System Deep Freeze

[Karamas]

I know that it is possible to deep freeze a computers so when ever it is restarted everthing specifid using the software is revertered to what it was before it was turned off.

Is it possible to deep freeze the hard drive that contains just your os and other important files like office, norton and have another hard drive for games and downloaded files which is not frozen???

Also is it possible to let programs like windows update nortons update and spybots update to be able to keep the files that they have updated or would you have to unfreeze the entire system and then refreeze it in its new state???

Last question some program that run tend to take up alot of cpu ussage such as norton when its running. Would a deep freeze program slow down a computer or would it keep it running at its full speed(Im not to sure how the program works i just now it does alot of stuff opun turning off the computer)????

 

[Thermopylae_480]

It sounds like your talking about hibernation ? If it "Deep Freezes" when the system is off and restores software settings when it is turned back on, sounds like a normal system boot? If this program does something special when you turn off the computer it sounds like its doing most of its work right at the point during shutdown. Does it do anything while the computer is on? Or does this program just "freeze" the state of programs, not allowing you to change any settings or write to them? If that was the case you would not be fun to put Windows into this state. Its required that you write to the registry everytime you install a program, and there are system logs too. Plus you would never be able to change any Windows settings. There are programs that prevent you from doing all these things, but they are mostly used as a security, and management tool for computers with lots of users. A library may put these programs on their computers to prevent users form saving or installing any files onto the computer.

 

[Karamas]

Its not hibernation, it puts it into a state where nothing can be changed within the registry or anything written on the drive at all and if it is hen the computer is restared everthing that was chaged is restored to what it orginaly was, but i dont know if this is possible...this is something often used on school computers.

This also prevent virusis and spyware, yesterday i somehow had a virus/spyware get through both norton and sbybot...i have never had this happen before

 

[Thermopylae_480]

Well, it is feasable. I've seen programs that do this, I'll try to remeber what one is called if you want, but it seems like a hassle to me. You would have to save everything to another hard drive, and you wouldn't even be able to change your screen resolution, install, or unistall programs, or updates . If that is the measure of security you need though, I guess it would work.

 

[Karamas]

Wow that sucks but i have stuff on my computer right now that makes it take 2x as long to start up My mom was cleaning the keyboard and acciedtly clicked on a add and spybot and norton together cant even remove it

How is spyware and ad ware legal, especaily if i didnt give them permission to install it???

 

[ShadowFlare]

I do know the name of a program that would do what you are saying that you want. The name is "Deep Freeze" - which is what words you used to describe it above. I've never actually looked to see where to get it and how much it costs, though.

-EDIT-

I did a search on Google for it and it was the first site shown. The url: http://www.faronics.com/

I looked it up and it is about $30 There is also another program there called "Anti-Executable" that seems that it may also be able to accomplish the task of protecting your computer, but in a different way - it prevents executable files from running that were not already on the computer at the time Anti-Executable was last configured. It is also about $30. It looks like for either of those they have trial versions so you can try them out before buying

LOL @ someone's testimonial that was posted there:

I am the Puppet Master!!! From my desk I can make them all turn off... I can make them turn on... I can make them Freeze... I can make them Thaw... THEY ALL DO MY BIDDING AT THE CLICK OF MY MOUSE!!!

(insert meglomaniacal laughter here, heavy on the reverb)

OK... I'm starting to get DF REALLY deployed in my facilities now. WOW! This is heaven! I will soon very nearly realize every IT Support Professional's goal of never having to leave the office!
- Romeyn Prescott, SUNY Potsdam, New York

 

[Karamas]

Cool ill check it out

 

[rumle001]

Deep Freeze - Anti Exe

Deep Freeze is the only solution for Win 98 Machines. With XP, SP2 provides limited user accounts (even the home edition - try it - add a new user and you'll find options.)

Anti-exe programs are very dangerous. They use the registry as a database. If the program isn't working properly, neither will you. So far, all anti-executible programs use the registry to log all your dll, etc, in a separate location in the "hive". Warnings are posted in the manual. No going back when the program starts to install, and dangerous in a power failure when installing.

If your serious, you'll shrink your C partition to about 10-15 gig. Add a new partition and drag and drop ('right-click' drag - choose 'move here') your local settings, favorites, applications, and my documents to the new partition. You'll find these folders in C:\documents and settings\(under your user name).

PS, Faronics doesn't do refunds - you'll have to research this - they deliberately hide this clause. This is my factual review and opinion. Check out Kerio firewall with advance settings. Anti-exe will be resource hog having to scan everything all the time. Kerio kind of does the same thing and is easier to use.

 

[Amdguy]

just load knoppix on it or something,

 

[Poisonsnak]

Well it sounds like you have multiple hard drives already so what I would do is use Norton Ghost to make an image of the hard drive you want to "freeze" and if anything goes wrong just throw your image back on. Keep in mind though you will have to update your image any time you use windowsupdate or install a game or something.

 

[trog100]

i use kerio firewall.. it wont let anythng run if its been altered since the last time it was run..

another thing i do is to partition my HD to a small 20 gig one with just the operating system and some needed progs.. a basic operating system plus all the extra bits u need for example.. nothing huge and keep it to about six gig max.. the other 14 gig is just for desktop working space and i empty it on regular basis

big software like games and stuff plus data goes on another drive or partition..

the whole point of this is "small" cos the important bit is small it aint a problem to back it up on a regular basis.. i use win pe or bart pe for this.. i just copy the entire contents of C:to a folder somewhere else..

another neat freeware tool is erunt.. eru has been about for years and was a microsoft thing and has been invaluable to me useing 98 for long time.. the latest erunt is third party freeware.. it can be set to make a copy of your registry and other baic system files every time u boot up.. it keeps the last 30 days worth of copies.. a very neat tool.. and usefull..

but without some basic common sense no computer is safe.. i have a friend who buggers his up at least twice a week.. he is after some super backup software that stops this happening..

sadly the only answer is for him to stop installing every piece of junk he can find in the hope it might make his computer "better" and to learn to stop pressing buttons just to see what they do.. he he he

trog

 

[tony929292]

system restore

 

[trog100]

not much good if u cant get into windows to run it thow..

trog

 

[zmer]

I wanna know if there is any possibility to unfreeze the deep freeze 6 after forgetting the password. And of course without reinstalling the system.

 

[zekrahminator]

Is it possible to deep freeze the hard drive that contains just your os and other important files like office, norton and have another hard drive for games and downloaded files which is not frozen???

Norton is nowhere near the top of a list I'd call "important software" .

 

[stevorob]

We use deep freeze where I work.

Basically, we make 2 partitions to the HDD. One has the OS, anti virus, any programs that need to be on that image and we have a partition dedicated for file storage. We then create an image using norton ghost. We upload it to our deepfreeze/ghost server Then we use ghost to push out the images via the network to all the machines we want to put that image on. Ghost writes that image to the HDD, doing all the partitions/files/etc etc. When all that is done, we then install a "seed" through our deep freeze console(server), which basically installs deep freeze on the OS partition.

Don't know if it's possible to run games/other programs off of the other partition, but it doesn't erase everytime you restart like the OS partition does.

Hopefully this might help you some.