From 200GB reserved sections for FD-ISR

How many? Thanks.

This is foreign territory for this old malware battling warjog, but i want to get this 200GB Maxtor installed and sliced up into partitions soon so as to turn to the magnificient and benevolent FD-ISR to manage snapshot backups. I seen about all i need to see from reading the good reports on this FD so i'm heading for the plunge myself, but first i like some opinions on how to carve up this 200GB.

I kind of envision at max going with a 100GB partition then 50/50 sort of split or else 80/80GB with a 40. I don't want too much space for defraggers to take hours or erasing program to soak up the entire day cleaning deleted files.

Since i find i am limited in how far to take on rootkits/malware in face offs with some security programs in my testings because of possibility of corruption making for a lengthy repair or at the very least a overwrite re-install, i chosen i think to select FD-ISR finally.

An overwrite reinstall preserves your programs but of course costs tons of time to reinstall programs cause paths have been removed due to the overwrite to clean up a buggered system.

Any suggestions are welcome. My present situation. I want to keep my present small (30GB) Master Drive primary and move loads of proggys off it onto one of the yet-to-be-decided partitions of the 200GB as storage only.

I want to use another partition to move FD-ISR snapshots/archives onto it in order to boot to it from a snapshot i'll make in the Master drive (30GB) once cleared and with fresh windows Pro XP.

The remaining is of no consequence for this discussion i think. You see my main interest is setting things up for FD-ISR and want to know how much real-estate in this new drive is acceptable to store snapshots/archives.

I'll learn how to perform the Magic later of course, but first things first and so thought this a good time to bring this to the board for opinions. Anyone?

 

EASTER.2010,
Is this what you want or am I wrong ?

Harddisk#1 (30gb) = partition [C:] = Windows + Applications + FDISR (+ Data ?)

Harddisk#2 (80gb) = partition [D:] = archives of FDISR (.arx-files)
Harddisk#2 (80gb) = partition [E:] = programs from harddisk#1
Harddisk#2 (40gb) = partition [F:] = empty

The sizes aren't right probably, but will it look like that ?

 

I fully agree, waste of time.

 

I wondered about the best way to use my mere 100 GB hard drive and 250 GB USB hard drive. There is a partition program out there I heard about that lets you partition different areas in different formats like FAT , FAT 32 and NTFS all on the same drive. I heard about it a couple days ago. I'll see if I can't find it. I think I'd split them up with 2 different NTFS and one FAT32. Then on my external usb keep it NTFS only. I found a cool USB hard drive that runs software directly from it with skype and office.org software preloaded on it so you can use it as if it were a computer. Cool huh? Wonder how many external USB hard drives one can have? LOL Anyhow you play with alot of malware so I'm not sure where you want to keep that stuff. I'm sure someone will come up with some fun ways to split up a hard drive for maximum use. I might follow the suggestions as well. Currently I'm looking at getting a 160 GB internal laptop drive that has 7200RPM and shock protection in case you drop your laptop.

 

Hi Erik, Peter, etc. Interesting as i go over that again. That is in essence what my initial design to be was, then seems Peter2150's post had me thinking again for a moment that another approach would be to use the new 200 for the Primary drive.

Let's say i'll keep things as they are and add the new drive just as above.

What i'm wondering is where is the first snapshots to be located? How much space do they take up? Having not read the manual just yet i assume the first snap "MUST" be located on the same drive? Whatever size hard drive here we're talking about duplicating the entire drive? or just important sections of it.

Thanks. I just need cleared up on the placement of first two snapshots.

The archives i take it are considerably smaller and can collect easily on any partition.

Thanks

 

Hello EASTER.

I would suggest the faster (newer) drive for storing system partition, you'll get more responsive system. The bootable snapshots must be on bootable partition (seems Leapfrog is changing that in new version), while archives can be placed wherever (Eric, correct me on this one). The snapshots are taking as much space as your data on partition occupies, and not the size of the entire partition. The build 173 even allows compresion of archives, so they take even less space.

Cheers.

 

That's great The Seer, and thanks again Peter2150. I read up on it some more while browsing about the feature of compressed archives, (super) and like that a lot myself.

I think i finally got my mind cleared from all the clutter of malware researching long enough now (taking a break lol) to get a grip on this.

So things should be just fine with the 30 as-is, just clear away most proggys or better yet, i'll copy/image them over to a partition of the storage (Maxtor) and just wipe the 30 clean and start afresh with FD-ISR.

It comes with MaxBlast CD to partition the drive and/or establish the BIOS if using the more than 137GB routine but i have faith in Paragon for that duty. What's the concensus on letting it do the dividing and formatting as opposed to that CD.

Hows this approach sound to you guys?

 

Well, that strategy depends on how old your motherboard is, and does the controller on it supports 48-bit addresing. If it does, than you shouldn't have problems accessing partition larger than 137 Gb. But even if you have up-to-date m/b, you could have some issues with certain defraggers on more than 137 Gb. I suggest you partition your disk anyway, use the first partition as system, and your old HDD for archives. But wait, I am not an expert on imaging-partitioning, I stumbled on this board accidentaly, there are greater gurus than me around here...

My regards

EDIT: FD-ISR will certainly help you to ditch some of that armaments from your sig (no offence intended).

 

Heh, none taken.
I was hoping to finally par down those system stickers considerably with a little help as in FD-ISR.

Yeah, i have no interest or need to go over 137 anyway. Also i have a pretty stable PCchips board but not as new as i like. I'll just have to connect and have at it and see if it can handle it or not. Supplies are not that far down the highway here if absolutely needed.

Those massive server-type drives set-up will just have to wait another time.

 

Hey EASTER.

