Rollback RX

How reliable is rollback rx these days?.I last tried it in 2008 ,has it changed much since then?.Also at that time you had to uninstall it to defrag and then reinstall it after the defrag.Is this still the case?
tia
ellison

 

Actually, Rollback Rx has been extremely reliable for me (with WinXP) since 11/28/06 (the date of the final v7.21 build)!

Defragging your C-drive/partition should be done before installing RB. Disk-defragging doesn't serve any purpose once RB is installed (however, RB's included snapshot-defrag does!). That said, if you feel compelled to defrag your C-drive/partition with RB installed, it can be done (you just have to be aware of the consequence and remedy)!

 

I have been using it for 2 years and have not had a single problem with it. Thus, very reliable IMO.

 

Using the current version of Rollback Rx on our family desktop and my personal laptop I have found it to be reliable and stable except for one problem that I've reported to HDS - every so often when Windows hibernates on my laptop, I'll get a BSOD! HDS has confirmed this bug and will soon be releasing a new build with a fix for this issue.

 

Yes, that issue is discussed on their forum. Funny thing is that I'm still using v7.21 on my WinXP laptop with no such problem (or for that matter, any other problem)!

PS. BSOD's have been reported in connection with RB and Vista's sleep/hibernate ever since RB v8.

 

Can someone tell me: which is the more stable version of Rollback version 9.0 or version 9.1.

Although i don't use Rollback: simply doesn't suite my style of computing.
Just for reference.

 

v9.1 (7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 had serious issues).

 

To add, the version just before this present version is most stable atm.
Present version has the "sleep" bug.

 

Do you mean v 9.0
Download Rollback v 9.1.zip

 

Definitely not v9.0 - I believe that nanana was referring to the v9.1 build prior to the current one (which was 2695045130).

 

No. I mean the present v9.1 in the download link you provided.

 

I've been looking at something like this for my setup, but if I get a virus. Will the snapshots be virused as well, or are they safe?

Thanks.

 

Hi slider,

If you are asking if it's possible that a snapshot taken before the system was infected can also become infected, the answer is yes, that could happen. But in the great majority of cases, rolling-back to a snapshot taken before the system was infected will result in an infection-free system.

Just keep in mind that RB was not designed to detect/block malware, so (imho) you would be well advised to complement RB with a product designed for that purpose and to run your system using a Limited User Account.

JA

 

Thats a surprise. Could I trouble you for details/examples?

I feel less safe now than I did a few minutes ago (I do have an anti-virus program thouigh - Trend Micro)

I thought Rx was secure.

 

Thanks for the info. Rollback consumes something like 12 MB of memory in the background. Which in my Desktop makes browsing internet a little slower: i have a plug-in modem for this.
Perhaps when i get a laptop some day. I could use it.
Now i am also using FD-ISR and my dedicated archive is their for system restore.
Once a month i would use an image made from DRIVE SNAPSHOT to Restore my System....


CHEERS..

 

I'm really sorry to have 'burst your bubble', but although it's not too likely (as I indicated above), it is definitely possible with certain malware. An example is the TDSS rootkit (and some of its variants) which writes directly to disk, bypassing all device-drivers (including the RB driver)!

That's certainly not reason-enough to abandon RB (which I use and love), but just to understand that the best way to prevent malware infections is incorporating a multi-layered approach (in that regard you should read BlueZannetti's "Securing Your PC..." in Wilders' Announcements section).

Even then, the last-line of defense is recovery of a 'clean' disk-image, so it's extremely important to implement a responsible and timely disk-imaging routine!

JA

 

Jo Ann,

Thanks for your very informative post. Another specific 'nasty' reported to play havoc with RB (as well as with other rollback and virtualization apps) is the W32.SafeSys worm that acts in a similar manner to the TDSS rootkit. I might add that the RB development group is aware of this 'backdoor' vulnerablility and are trying to figure out how to prevent it (if they can).
Whether or not they are successful, your advice to bgoodman4 makes good sense for safe computing.

Aaron

 

Thanks for the info,,,,I do image regularly,,,,,weekly with Rx's imager and monthly with Paragon with Rx uninstalled. I appreciate knowing about vulnerabilities so I am grateful to have learnt of this before it was a problem that I had to deal with.

 

"Forewarned is forearmed"

 

Just wanted to let readers know of a problem I had with Rollback this weekend and the lack of support HDS provided.

I have been using Rollback 9.1 for a few months and have done a number of rollbacks without any issues. Friday I tried to rollback to a previous snapshot. Upon rebooting, I received an error message "Disk Error. Press any key to retry". I couldn't get past the bios check. I immediately filled out a support ticket with HDS.

I then started trying to fix the problem. After 2 days I did. Here's how.

