Uninstalling

I cannot completely uninstall FD in anticipation of trying AX64. Even when I pick the "complete" uninstall it leaves a 16gig folder in my c:drive. Normally this would be no big deal but now I have a SSD and would really like to have that 16gig back.

Uninstall does appear to remove all registry keys but leaves that folder. When I try to delete it manually I get an error stating I need TrustUnInstaller or something like that. What is that all about? I needed to do a mirror image restore from ShadowProtect to recover from this mess.

Thanks all,
Acadia

 

Hi Acadia, I was in exact same situation 2 weeks ago. I tried many ways to no avails. But here is what did the trick for me (Win 7x64).

To my surprise, I follow those instruction to the tee and... it worked

From http://superuser.com/questions/321468/unable-to-delete-folder-in-windows-7

I am now aboard of AX64... after all those many years !

 

You might try looking in one of these older threads to see if any of those suggestions help you?

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=270473

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=256793

 

Acadia. Easter here.

That same exact issue confronted me more then once on XP when i wanted to reinstall FD-ISR fresh.

NTFS file system apparently is not immune to it. So after several many unsuccessful tries with different apps i resorted to using a Linux distro to parallel my way into the "welded" folder and files that won't delete and pulled the $ISR folder and all in that manner.

On x64 systems i have good results with PC Hunter, an app similar like IceSword was for XP to Yank out stubborn disc embedded files or folders.

Hope it helps.

EASTER

 

Thanks for all replies. Some of them were quite involved and thanks for all that energy!! Peter called me and suggested, simply delete your bootable secondary snapshot used for recovery and take it from there. Bingo, I deleted my only other bootable snapshot and it worked: Uninstalling!! Too simple, right, that's what I thought, but it has worked, thus far.

Now to install AX64 but that has to wait unitl tomorrow, too burnt out at this point. NONE OF THIS HAS NOT BEEN AX64'S FAULT, other than the fact that I went thru all of this in order to be able to install AX64 in the first place.

Acadia

 

Glad you finally got it ironed out. Pete is a great resource for anything FD-ISR related. As much as we must bid our beloved FD-ISR a gracious final farewell, the irony is how amazingly long FD-ISR user's never parted from it after all this time. But Finally a truely worthy dependable replacement is come along, and that's no simple feat by any stretch.

 

You did WHAT?!?!?!?

Only kidding, I still have 10 FirstDefense Archives on my various drives "just in case".

Yeah, I miss that old, reliable yellow and green yin/yang symbol in my System Tray.

Acadia

 

I see the AX64 thread growing (haven't read in depth yet) and I see my XP machines succumbing slowly to time, wear and tear, kids moving out, wife liking w7, and the cracked casing on my XP laptop.

Time approaches to wade in sometime soon......

 

We FDISR lovers understand. How I miss my croaking froggie.

Acadia

 

You want to know pathetic?

I have on the order of about 7 IDE hard drives pulled from all my XP boxes stacked on a shelf, nearly each one with FD-ISR along with snapshots galore saved on them, with some HD's full of archives. As if that's not enough, i even have a few DVD archive discs.

Talk about can't let go. No way that i can with good conscience part with any of them

I refuse to be part of FD-ISR extinction.

 

I am using FD-ISR for years with no issue, running two XP snapshots and two Win7 ones.
Is AX64 "a truly worthy dependable replacement" for FD-ISR?
I read about AX64 on the internet site and it seems to be "another" backup programe.
As far as I understood from your comments in this thread, snapshots (similar to FD snapshots system) may be mounted using AX64 on which different programs (Win7, Win8 or XP) may be installed. Is it correct?
Where is it possible to read about the full capability of this programe.

As I mentioned above FD-ISR assisted by Shadowprotect never failed me.
Has AX64 the capability of FD and SP together?

Thanks

 

It depends on how you use FD-ISR.
If used only as a snapshot program to testing apps or for quick restores; yes it is a valid alternative
If used for multibooting different OSes or different configurations of the same OS; cannot replace FD-ISR.

ps. If a program performs correctly the function/s for which was created, no matter if it gets updated or not, is supported or not, is far from dead (at least for me).