Just another remark. Sorry. If your m/b is a bit older, it is generally not recommended to use SATA and IDE drives at the same time. On older m/bs, Windows tend to default booting from IDE, so it can be confused. But you'll have to try that to be sure. By all means, use SATA as a boot device, you will notice a performance boost, and do that even if you have to remove your IDE drive completely.



EDIT: I have 2 SATA2 200Gb drives and one 80 Gb IDE. I am NOT using IDE on a controller, although my m/b is asus m2n-e (new). I use it in an external USB box.

 

Easter,
I agree with "The Seer", that you better use the 200gb harddisk for installing :
Windows + Applications + FDISR bootable snapshots + Personal Data files.
The other harddisk is only 30gb and that is a bit small for what I mentioned above and FDISR requires more and more space when you increase the number of snapshots.
The absolute minimum is 2 snapshots and the maximum is 10 snapshots and sometimes it is interesting to work (temporarily) with more than 2 snapshots.

In theory, you can create an UNLIMITED amount of ARCHIVES (.ARX-files) and it doesn't matter where you store them, but you better store them on an internal of external harddisk, not on DVD's.
However to make ARCHIVES visible on the main screen of FDISR and ready for usage with copy/update, you have to put them in the folder, that is defined in the Options/Archives. Don't forget this.

 

Easter,
FDISR is a REAL troubleshooter, not in words, but in DEEDS. Good luck.

 

No one is quicker on the draw when it comes to this then you guys so i take all your advice with much creedence

No concern here with those, i gave up on PLASTIC storage long ago somewhere between TI & NorGhost. I still use them to copy/storage a few things but take no real confidence in them. Besides i turned to USBflash storage for some of those more portable purposes but METAL is always the storage of choice here.

Very Well. I support that idea too since it is the freshest + more capacity drive to support those early snapshots etc. That was the main purpose for this Topic in discovering from experienced guys like you who been around this field enough to offer the best opinions.

 

Hey users of build 173,
How much space do you win with compressed snapshots ?
Personally I estimated it around 30%, but I could be wrong.
I still use the previous version without compression.

 

Hi ErikAlbert.

Yeah, I use 166 also, but I read that the new feature in 173 compresses archives. Haven't tried it, as I don't really need compression (plenty of space on my disks). I think I'll just wait for "booting from other partition" feature before purchasing FD. BTW, Erik, how are you progressing with that subtitles issue from the other thread?

 

I was able to create a file with the subtitles, using SubRip, but I had troubles with the rest, but we better continue this in the other thread, otherwise we get troubles with the mods.

 

Well, finally got the drive severed up in 3 pie sections or partitions as per the official $M term.

I was going over the manual and came across something rarely mentioned but likely very beneficial in what i do. It's called the FREEZE snapshot.

Can someone fill me in briefly on this? The way i understand it you can randomly select one of the let's say several snapshots and choose to FREEZE it much like Power Shadow does when entering Shadow-Mode, if my memory serves me correctly, the FD-ISR manual states something to the same effect. Is this true? If that's the case why does anyone bother running PS when they already have FD-ISR to accomplish basically the same thing, as in dumping that session and all changes upon a reboot.

Why not keep a FROZEN snapshot for testing softs, malwares etc?

This is really getting exciting on this end and now i see why everyone who is put their feet in this water are swimming and singing at the same time. Seems your only limited by your imagination.

 

A frozen snapshot is marked with a blue star on the green/yellow arrow on the main screen of FDISR. That's how you recognize it.
You only can have ONE frozen snapshot, more than one is impossible (some of us would like to have more frozen snapshots in the future, including me).

You can do whatever you want in a frozen snapshot, just like in a normal snapshot, but after reboot ALL changes (good and bad) are gone. That's the principle of a frozen snapshot

The first time you freeze a snapshot, FDISR creates a file "Freeze Storage.arx" of the ACTIVE snapshot, which is stored in a folder, defined in Tools/Options/Freeze.
You can change that folder the way you want and even store it on another partition.
You can only freeze the ACTIVE snapshot (green arrow).

While your reboot, an automatic copy/update from "Freeze Storage.arx" to the frozen snapshot is executed and that happens behind the Windows Welcome Screen. That's why the reboot takes a little longer than booting in a normal snapshot.
After that your frozen snapshot = Freeze Storage.arx and all changes are gone.
You probably noticed that the extension (arx) of the freeze storage is the same as the extension of a normal archived snapshot and that means that the Freeze Storage is in fact an archived snapshot, but only used for a frozen snapshot. Technically the Freeze Storage is the same as any archived snapshot.

If you anchor folders or files in a frozen snapshot, these objects are not frozen, which means that any change in these objects remains even after reboot.
That's it.

 

Easter,
Wait until some software causes a BSOD on your computer and you can't even boot to Windows, THEN you will APPRECIATE how fast FDISR gets rid of that problem.

 

Sorry for having you guys rehash that same question again (i dug back 8 pages so far lol) but appreciate the replies nonetheless. Really good stuff in here and i intend to drive back into it again deep enough to cover all my questions and the ones i feel weren't addressed satisfactorily enough; i'll just bring up here.

I didn't read a direct answer to my analogy of FD-ISR (frozen snapshot) as compared to Power Shadow (shadow-mode)

Would you mind elaborating if only in brief? I'm sure both have their individual advantages depending on purpose, but what is gained by BOTH?

I'll take a quick stab at this and say that it (PS/FD-ISR) offers additional security against the possibility of an active malware intrusion actually attaching to disk/file system as Power Shadow would dump the virtually collected material. Likewise, a FD-ISR FROZEN snapshot upon reboot accomplishes the same exact goal. Is this way or the PS way "quicker"? "more efficient"? I'm just driving at the most SECURE of approaches since it's been posted here someplace that they are both fully compatible with each other.

My engines 'arrrrreee revin' up.....................