Norton 2010 and Outlook 2007 problems

I have Hard Disk Manager 2009 Professional, but since it is strictly a problem related to backup so I am posting it here instead.

I have been doing regular backups and restores using HDM for the last 8 months and never had a problem. I was using the "Paragon hot processing (PHP)" as the default snapshot engine.

Recently, I noticed a problem with PHP and was forced to switch to "Volume shadow Service (VSS)" as the default snapshot engine.

I have done 3 restores last week, with 3 different backups and each time I encountered the following two problems.

1- Norton Internet Security 2010, disabled itself, and gave me an error message that the virus definitions were out of date. The only solution was to download the virus definitions from Norton website and update them manually.

2- Outlook 2007 lost all emails from the hotmail accounts and had to re-download them again. I have two gmail accounts and two hotmail accounts setup. My gmail accounts were fine but each time all hotmail mails were gone.

Since this problem occurred only when I switched the snapshot engine from PHP to VSS, so I can hold VSS as the culprit here or perhaps the interaction between Paragon backup engine and VSS. Can someone explain what is going on here? Everyone is saying that VSS is a reliable snapshot service and should not cause these problems, but exact same problem has happened three times in a row, it can't be coincidence.

 

Assuming if all of the program files for either of those programs are stored on the same partition, PHP or VSS should not make a difference. Only time we face file corruption like that is when two partitions are out of sync.

 

Well, it is only my C: partition and has only my OS and programs on it, including Oultook 2007 with emails and Norton 2010.

I have been doing successful backups and restores for the last 8 months using PHP, so it is definitely related to VSS.

I had never done a restore with VSS before and the three I did, did not turn out great. Another thing I would like to add here, that I only noticed after posting my initial post, was that my windows update history had also disappeared. I usually run it manually after every 15 days, but this time around it had no record of ever been run on my computer.

I have switched back to PHP and I did a restore yesterday and had no problems. The problems are definitely related to VSS.

 

Are you doing image backups or file backups?

Image backups are the far better way to go.
Do not selectively exclude files from a backup, image or not.

I have not yet read the Paragon manual so I do not yet know why Paragon is allowing users to select the snapshot engine.

 

Sector-by-sector image backups. No filters were employed.

Paragon Hot Processing (PHP) is meant for those OS like win2000 etc that do not have VSS. It is developed by Paragon itself. VSS is a microsoft product.

I have no explanation for the above mentioned problems. Technically they should not happen. But they did, three times in a row.

I have since then switched back to PHP and all problems have gone away, except the big one that forced me to switch to VSS in the first place. See here for details. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=256650

 

Another possibility is your auntie-virus program not playing nice(ly) with Paragon.

You could try disconnecting from the internet, disabling the AV, then running a backup. AV could easily screw up timing dependent things.

DO NOT FORGET TO RE-ENABLE THE AV BEFORE RECONNECTING TO THE INTERNET.

 

A number of companies license, at least they used to, the equivalent engine from StorageCraft. If Paragon tried to re-invent the wheel, they could have botched it up.

 

Well, my auntie-virus is not giving any problems if I use PHP for the backups, so it must be something about VSS. Either VSS is unable to freeze the system entirely or Paragon is unable to coordinate with VSS as it does with its own PHP.

I do not think Paragon needs to license anything from Storagecraft, as they can and have been developing their own technologies for a long time. If you have PHP you do not basically need VSS. If Paragon manages to remove the "Real Time" bug from PHP, I will not feel the need to use VSS anymore.