Rollback Rx on Bitsdujour

Really? My system boot is horrible with Rollback RX.

Normally it takes around a 1 minute to a minute and half to boot. (To the log-in screen)

Sometimes the "Please Wait..." screen appears and it takes around 5-10 minutes to boot up. This only happens when I have a crash and I am forced to restart the PC. No clue why its happened, its not a fault of Rollback RX and only occurs when I try to use a certain game at times, I think its a graphic issue.

Either way I am pleased with Rollback RX, had a horrible system failure where some software just would not work, rollbacked to a day or two before and everything has been A-OK since.

I just wish that the boot times were faster.

 

I understand your pain in regards to the long boot times with RB Rx. I've experienced that myself.

I was using RB Rx "cousin" named "Drive Vaccine" [this one only allows you to take just one "snapshot" whereas RB Rx allows multiple "snapshots" of your HDD] and, my boot times [that's between pushing the power button and having a working desktop] increased from about 45 sec. to nearly 2 1/2 minutes and, that's on Windows 7 SP-1, 32-bit.

I couldn't bear this anymore and ended up uninstalling it even when I had already purchased a license for it.

Even when their scopes aren't the same, I ended up going back to Shadow Defender and waiting for HorizonDataSys to investigate what happens and why it happens and find a fix for it.



Carlos

 

Heh. The first thing I have learned to do when I wake up after I have washed and brushed my teeth is to go downstairs and turn on the PC.

By the time I am done fixing up my breakfast I can log straight in. I turn on my PC as soon as I get home from work as well. So its not too bad. I just feel the slowness when I am required to restart due to installing a new game or updating windows/software.

 

Because I use RBrx, my PC takes roughly 90 seconds from the "Starting Windows" window to when the desktop appears. I have learned to do the same as you by turning on the computer on my way to make coffee, and when I am all done washing and shaving etc. I bring my coffee to the computer to find it ready to go.
If 90 seconds seems long, I remember back in the late 1990's when I would dial into AOL and go have a cigarette while the browser window accessed. Not to mention an AOL update that took half a day, if you didn't lose your connection and have to start over.

 

Patience is def a virtue, especially when not having it could well mean a lengthy reinstall. To avoid this I am happy to wait an extra 90 seconds during boot.

BTW: the monthly uninstall, cleanup, and reinstall, that I do has become a period of anxiety for me. I just don't feel comfortable running the PC at all without Rx.

 

Right, using the computer without the RB installed is like walking across an ice covered pond and listening to the ice make that cracking sound.

 

Hi bgoodman, what happens if one runs RBRx say for six months straight? I've had it for more than a month without any slowdowns or other noticeable changes. Is your 'maintenance' recommended by HorizonDataSys?

 

Hi Osaban

I have previously run RB Rx for 10 months without following what bgoodman has referred to as 'maintenance'. I did not notice any appreciable issues in doing that until right at the end of that period when I detected signs of system instability...difficult to pin down on anything in particular but I had a suspicion that RB Rx might be involved...but nothing concrete/hard in terms of proof.

I now personally do not leave RB Rx installed so long between 'maintenance' period...for me it is every 3-4 months at most...(and I back up RB Rx with a rolling weekly full disk image...just in case the gremlins strike RB Rx...although in several years of using it I have not seen them yet

Hope that helps?

Balders

 

I have been following bgoodman4's practice to the point that after about 2 months I analyze my HD with my defragger and when it's about 5% fragmented I uninstall RB and do maintenance.

 

Hi Balders,
Thanks for your reply, I was actually wondering about this maintenance business as HorizonDataSys actually recommends to refrain from re-installing too often the program on account of the activation process (I read some people had to contact support to reset their activation count, which must be a pain when it happens).

3 months seems a reasonable time though, and so far the only strange behaviour I've noticed was after rebooting the system (a few days ago) the program behaved as if I was installing it for the first time, namely my personal configuration was returned to default.

