PC that never gets old :)

EdinburghGary

EdinburghGary

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Gary
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Hi Guys,

Just a quick heads up. had to reformat one of my PC's recently and it took the best part of a week to get settings and the likes back to the way I like. Pain in the $rs3 and too much down time for my liking. I have to do this maybe once or twice a year (per PC * 3), and every time I normally always forget to back some important file up...

Anyway, since the last install I decided enough was enough, sick of windows dieing a slow death, and the following is a mini review of a product called Deep Freeze, free for 30 days and peanuts to buy (Very Mini Review!)...


To keep this as simple as possible, deep freeze does the following:

Freezes your C drive once it is at a point where you are happy (all programs installed, all settings the way you like etc).

Allows you to specifiy THAWSPACE on your C drive, which is an area where files can be saved / changed etc.

Allows you to have any number of external hard drives (no need to freeze as no system files etc)...

The long and short of it is this, 6 weeks after my reformat, Vista is still only a week old in terms of registry, program files, and ultimately, speed. I can install whatever I want, change whatever I want, spyware, viruses, the whole lot - as soon as I restart, bang, the C drive reverts to its Frozen state.

This has no effect on boot time, and has no running overheads.

You can choose to thaw the drive with a password you choose which allows windows updates and anti virus updates etc.

I typically output all my photo edits and web designs to my D drive (external), and restart the PC once a day.

I have now installed it on the 3 PC's I use, and my new rig when it arrives will be frozen as soon as I have it in the state I like :):):)

Anyway, hope this doesnt sound like a sales pitch, I havent a clue about the company. I just know it has saved me god knows how long by ensuring my PC's never ever deteriorate to the point of a forced reformat again!!!

Love it :)

Gary.
 
Excellent idea!
Might have to give it a go.
And, on the topic, i once lost EVERYTHING. My hard drive failed on me whilst i was re formatting. All my photos, photoshop, games, everything. I nearly cried, since that tiny little lesson, i use a raided external hardrive, and copy everyhting over to there (well, what is of importance to me)

Thanks Gary
 
kmlc said:
Excellent idea!
Might have to give it a go.
And, on the topic, i once lost EVERYTHING. My hard drive failed on me whilst i was re formatting. All my photos, photoshop, games, everything. I nearly cried, since that tiny little lesson, i use a raided external hardrive, and copy everyhting over to there (well, what is of importance to me)

Thanks Gary
Click to expand...

I knows its really sad, but I can't rave about this setup enough. I have traditionally been the "pc guy" in the family. ignoring my own 3 or 4 reinstalls per year, you can bet your bottom dollar I will do another 15 or so via friends and family. it is now my policy to install this software on every single one of their machines when it comes to reformat time. It's bloody magic.

Gary.
 
I don't know much about this, but what if the drive fails? surely a drive image would be better - something like acronis true image. Can see the benefits of both but a drive image would get you up and running again in no time if things go pear shaped as well as providing a simple and quick reinstall solution.

I await to be corrected as i'm illiterate in this field



*just read your second post above :)
 
Also, here are the steps to "installing updates / adding a program".

1. Double click your FROZEN icon

2. Enter Password

3. Tell the system you want to restart THAWED and for how many restarts (3 for example)

4. Restart your PC and your C drive is now THAWED

5. Install your program (photoshop for example), do whatever windows updates, virus updates etc

6. Configure your program to use your preferred settings

7. Restart PC

8. Hard drive is now frozen with latest settings

WICKED :) Idiot Proof unbreakable PC!

Gary.
 
walls said:
I don't know much about this, but what if the drive fails? surely a drive image would be better - something like acronis true image. Can see the benefits of both but a drive image would get you up and running again in no time if things go pear shaped as well as providing a simple and quick reinstall solution.

I await to be corrected as i'm illiterate in this field
Click to expand...



You should definately use both in my opinion, look at it from this point of view.

Drive Image alone:
Install Windows
Get machine the way you like
Image your drive
Use Windows
Windows starts to get slow
Programs start to break
Registry gets cluttured
PC starts to really really really p155 you off
You do a backup and reimage your drive


Drive Image & Deep Freeze
Install Windows
Get machine the way you like
Image your drive
Freeze your drive
enjoy a reliable and fast PC which CANNOT deteriorate


Gary.
 
kmlc said:
Excellent idea!
Might have to give it a go.
And, on the topic, i once lost EVERYTHING. My hard drive failed on me whilst i was re formatting. All my photos, photoshop, games, everything. I nearly cried, since that tiny little lesson, i use a raided external hardrive, and copy everyhting over to there (well, what is of importance to me)

Thanks Gary
Click to expand...

What caused you to reformat?
 
I had a serious virus problem, that ate away at my machine, and after countless attrempts, i just decided to start afresh.
Then, boom. lol

Now i am with my super guru of a IT Geek boy, he does it all for me, and i am learning off him. lol
 
kmlc said:
I had a serious virus problem, that ate away at my machine, and after countless attrempts, i just decided to start afresh.
Then, boom. lol

Now i am with my super guru of a IT Geek boy, he does it all for me, and i am learning off him. lol
Click to expand...


