Windows' 10 Core Isolation and Rollback Rx compatibility

From memory, I believe it does...

 

driver6177,

Have you been able to restore a Drive Cloner image and preserve your Rollback snapshots? Several of us were involved in the Drive Cloner Rx 6 beta testing with disappointing results.

 

@Brian K - the product worked so well they DISCONTINUED SUPPORT on 04Sep2019. They said they were just too busy to deal with the issues presented by that product. After our BETA experience, I'm surprised it even lasted that long...

 

I haven't used Drive Cloner 6 to do that. I only installed it a few days ago. Before then (when I was using Rollback which I no longer use) I used an earlier version of Drive Cloner. I forget what version it was. It didn't restore Rollback snapshots. Drive Cloner 6 is supposed to.

 

BTW, I was thinking, is Rollback RX Home still the best solution if you want to quickly rollback your system? For example, Chromium based browsers like Vivaldi can not be rollbacked, so once you install a new version, you're stuck with it.

Sometimes new versions cause problems, so I wished I could quickly rollback. So why is Rollback RX so dangerous? Do problems only come up during certain usage scenarios? I mean I'm not looking for a disaster recovery method, but I do know that Rollback RX is supposed to help even when your PC can't boot.

https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/RollBack-Rx-Home.shtml

 

The basic problem with RBrx over the years is it works its "magic" under the Windows radar... as a result, Windows does not know about any of RBrx's methods in preserving its snapshots and disk status. Since it leaves everything on the surface of your disk (hidden from Windows, BTW), anytime Windows needs to change things it thinks it owns the System (which it does not with RBrx installed). So many of its possible changes may completely wreck RBrx's database of knowledge about the surface of your System (protected System volume size changes, etc). Sure, it's fast... but leaves your System very vulnerable. The same thing can happen if you're using something else on your System (Linux, WinPE, etc.)... since they know nothing of RBrx, they can wreck your System as well, especially if sharing those RBrx protected disks.

As far as speed is concerned, it you're running an SSD-based System... any disk imaging System using some sort of DELTA RESTORE method (Macrium REFLECT, Terabyte Unlimited's Drive Image Backup and Restore Suite (old IFW) or Hasleo's Backup Suite <free, BTW>) is very quick at restoring System states, just a tiny bit slower than RBrx and they provide complete disk disaster backup (which you really do need) which RBrx DOES NOT.

Sure, RBrx can help if your System can't BOOT... as long as it's the protected volume that has been glitched and your RBrx snapshots are good to go. Personally, with a System based on NvMEs & SSDs, I find the restoration time difference so small that the risk of using RBrx really isn't worth it anymore, IMHO.

There is a link HERE on the Wilders Security Forum which contains a document explaining most of the risks and where they lie when it comes to using RBrx... maybe useful to you.

 

I have to agree with that completely. In my opinion, anyone with a modern system, with a fast processor and SSDs, simply does not need RBrx ... and that is before you consider how risky it is anyways.
Acadia

 

OK thanks, I now understand it better. So this is tricky stuff indeed.

OK I see, I really need to take a look at these disk imaging systems that can quickly rollback the system. As said before, it always takes me 30 minutes to reconfigure Vivaldi after I reinstall it, so annoying. And some system updates can break Windows partially, and you can't always uninstall these updates.

Well, you're not going to believe this but the day after I posted in this thread, I decided to install ExplorerPatcher (bad idea) and it actually broke Windows Explorer, it wouldn't load at all. So I needed to reset the PC (was already planning to do so before this disaster) but since I couldn't actually access my files, a solution like Rollback RX would have been nice. Luckily, Windows PC Reset allows you to keep files in the Downloads and Documents folders, but I still lost my browser bookmarks file, bit of a bummer, but I had an older back up on external drive and SSD.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/13wxr6v/dont_install_explorerpatcher/

 

BTW, I came across O&O DiskImage, which can apparantly also restore your system if Windows fails to boot? But I assume it doesn't work the same as Rollback RX? Perhaps these are dumb questions, but I'm not exactly a pro when it comes to this stuff. The way I make back ups, is to manually copy my most important files to an external SSD and sometimes to Google Drive. But I do it only once a month, so if disaster strikes, I will always lose some of my data.

https://www.oo-software.com/en/diskimage-backup-your-data

 

I can't think of any mainstream imaging software that can't restore your system if Windows fails to boot. All of them provide a rescue environment that can use taken images and restore them to your System disk, allowing it to BOOT the same as the image you're restoring (unless the disk is toast).

What many users will do is keep their important DATA files elsewhere rather than on the System disk/image. That way imaging can protect their System against non-BOOTing affairs. Then a second app using file replication can handle the DATA files any way you wish... even up to a real-time file change scenario. That's actually the best of both worlds.

 

Thanks for the feedback, and it seems that I misunderstood how imaging software worked. I assumed that it could not recover the system if Windows wouldn't boot. With that I mean, I assumed you first needed to reinstall/reset Windows and then restore the image from external or internal disk. So that's why I assumed you needed Rollback RX, because it can boot before Windows does. But imaging software also have a rescue environment, sort of like when you boot the system into safe mode right? But it probably makes more sense to start this rescue environment from USB disk. Or perhaps I'm getting confused again.

 

An image software saves your *** when you e.g. booted from a "windows install CD" to use it to resize and delete some partition on one of three drives and choose to delete your windows partition hdd by accident Try to recover from that with Rollback RX.
Macrium and USB recovery medium and backups on an external drive> no problem.

 

Just to clarify, AOMEI Backupper Standard will also be able to restore your systen, even if Windows doesn't boot? Of course, assuming that the SSD still works OK.

https://www.aomeitech.com/ab/standard.html

 

It will work fine as long as you make their version of a Rescue Disk. STANDARD does not support DIFFERENTIAL images (only FULL and INCREMENTAL) or a Windows BOOT Menu entry (see Version comparison HERE).

Another good FREE option for imaging may be found HERE for the Hasleo Backup Suite.

 

OK thanks, will check it out.

I have also decided not to go for Rollback RX, eventhough I remember that many years ago it worked just fine during testing. BTW, I believe NeuShield Data Sentinel works a bit the same as Rollback RX, I tried it last year, but it used way too much diskspace. I believe in a few months, about 40GB was gone, quite weird. Of course, NeuShield is focused on protecting against ransomware, but it's also a rollback solution, so that's why I mentioned it.

https://www.neushield.com/products/

 

Not even close It's like a "hybrid" System Restore function... with some serious flaws as far as exactly what it returns when you use it's "snapshot" capability, and yes, a ton of extra storage.

It's a bit better than System Restore... but that's about it.

 

OK I see. I know it can't protect the system if Windows fail to reboot, but it captures all changes from at least certain folders (sort of like virtualization) and if the user wants to, those changes can be made permanently. Actually, I found this website where everything is explained. And I understand that it's not the same as Rollback RX. But I was talking about the file mirroring stuff.

https://virtualadministrator.com/service/neushield/