Panagiotis

 

FWIW, as I transition into W7 machines, be assured I will be referring to your guidance on using FD-ISR with W7. I haven't ruled out going some years yet with FD-ISR before finding myself blocked from its benefits.

 

Hmmmm, maybe time for me to re-read your posts, pandlouk, about the ability of using FD and FX together. (I believe I have the disk space for all of that, if not, maybe time to purchase yet another hard drive?).

But in all fairness to Isso, this program is so new. Even FirstDefense added features later on, for example, the Archiving feature. I am just so thrilled about having a POSSIBLE or PROBABLE replacement to FD after years of no support, although I would gladly have it back if supported again. As I stated somewhere, I am keeping all of my FD Archives "just in case", but even so, FD could not expect to get close to equaling the speed of this new program but using a pc demands patience: DECISIONS, DECISIONS?!??!?!?!?!

Acadia

 

Still true to me...I am running 2 snapshots, down from 7. ... and I have been through two motherboard failures. Still going strong, since 2006.

 

Pandlouk

Many thanks for your prompt and concise comment. Very clear and helpful.

I think that Acadia's suggestion, i.e. using FD and AX together , need some consideration in the future when AX will become more "stable".
Pandlouk, you have given a "second life" to FD (long and very stable one),
we are now waiting to your "sticky thread" showing how to maximize usage of these two wonderful programes together.

thanks

 

See Pandlouk's post number 2406 here:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=2238736&highlight=FD-ISR#post2238736

Acadia

 

Except from the "hack" to install the vista bootsector (to trick FD-ISR to install), everything else is the same.

AX64 is great but is impossible to achieve the flexibility of FD-ISR.
On the other hand FD-ISR cannot achieve AX64s speed.

Same here. Probably the only software that survived on all my systems and the various upgrades over the years.

Panagiotis

 

You are welcome.

I'll create a guide on how to make them live happily together, but the problem is that they can coexist only if FD-ISR's snapshots are "related" (e.g. AX64 must be installed and configured on one snapshot and then from there should be created all the other FD-ISR snapshots); the next days/weeks I'll test more complicated configurations and if everything works fine we can have the ultimate snapshot system.

I have to correct myself on that post (probably I was tired when wrote it). The AXTrack{*}.dat file must be anchored and not excluded in FD-ISR.

Panagiotis

 

A quick guide (no images) on how to make AX64 and FD-ISR to coexist.

1. Install FD-ISR and AX64.
2. Take a first snapshot with AX64.
3. Open regedit and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AXTrack\Settings
4. Export that key to a reg file.
5. Uninstall FD-ISR ('remove program only" option).
6. Go to "C:\$ISR\0\" and open the file "$ANCHOR" with Notepad or another text editor.
7. Insert the following line in "$ANCHOR" (with the notepad):
System Volume Information\AXTrack*****.dat
(replace ***** with the DriverGUID from the reg key that you exported earlier; open the reg key with notepad to view it).
e.g. on my test machine is
System Volume Information\AXTrack{718D91D8-E850-4920-9F21-7670A123D5A4}.dat
-important- pay attention to press enter after entering the string in "$ANCHOR" so that the blinking cursor change line otherwise FD-ISR will try to exclude a file
System Volume Information\AXTrack*****.da
instead of
System Volume Information\AXTrack*****.dat
8. Reinstall FD-ISR
9. Boot to another snapshot (or import another snapshot or create a new one and then boot to it).
10. Run the reg file you created in step 4.
11. Install AX64 and reboot.
12. Enjoy the ability to take incremental snapshots (on the same tree) or fast restoring with AX64 from whatever FD-ISR snapshot you are in.

Panagiotis

 

Very thanks for this post, Panagiotis
I will this next weeks.
Do you use this setup on a day-to-day machine?

I did not give FD up just yet !
If they'd ask me, this one post deserves a stickie around here.

 

Heh, yup, I am back to using FD again but only because AXTM is going thru such a major transition and in 12 years of using FD it only let me down twice (and one of those times the creator, Todd, called me up personally to help.

I trust AXTM enough to have installed it on my wife's machine, I just was not willing to hack her boot sector to install FD. But for me FD-ISR is still THE program and Todd is still God.

Acadia