Well if you had Deep Freeze, and without Virus Software, you would have simply restarted and everything would be back the way it was. Obviously if you THAW the drive and then get a virus, your screwed :o) Virus Software installed and up to date is a must!!

Gary.
 
hehe, seruiously, you should think *** working for them, you'd make an excellent sales guy ;) lol

Yeah, lets just say lesson learnt on that one.
 
kmlc said:
hehe, seruiously, you should think *** working for them, you'd make an excellent sales guy ;) lol

Yeah, lets just say lesson learnt on that one.
Click to expand...


Hard not to be impressed thats all, I have never been so happy with a product. Stone cold guarentee I am not even remotely affiliated with them. Financial Services here, run my own company.

Gary.
 
similar to what i used to do (to lazy now) used to make a mirror image of drive as soon as all proggies installed usually small hd about 40 gig. windows, office, adobe suite, plug ins etc and just store in a cupboard only ever came out for emergency once. Used Norton Ghost for a while similar idea.

Edinburghgary... 3-4 installs a year .... gulp, what are your doing to them. good hard drive management you shouldnt need to, i do odd one usually after a year just so i can find all the disks i misplace lol got very old computer still not had reformat its about 4-5 years old.
 
oldfart said:
similar to what i used to do (to lazy now) used to make a mirror image of drive as soon as all proggies installed usually small hd about 40 gig. windows, office, adobe suite, plug ins etc and just store in a cupboard only ever came out for emergency once. Used Norton Ghost for a while similar idea.
Click to expand...

I have used imaging programs for a long time, but the problem is, the PC still gets old and unusable, slow to a point of pointless switching it back on. Imaging is like a Good > bad > really bad > good > bad > really bad cycle. Imaging and Deepfreeze is more like Good > erm..... Good > and so on :)

30 day trial with no obligation on their site, defo worth a spin.

G.
 
oldfart said:
Edinburghgary... 3-4 installs a year .... gulp, what are your doing to them. good hard drive management you shouldnt need to, i do odd one usually after a year just so i can find all the disks i misplace lol got very old computer still not had reformat its about 4-5 years old.
Click to expand...

Was thinking the same thing! My last PC survived on its first install for 5 years. My current PC is just over 18 months old and is still on original install! Though I do have a dual boot Vista on a second drive now, so does this count as a reformat! :lol:

I do maintain them regularly though which probably helped.

@ EdinbughGary, nice heads up though. I will be checking this out myself later. :clap:
 
oldfart said:
Edinburghgary... 3-4 installs a year .... gulp, what are your doing to them. good hard drive management you shouldnt need to, i do odd one usually after a year just so i can find all the disks i misplace lol got very old computer still not had reformat its about 4-5 years old.
Click to expand...

Extensively used, and its 1 per year per PC but I have 4 PC's one which never gets used any more...

Oh, and happy to admit p1ss poor HDD management :) This new system, forces me to be organised!

Gary.
 
AndyBorzi said:
Was thinking the same thing! My last PC survived on its first install for 5 years.
Click to expand...


WOW :bonk: You must have a very strict regime, and I am guessing installed programs divided by number of months of use = next to nothing? My old XP setup at home which is probably due a format soon, I would estimate 30 programs / 14 months.

Well done none the less, sounds like very good organisation at the very least...

Gary.
 
mark once up and running you should have the following in your start menu:

Faronics / Deep Freeze Administrator

In your system tray you will be able to access the "hard drive state" by using shift & double click. At that point you will be prompted for a password. In the password prompt box, take a note of the OTP TOKEN. You use this to generate a one time password via the Deep Freeze Administrator in your start menu.

Took me ages to work that out and I thought I had permanently frozen my drive.

Never uninstall the administrator as its tied to your install of the freeze program.

Gary.
 
Ok thanks for that Gary, just reading at the moment, i will need to format / re install first, as is pretty much running like a dog.

As you say can take ages to get it back up and running as you want it, when I get round to doing it I think I will certainly give this a go :thumbs:
 
Mark said:
Ok thanks for that Gary, just reading at the moment, i will need to format / re install first, as is pretty much running like a dog.

As you say can take ages to get it back up and running as you want it, when I get round to doing it I think I will certainly give this a go :thumbs:
Click to expand...


Let me know how you get on!! I would be interested to hear if you manage to get Windows Updates and Virus Updates to work without the need to restart with in a THAWED state.

Also remember to change your mail storage to your external drive, if you download and delete from server to your C drive, and then restart, your mail, lost forever! :|

Gary.
 
Gary

Go here http://www.faronics.com/doc/DFS6Ent_Manual.pdf go to page 16 and shows you how to setup a schedule of when the drive is thawed, and then you can schedule your updates for the same time.

May or may not work but you could test it

HTH
 
Mark said:
Gary

Go here http://www.faronics.com/html/library.asp and open up the Enterprise user guide and on page 16 you can setup a schedule of when the drive is thawed, and then you can schedule your updates for the same time.

May or may not work but you could test it

HTH
Click to expand...


Cheers!!!

/Doesn't do manuals faction.

/Really should though :)
 
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