Anchoring / Snapshot Questions

You can print these logs in an output-file and use Notepad to read and search.
I think when you search with "- error" or "error" you will find them quickly. I've done this in the past so it's possible.

 

Thanks Erik, did that and found the following. Know what these are?

11/4/2007 20:43:40 Error - DCF::BackupWrite: Access is denied.

11/4/2007 20:43:40 Windows error number 5

11/4/2007 20:43:40 Error - Adding "WINDOWS\system32\drivers\cmdmon.sys" to "Secondary Snapshot"

11/4/2007 20:43:42 Error - DCF::BackupWrite: Access is denied.

11/4/2007 20:43:42 Windows error number 5

11/4/2007 20:43:42 Error - Adding "WINDOWS\system32\drivers\inspect.sys" to "Secondary Snapshot"

 

That's related to Comodo Firewall

Pretty sure that is too

I would shut Comodo Firewall down and retry a copy / update. I think that may solve your errors, the others are possibly related to failure to copy those files.

 

So it's not necessary to delete that snapshot? Cool.

Copy/update the secondary...now!

 

No, no need to delete a snapshot, just copy / update to it, and if it's error free then any errors before will have been fixed.

 

Did I do this right

I copy/updated the snapshot. When clicking copy/update I received the options to:
New Snapshot
New Compressed Snapshot
New Archive
and chose "New Snapshot".

I allowed the name to be the default "Copy of Secondary Snapshot".

Next screen indicated that I was copying from Source (Secondary Snapshot) to destination of "Copy of Secondary Snapshot".

And I clicked copy.

It completed with no errors.

Then I wanted to get rid of the old one with errors and thus proceeded to Remove Snapshot. Upon completion I got another error message, this time reading:
"Internal Horizon DataSys Corporation Error 123 - please notify your technical administrator."

On my Snapshots screen showed the original Primary Snapshot (green arrow to the left), the new "Copy of Secondary Snapshot" (yellow arrow to the left), with the Secondary Snapshot still listed (with a yellow arrow to the left with a question mark).

I proceeded to rename the "Copy of Secondary Snapshot" to "Secondary Snapshot" and when I hit enter, the old Secondary Snapshot with the question mark disappeared.

Did I do all of this properly? Or do you think there is an unreliability(other than me going on here?

In gratitude,
Bruce

 

Chamlin,
I'm not a genius, when it comes to "solve" technical problems.
I know FDISR pretty good and how to use it, but only when everything works NORMAL without any errors. I usually know which software caused problems in FDISR, but that is more based on intuition and guessing, than knowledge.
All these FDISR logs are usually Chinese to me.

Regarding Comodo Firewall :
I tried it too and it just didn't work, whatever I did and when that happens, I always ditch the software.
I will never ditch FDISR for any software. Once Comodo Firewall was gone, everything was back to normal.
Right now, I use Windows Firewall, because I didn't have time enough to search for a better firewall and I was in the middle of a re-installation from scratch.
I also ditched my ex-firewall "Look'n'Stop", not because it didn't work, but it regularly lost its serial number, while it was working, which was not a big problem. But it also lost its activation code when I re-installed it and that was a problem, because I had to beg the developper for a new activation code and a new serial number and that's not my style and certainly not for a security software.

My protection isn't based on security softwares, I depend on my daily immediate system recovery solution and clean images.
Any infection that passes through
- Router and
- Windows Firewall and
- Anti-Executable and
- DefenseWall and
- PC Security
will have a very short life on my computer.

I'm still not satisfied because my boot-to-restore is TOO LATE. That's why I still need security softwares to stop the execution of malware immediately and "as much as possible" (I wonder how much that is ).
So I'm waiting ... for a security software that removes any change on my system partition immediately without reboot and such software doesn't exist yet.

The fact that no scanner is able to find anything on my computer is a cold comfort to me.
I don't use scanners anymore as a daily protection, I just run them sometimes to see how good my approach is. Until now they didn't find anything, not even a false positive and f/p's are also a serious problem for average users.
The more "intelligent" security softwares are to detect malware immediately, the more false positives they have, because computer languages can't imitate the human brain, no matter how hard they TRY and you can't depend on the user behind the keyboard either, because they usually don't have enough knowledge.
Removing any change immediately is alot more simple to program, than catching a known or unknown malware via sophisticated programming and that's what I'm waiting for, because computers cannot THINK, but they are very good in COMPARING, better and faster than the human brain.

 

Thanks Pete. And I'm sure that's what tradetime was referring to though I internally interpreted it to be about updating the secondary snapshot from...itself. Now I'm a brighter bulb!

And thanks Erik for the input. I have felt good about Comodo, with the exception of the tremendous number of popups it provides, especially when my dear wife has to keep calling me, "Do I okay this one?".

 

As long you are able to answer Comodo Firewall's questions correctly, it will be a good firewall. I'm just like your wife and asking myself constantly "How much chance do I have to answer this one correctly ?"

 

Be careful, the "Brighter" a bulb glows, the more likely it could burn out too

On a more "Brighter" note still, you'll get the swing of FD-ISR. I been heavily into malware repair/research for years and believe me my machines have suffered for it as well as my nerves.

I finally came into the light of recovery myself and enjoy a happier return from every time i sit at the table.

On FD-ISR, even if you make a mistake, like i was going thru a daily routine of Copy/Update but instead of refreshing the archive, guess what? I was creating instead a duplicate snapshot Arggg! I aborted leaving a question mark in the snapshot list, i then chose to remove it, easily done.

The same with incompleted archives, if you notice you're updating to the wrong archive just stop, and Copy/Update over it from the source you intended.

