PG and FirstDefense

FirstDefence has been giving me the pghash.dat, pguard.dat, etc. error messages and I wondered if there is a way to disable PG using Task Scheduler. I ask because I've automated FirstDefense to run at the same time every day and don't want to have to disable/enable PG manually. It sort of defeats the purpose of the scheduler for FirstDefense. Is there perhaps some other way to get this done automatically?

 

Good luck my friend. I had considered the same thing. Setting FD on a schedule, but PG is the problem. Well Pg is not really the problem ,but it can't be scheduled to turn off then back on after FD is thru. At least I don't think it can.

 

Does anyone know if there is a command line instruction to do these things?

 

I quite doubt it would ... seeing that it would negate the security provided by PG. ie. it may as wll not be installed if it did have that feature, as anything could then just turn it off and 'forget' to turn it back on!!

 

Or re-order Pete's points as follows:

1) after making '(m)any changes' to PG, manually disable it and copy the snapshot.

2) schedule the snapshot copy, the dat files won't get copied, but if they haven't changed, it doesn't matter, they are the same.

3) doesn't matter so much, it depends on your definition of '(m)any changes'. Once I've decided on permissions for new software, I don't change my mind. But if I had made one or two and then had to restore the snapshot, I could easily make them again.

but, scheduling a snapshot copy could be a bad thing, if somehow you've 'allowed' some malware to run. You don't want that copied automatically. I'd suggest that you stick to manual only.

Jim

 

JW,

It isn't simply that the files don't get copied with PG enabled which of course they don't. But, when I boot into that new snapshot, PG is dead/frozen! I have to unistall it in safe mode and reinstall it to get it working again. The only way to ensure PG works in the new snapshot is to disable it before the snapshot is created. Then boot into the new snapshot and re-enable PG.

Now, the question I have is whether AppDefend (Ghost Security) has the same problem. Does anyone know? Does anyone know of any program like PG that doesn't have this problem.

Thanks

 

FYI - Here's DiamondCS's position on this issue,

"At this time there is nothing we can do. If a backup program uses a driver to "see" the file in kernel mode then it can make a copy. Unfortunately many backup programs do not use a driver to ensure they get complete access (or perhaps they just dont try hard enough)

It may be worth asking the developer.



Best regards,
Gavin Coe
DiamondCS Support "

 

Thanks Peter. That's been a big help. What are OA and SSM please.

 

Another option is to use Drive Snapshot for taking image backups - this has no problem copying PG's files (though you do need to give it "Install Drivers" privilege in PG itself).

 

If it became necessary to restore pghash/pguard.dat files, these could be copied from a Drive Snapshot image after doing a restore with FirstDefense. It's a kludge, but one that doesn't involve having to give up either PG or FD - and having a full image backup does protect against the possibility of hard disk failure.