your entire hard drive, or all hard drives on your system if you want it to. I've never used that feature since things I want to keep go on my second hard drive.

When you reboot out of ps, everything is gone. One of the fun things about it, although i haven't experienced it yet is that you can play with trojans, viruses, etc and watch them destroy your system right in front of your eyes, then reboot or hard boot and every trace is gone. You can download software and test it. Some have found things that won't work with ps. I haven't yet. I'll download a software, security or office related, try it for a day and, if i don't like it, it's gone when i leave ps.

I don't know if it works the same with sandboxie or geswall. From reading easter and yankn's tests, nothing has beaten or got through powershadow and the ability to try software of different kinds is a plus, and knowing that you can surf in absolute safety anywhere you want and not have to worry about your computer being trashed.

A final thing is that with powershadow my computer seems to actually run faster. With sandboxie there was some slowdown.

 

FDISR seems to do the same thing. How many snapshots can you create with PS ?
If you have a BSOD and you can't boot in Windows anymore, will PS solve this problem ?

 

FDISR I understand does about the same thing. As for snapshots, I don't know and I haven't had a BSOD in so long I've forgotten what they look like, so can't comment on that either.

Hopefully, one of the real experts on PS will be able to answer the above. I'd be interested to know too.

 

Thanks. I wait ... and it is indeed interesting to know, because FDISR is able to fix that problem after reboot and BSODs are very frightening for an average user. I'm speaking of experience because it happened to me once and FDISR fixed it in no time. Image Backup can do the same, but not that quickly.

 

In previous pages there are posts about how to use 2.8 in english and a serial they give for free in the chinese forum ,that works with 2.6.

 

Another question about PowerShadow.
With FDISR you don't work in a virtual environment.
FDISR works with different versions of the system partition[C:], called snapshots and they are REAL and each snapshot needs space on your harddisk.
If a snapshot is in trouble, you reboot in another working snapshot and refresh the snapshot in trouble with a clean snapshot or you can remove and replace it with a new snapshot.
FDISR works only for ONE partition : the system partition [C:] and ignores all other partitions [D:], [E:], etc.

So, I'm wondering how PowerShadow works ? Is there a user guide in English ?

 

Greetings again ErikAlbert

I can satisfactorily answer some of those. Power Shadow in most users experience is worked fantastic! Including myself now for a few months without no BSOD whatsoever or any other issue at all. Completely stable and effective!

But to answer your inquiry to the point i can tell you no, PS only allows for a SINGLE FREEZE if you want to call it that. No snapshots, no saved sessions period, but then it is a horse of a different color you might say.

I use it to bot hunt in combo with System Safety Monitor and any other HIPS that i'm already certain is efficient at SUSPENDING any intrusion file before it can actually carry out it's function. In my case while SSM has it, lets say a downloader, you are prompted instantly that some source process is signalled to the system some instruction, SSM stops it cold with the prompt and awaits user command to ACCEPT or DENY, its at that very moment i follow the path indicated by SSM and do a quick CUT/PASTE to a safe confinement of the offending intruder then it's virtually a useless file with instructions that are TOTALLY IGNORED and you can delete or erase it and threat is neutralized.

Hope that little bit of information clears up at least some of your concern. As pertains to FD-ISR, that wonderful program allows for a FREEZE snapshot which is at the core of my recent curiosity about FD-ISR.

 

Both Powershadow and FDISR are great software.

FDISR works like Ghost -- using one or more backup images (snapshots) to recover hard drive. The major difference is: Ghost usually save the backup image(s) to other place. FDISR re-partition your hard drive and need this new partition to save the backup image(s). To save space of diffrent snapshots, FDISR may only record the difference between the new image and the baseline image. ( I hope this is absolutely safe)

Both Ghost or FDISR need aggravating time and space to backup and restore. ( I hate this )

Powershadow is totally different. No re-partition and no extra space needed. I think Powershadow uses the free disk space as temporary place. Therefore Powershadow is really quick, but it can only keep one snapshot - that is your original intact status.

That's all I can think about the difference between Powershadow and FDISR.

 

Thank You namdog

I believe you are right on target even though i have never been to PS forums and don't even know if they have an ENGLISH one anyway. Very well put.

 

I wasn't talking about security softwares, like SSM. This has nothing to do with how PS works.
Each on-line snapshot of FDISR needs also security softwares to protect it against malware.
Installed security softwares don't explain how PS itself works.

As far as I understand, PS = FDISR with only one (frozen) snapshot and any change (good or bad) is removed after reboot.
PS looks more like DeepFreeze, except the price.

 

Hi Eric, hence my reference PS is a horse of a different color. FD-ISR! Not a security program i understand clearly that, but more on the level of an IMAGES-ON-THE-FLY type of software.

PS as already mentioned cannot and is not designed to perform ISR in the same manner, so theres no real comparison outside of my FD-ISR forum question as to how does FD-ISR single FREEZE feature compares to PS in shadow-mode.

 

Hi, ErikAlbert: You are right. PowerShadow does work like DeepFreeze, with another exception; that is PS is able to shift into shadow mode w/o reboot. I think it is very unique. Till now, I am still in big puzzle, how does it do this ?

 

Heh, although i keep plenty of programs to delve into code like Olly and FreeIDA etc. i would never have the time to disect like a frog in Biology class as to "HOW" it performs it's magic. That's a question better posed to the developers themselves but i highly doubt they would ever give away the farm to it's internal workings. LoL

Unique is a very good reference Perman about PS IMO but also don't forget the most important aspect of any software, it's completely STABLE! at least for some of us who use it regularly and throw the kitchen sink at it like i do.

 

If you need multiple snapshots instead of one, FDISR is the one, you need and creating multiple snapshots requires indeed time and space. Isn't that logical ?
That's not a disadvantage, you only choosed the wrong software to recover your system quickly.

 

Not to drift too far OT but ErikAlbert has plenty of actual experience with the famed FD-ISR which is my new preference in saving on a ton of Excedrin's. If anything i learned about $M O/S's it's that they can belly-up at the most inconvenient times if malware doesn't assist in that task first. Nothing you hate more than to suddenly and without warning or remedy to find yourself looking at that black BIOS then start-up screen displaying (taunting) a complaint that it cannot boot-up for one reason or another, FD-ISR eliminates that frustration in many more ways than one, just ask Eric or Peter 2150.

 

Hi, easter; Since you asked about how does frozen snapshot of FD-isr compare to shadow mode of PS. I do remember this: FD-isr does request user to move its archive and frozen snapshots to another partition for security reasons. But failed to elaborate it. Just curious.

 

First you have to ask yourself : Do I need Immediate System Recovery, because they are all faster than Image Backup.
Then you have to ask yourself : Do I need multiple snapshots ? Yes or no.
Multiple snapshots require more time and space and you have only two choices : FDISR or RollbackRx.
RBRx is much faster and requires less space than FDISR, but its reliability is still a questionmark for me.

If you don't need multiple snapshots, you can go for PowerShadow, DeepFreeze, ShadowUser, ... and of course these softwares are faster and require much less space. If that is important to you, choose one of these softwares.

I need FDISR, because I want multiple snapshots and I don't care about the space or speed. I can't do anything with space or speed, because they are not FUNCTIONS.

BTW PowerShadow is not an anti-malware software, so it doesn't belong in this forum.