 

That's a good idea, to 'analyse' the system won't harm the snapshot size of RBRx, mine is currently 3% so I should be fine. Thanks.

 

Quite a few RB users encounter the reactivation issue (requiring HDS to reset your serial number) when attempting to reinstall RB after having uninstalled it. It happens to me every time, so I don't uninstall RB unless there's a definite reason to do so. And as to running a disk defrag, Aaron Here (whom I consider very RB-knowledgeable) once posted that file fragmentation does not adversely affect an RB system!

Scott

 

For what it's worth, I've had Eaz-Fix installed on my laptop since 2008 and I've never uninstalled it to do any kind of maintenance stuff.

Windows defragment analyze says the volume is 6% fragmented and does not need to be defragmented.

 

The first time I installed Rx I left it on my PC for 3 or 4 months IN-SPITE of slow downs and then it stopped working (I cannot remember exactly what the problem was, something about not being able to create snaps I think) and Horizon recommended a reinstall which fixed things.

I am a pretty heavy user as I do a lot of 3D graphics (CAD modelling) work and I find that at about 4 or 5 weeks things slow down noticeably. Sometimes I can get 6 weeks out of it before things get too slow but thats about it. Perhaps this has something to do with my configuration as I have auto backup programs (both to another location on the HD as well as to the net) running when I work. Oh, and its a Tablet PC so its not anywhere near as powerful as a CAD desktop PC would be. I suspect this possibly/probably a factor as well.

Bottom line though is what works for each of us. If you can get 6 months out of it great, if only 4 or 5 weeks like I do then you need to houseclean monthly.

By the way, as noted previously elsewhere, after 4 weeks my drive is quite fragmented, usually about 25% to 30%.

 

Interesting little story. I only hope I can run my machine for 3 months, even though a monthly routine is not the end of the world.

 

Hi Osaban

I think that as bgoodman says "Bottom line though is what works for each of us." is probably best and that you need to work out your own schedule for uninstall/defrag/re-install, etc.

As for the issue with needing to contact HDS about license reactivation before re-installing...I think that this is a problem that affects only some users...I for one have never (yet) come across the problem first hand when re-installing RB Rx.

Regards




Balders

 

Thats the situation for me as well. I have been using Rx for about 3 years and have uninstalled and reinstalled monthly for most of that time, and I have not had a problem with a reinstall (as you said "yet").

 

I've had to get support to re-activate my product code two out of three times on re-install. The last time I sent my ticket in about 11:00AM California time and they fixed it in about an hour.

 

What do you lot mean by "house cleaning" and "maintenance"

Are you saying that you format your drive, reinstall your OS, Rollback RX and other softwares? Or just revert to a image with that stuff already on (which doesn't have rollback RX installed on it).

I have had it for over a month and its slower to start but overall use has not been much of a real issue.

Just wondering in case its useful for me to do "maintenance". Though I normally format the drive and reinstall everything from scratch every 6 months (during summer/winter).

 

Maintenance means uninstalling you RB to your current RB snapshot, and doing a defrag and possibly an image, then re-installing RB.

 

For me its a bit more than that in that I get rid of unnecessary files (tmp files etc) as well as other general PC maintenance chores.

One other thing to keep in mind is that Rx "protects" space on the drive where old data was written to in case you want to revert to, or recover, that data. So if you delete a large block of data from your drive Rx will prevent that space from being over-written. If you create and delete many files and do not either reset your baseline, get rid of older snaps, or do the uninstall reinstall thing, you will gradually, over time, loose available free space on the drive.

 

I delete tmp files on an on going basis, and periodically update my RB baseline in between uninstalls, so will the free space be able to be over written between uninstalls?

 

I believe this is the case. Since there is no need for RX to protect the space it makes sense that it would become available.

One easy way to test this would to check free space before and after a baseline reset. If it changes you will have confirmation.

 

OK thanks, I'll do that.

 

I can confirm, this is the way it works. Sometimes we are talking about 'freeing' 7-8 GB in my case, although I only update the baseline.