 

Hi Chamlin,
I think you need to take it a little more slowly and get used to the feel of the program and it's information windows. In particular, when you do a copy update one of the screens will ask you to select a "Source" the program will default to selecting the snapshot you are currently in (the one with the green arrow) as the source unless you tell it otherwise.
Then it will enquire which snapshot you want to update / copy to,Destination. By default this will be a new snapshot, you must direct it to the snapshot you want to update,
In your example, if I understand what you have been saying, you should have been in the primary and copy / updating to the secondary, at the end of the operation you would have had on your system a primary and a secondary job finished, assuming it was error free.
Always read the popup windows carefully and make your selections.

By the sound of things you have copied the secondary (which contained errors) to a new secondary (which thus will also contain errors) Although you could look at the last copy in the log to confirm this.(although since I no longer have my snapshots named primary secondary etc, I may be wrong here as I do not know what name the program would choose if copying from primary and a secondary already existed. In the log at the last blue cross it will say something like "Copying snapshot ?? to copy of secondary." if the question marks is "Primary" then you are ok.........otherwise

You want to do another copy / update, ensure all security is off / disabled including Comodo, make sure you are in the primary, (green arrow next to primary in main screen) then click copy / update, at the "source" screen ensure the primary is highlighted and click next, then in "destination" highlight the secondary and click next and off you go, if this completes error free you are good.

 

Chamlin,
The SOURCE snapshot/archive always decides what the DESTINATION snapshot/archive will be and copy/update always creates IDENTICAL snapshots/archives. Don't forget these golden rules.

Like tradetime, already said make sure you choosed the right source and destination snapshot/archive before you execute it and a GOOD NAMING of snapshots and archives can make it easier, including a good description, if it gets complicated.

Another worry is how to keep your snapshots/archives MALWARE-FREE or CLEAN , this requires discipline and your dear wife has probably more experience with keeping things clean.

 

You guys are great!

Now I'm ready to do an archive to my external drive for some additional safety. Not sure how to get it to the external drive.

I walked through the copy/update of primary to new archive but by the time I got to the point where I could press the Copy button, there was no indication of how to get that to an external drive. Is this the process? And if so, how do you get it to the external drive?

Or is it the export process?

 

The program has a default location on the system drive in which it saves archives, what you need to do from the main program window is select Tools -> Options and then Archive Tab, then Change, from there browse to you destination folder on the external drive and select it and hit OK. This will redirect all your Archives to this location.

 

Cool. Now archiving. Thanks a lot.

 

Chamlin,
Do like tradetime said.

Don't use import/export, use COPY/UPDATE.
1. Use copy/update from snapshot to <new archive> = creating a new archive.
2. Use copy/update from snapshot to archive = updating an existing archive.
3. Use copy/update from archive to snapshot = restoring an archive to an existing snapshot (to rollback for instance)
4. Use copy/update from archive to <new snapshot> = restoring an archive to a new snapshot
And don't forget the golden rules. The number of archives is unlimited until external harddisk is FULL.

 

Tradetime, Pete, Erik, Easter, Stapp, Acadia,

Thanks so much for the guidance. I now am fully set up on FDISR, with a Primary and Secondary on my system and an Archive on my external hard drive.

 

Good stuff Chamlin, takes a little time to get used to, but soon you won't know what you did without it, I only started using it in April, got a lot of help from Peter and Erik, and others.

 

Acadia

 

Chamlin,
Well done. Here are a few other basic advices.
1. Always have minimum 2 snapshots.
Working with only ONE snapshot is the same as working without FDISR.
You always need a healthy snapshot, where you can boot to in case the other snapshot is in deep trouble.

2. FDISR starts BEFORE Windows and that's why you can save your computer, even when you cannot boot in Windows anymore and remember BSOD's are caused by Windows. With FDISR installed, BSOD's are history.

If you are in trouble, just reboot your computer and press the F1-key on the FDISR Splash Screen and then you can boot in your healthy snapshot and restore the corrupted snapshot from there.

3. Never neglect your Image Backup, because FDISR can fail also, not much but it can happen.
There are legitimate softwares and destructive malwares, that are able to corrupt FDISR and then you will need your Image Backup software to restore your computer.
This happens very rare, in most cases FDISR will save your bacon.
I know this by experience and I'm using FDISR since March 2006.

4. Never ditch FDISR unless you have a better alternative.
All other ISR-softwares are LESS than FDISR, they are only faster and use less space and are sometimes even less reliable.
Speed and space is always a hardware problem, not a software problem.

 

Thanks for the extra tutorial. This is a great thread for me to refer back to.

Questions: In the OPTIONS, do you guys Verify Destination Snapshot After Copy?


For overall recovery here's my setup.

• Daily online Mozy backup of all my data
• FDISR primary, secondary, an archive on my external hard drive
• ATI total computer image

When using your imaging/backup software (e.g. ATI, SP):

1. How often do you guys do a Total System Image for emergency recovery?

2. How often do you do updates of it?

3. Do you always do Total Images or do you do Differentials or Incrementals, and which is your preference?

Danka!

 

Trying to archive from my wife's laptop, through the network to the external drive that's connected via an Esata cable.

A screen pops up:
Network User and Password.

The User account name is automatically filled in as SIMONE\simone.

The Password and Confirm Password sections are blank.

Do I keep that username? There is no network access password. Any clues

 

Yes, I do this to increase the quality of my snapshots, whatever that means.

My way of working and setup is different from yours, so what counts for me, doesn't count for you.

The short story is :
I separated my system and data.
I only do a System Partition backup, when it changed, using SP + External HDD and always a full backup.
I daily do a Data Partition backup, using Karen's Replicator + External HDD and only the files that have been changed.
But that is just the daily routine.

The long story is that I don't work with SP and FDISR anymore, like I used to do. Everything changed and it takes too long to type and translate it and nobody will be interested either.