Hard drive snapshot and compare.

I have been searching around google for a while. I can't seem to find a program that does what I need.

I'm looking for a program that will take a snapshot of my C: and let me save it for later use.

Later on I want to compare this snapshot to the current status of my C: and I want the program to notify me of any file/folder chages (new, modified, deleted).

I don't want a hard drive imaging tool that will require me to backup all my data for later comparison.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

SpywareBlaster has a system snapshot. It doesn't give you options..but it does take a snapshot of important system settings..

 

Hi suave,

Try watcher (freeware): http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~legoland/minuscule/watcher/index.html

Watcher runs on startup, and does a quite thorough job of notifying about changes to system files you must confirm or deny. Taking a snapshot of C: however, may be more than you want to bargain - might as well hook up a backup drive for that - you know the drill.

However, running both spywareblaster and watcher should do quite nicely for your purposes.

-- Tom

 

thanks for the suggestions guys, but unfortunatley those programs you mentioned don't help me.

I need to take a thorough snapshot of the C:\ and use this snapshot to check the hard drive for changes at a later date.

I found a program called RegShot. This program does what I need with the registry and it also has the option to make a snapshot of the C:\. The only problem is, after you make the snapshot, there is no way to save it for use at a later time.

There must be a program out there that can do this. I know programs like Ashampoo Uninstaller and Total Uninstall can make snapshots of the C:\ and check it for changes. But I am looking for a more simple program that will allow me to do this.

Please, if anyone can help.

 

Hi [suave],

Try Erunt for backup and restore of the registry (freeware):
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt

-- Tom

 

System Mechanic Pro has an inbuilt tool called system snapshot that could be what your looking for.

 

suave,

At http://members.aol.com/Leithauser/
there is a App. 'WHAT CHANGED'.
It's approx. a 3-4" scrolldown - may be what you are seeking.

At Snapfiles they have a similar, 'WHATCHANGED', both appear to do the one type of job but I did not try either.

HTH,

Regards.

 

fingerprint is good it takes the checksums and then saves the file, i think in cleartext, then you can rerun it when you want and it will show any differences in the two.

half way down the page on the right.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

 

Ok i tried all the suggestions you guys made so far. They all didn't work as I expected.

But I do have some good news. I managed to find a program called Beyond Compare. ANd this program has a feature that lets me take a snapshot and save it in a small file, and I can compare the snapshot to the hard drive at any date in the future. Perfect.

The only thing is, I was hoping to find a freeware app that can do this. So i'd still appreciate any suggestions if you guys have any more to give.

 

Fingerprint is freeware and does exactly what you asked for -

it does this and only this - "I'm looking for a program that will take a snapshot of my C: and let me save it for later use.

Later on I want to compare this snapshot to the current status of my C: and I want the program to notify me of any file/folder chages (new, modified, deleted)."

did you really try it?

 

This will do it,

www.kephyr.com/systemsherlocklite/

Regards.

 

Sorr,y I wasn't really clear about it.

Yes, I did try it. I wasn't able to get it to work. It was giving me an error everytime and it froze up and crashed.

I think it might be because it can't handle files that are in use by windows. That may be the reason but I don't know. Everything works fine with Beyond Compare though

 

MICRO, that's a really nice find, Thanks for posting that. So far this one is working the best.

 

it should still be able to work while a program is running, you could try redownloading it?

but, are you still looking for something? because there is another program that's very similar to Fingerprint i could look for. FanJ would know. i'll have a think now

 

iceni60,

I will try it again and let you know.

But yeah, if you can find me another program that would be great.

You see, Beyond Compare is definitely the best one because of the easy to use interface and it clearly shows the changes in multiple ways and views and it really makes it easy for me. The downside... it's not freeware.

The one MICRO posted is great because it is freeware and needs no installation which is always a plus. The downside: it is command line and makes it hard for me to read through the actual changes. It's not neatly organized like in Beyond Compare.

So I am kind of in a debate on which one to use.

I will try Fingerprint again, lets see how it goes. But yeah, if you have another program to suggest, it surely wouldn't hurt. Thanks.

 

Well, I just tried it again:

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9764/fp0vp.png

Same error as before

 

Oh, i see what you mean. do you know that's how it's supposed to be? windows is programed that way. that should be the only place on C where you will get that message. however, it is not uncommon for malware to mess around with that directory; there are workarounds for the access denied though. maybe you could use Fingerprint for the whole of C, but the SVI folder, and do that bit manually.

what do the other programs say about SVI when they scan it?

EDIT there's a chance they just skip it

 

Well, with SystemSherlock Lite, it skips it but it notifes me that it does that, and completes the process.

With FingerPrint, it give me the error and aborts the process.

With Beyond Compare, I don't get any error or notifications of that folder being skipped. I think it actually scans it. I will have to double check. But so far, I have definitely had the best results with beyond compare.

edit:
I just tried it with FingerPrint while excluding the SVI folder. It ran through the whole process and it actually worked out pretty good. The log output is basically the same type of layout that SystemSherlock Lite spits out for me (just a big list full of changes). It's alot more detailed though.

hmm.. i can't decide which I like better yet. But hey, iceni60, you mentioned you knew of another program similar to all of these. I'm curious to try that one out as well.

 

i'm glad you got it working

i did have a quick look for it yesterday, but couldn't find it. i will have another look sometime today. but, really, the two programs you have do what you were looking for don't they? this other really was just like a clone of fingerprint, so don't expect more from it, that's if i find it.

if you wanted to be ultra paranoid/security conscious you could encrypt the saved file so no cracker/malware could tamper with it. but, check first the program doesn't automatically do it too.

 

i have RegShot too and it does save it's snapshots for later use. you have to state beforehand you want to save it, rather then making the regshot then saving.

 

Oh trust me, I am very familiar with regshot. I've been using it for a long time now.

Here is the text right out or the "readme":

So yeah, regshot can save the snapshot, but only for the registry.

Anyways, I appreciate your help man. I think I will use BC until the trial is up and then switch to Fingerprint.

Thanks again

 

If you don't have the bullion for BC at the minute maybe have a look at
http://bluefive.pair.com/beyondo.htm

or now I recall, www.e-tech.ca/003-dc2000.asp

or same at www.nonags.com/nonags/miscu.html
scrolldown 3 odd " and see, 'Date Cracker 2000'.

Regards.

 

you're a star