First, I tried to re-image the hard drive with a Symantec Backup Exec image I had. This would not work. Computer would still not boot. Could not fix with Windows 7 repair disk. Tried using Bootrec.exe /fixmbr and Bootrec.exe /fixboot via Windows 7 repair disk. Fixboot would not work.

Second, I tried to format the hard drive with Acronis Disk Director 11 with the notion that after I formatted it, I would reinstall Windows 7 and then re-image it with one of my Backup Exec images. Windows would not install.

Third, I used Gibson's SpinRite disk repair utility. From this I could see that a small portion of the hard drive could not be accessed by the utility. I then realized that this must be the section of the hard drive that Rollback locks to store its' information. Windows would still not install after using SpinRite.

Forth, I scoured the Internet trying different programs that would wipe my hard drive clean and remove Rollback's locked files. A few I tried did not work or I couldn't get them to work such as HHDErase and Sanitary Erase. I finally got ActiveDisk Killdisk to remove Rollback's locked files.

Fifth, I installed Windows 7. It finally worked! You can imagine my joy after trying to install Windows and failing at least 12-15 times.

Sixth, I re-imaged hard drive with one of my Backup Exec images I had. Thank God I create these daily for nightmares like this. Computer was working 100% again.

Seventh, I permanently uninstalled Rollback.

Final thoughts. I will never use another product like this that can't be removed with a format command. Trying to remove Rollback's files was a nightmare and wasted 2 days of my life getting this figured out. It's a good idea and I understand why it's like this, until something happens to Rollback's files like they evidently did when I tried to do a simple rollback.

Also, I marked this as a critical issue on the HDS support ticket as this was for my business. It took 36 hours before anyone got back to me just to ask me simple information so they could proceed. These questions should have been asked within a few hours after receiving my support ticket. I was fortunate to have had this happen on a Friday where I had the weekend to solve my problem.

If this happened to a person who relies 100% on Rollback (with Drive Cloner to backup Rollback's snapshots) and they only had a current DC backup), they would have lost all their data for good. That is why I never rely on one company's backup solution for my business. You can see why from this scenario. Also, for a business, I need to use software that will respond to emergencies like this right away and via phone support. Going back and forth with emails is too slow and very non-productive.

I sent this letter to HDS 12 hours ago and have not received any response to it. I think potential purchasers of Rollback should think long and hard before purchasing it. The product and support IMO is very unsatisfactory.

 

Just a couple of quick questions,,,,did you try to restore a Drive Cloner image? The image you did try to restore,,,,was it a sector by sector image?

I am surprised to hear that you were unable to fully format the drive, thats the first I have heard of this problem. I thank you for the detailed description of what you tried and of what ultimately worked.

 

I couldn't try a Drive Cloner image as I couldn't get past the bios check and I didn't have a Drive Cloner boot disk. In fact this problem came up as I wanted to experiment with rolling back to an old snapshot and then restoring the computer with Drive Cloner so I could get a better idea of how these 2 products worked together. As soon as I rolled back to an old snapshot and RB tried to reboot, is when my weekend in hell started.

The Backup Exec images I restored were not sector images. That's why I purchased Drive Cloner and wanted to experiment with it. I have in the past re-imaged my hard drive using Drive Cloner and it worked fine.

I think what happened this weekend, is that RB corrupted the MBR when trying to restore the snapshot. I'm sure this is a fluke. The only guess I have as to why this happened is that a few days prior I installed Acronis True Image Home 2011 (my old backup program) so I could access some old Acronis images I had. I did not setup the Acronis Security Zone which I know can screw RB up. This is the only change to my computer since I done Rollbacks that were successful.

HDS did reply to me this morning. Here is their take. "Rollback subsystem loader is in computer's Master Boot Record (MBR) which is the very first sector loaded when you boot from a hard disk. You got the error message (disk error) before seeing the Rollback splash screen, which means you either have a bad disk cable connection or a physical hard disk problem. You might want to monitor the new system setup closely for a while to make sure the disk is not failing."

I can't but this as my hard drive and computer is brand new, everything has worked previous to this and is working now fine. I've run diagnostic tests on the hard drive using multiple utilities and it always passes 100%.

 

There has been a fair bit of discussion regarding RB and the MBR. Its been mentioned that trying to restore an image that was made by 3rd party programs while RB was installed would cause a problem with the MBR which is why DC is recommended. Of course you need to create the boot disk or,,,,,,,,well you know what will happen.

I agree with you that installing Acronis could well have cause the problem as both RB & ATI will modify the MBR so when you tried to roll back things went haywire.

So the question now is as follows,,,,,,will you install RB again? I think its pretty likely that you have identified what went wrong (or rather why things went wrong) and it appears it was not RBs fault. How likely is it that you will install ATI again, probably not very, and besides, if you had to you could uninstall RB first. Also, if the situation should arise again you now know how to correct it and will not have to spend 2 days trying to figure out what to do. So,,,,,,?