System Restore Keeping Only One Restore Point

[Marianne]

On Sun, 25 May 2008 10:52:07 -0300, Vincent wrote:

<snipped to reduce excessive quoting>

Your point of view and opinions are well presented. We know that you
think that securing private personal data is unimportant.

You have made it known that you think that users should have no concerns
whatsoever as to what data flows from their computers or networks, users
should not concern themselves as to where their data flows to. Any and
all data can leaves your computer or network for unknown destinations
and that is perfectly normal, it is a good thing. No one should worry
about these things and the best way to not worry about the security of
your private personal data is to be completely oblivious as to what
might be flowing out, out of sight out of mind.

 

[Kayman]

Your point of view and opinions are well presented. We know that you
think that securing private personal data is unimportant.

You have made it known that you think that users should have no concerns
whatsoever as to what data flows from their computers or networks, users
should not concern themselves as to where their data flows to. Any and
all data can leaves your computer or network for unknown destinations
and that is perfectly normal, it is a good thing. No one should worry
about these things and the best way to not worry about the security of
your private personal data is to be completely oblivious as to what
might be flowing out, out of sight out of mind.

Hello Vincent *and* (LOL) Marianne,

Evidently you're either a very immature person or you've got a serious bout
of split-personality. When you keep the Dissociative Identity Disorder
untreated it can worsen to multiple-personality. Now, that really would
confuse the hell out of us newsgroup participants.
You need help! Go to:
http://www.drphil.com/contact_main/
Good luck and speedy recovery.

 

[Unknown]

What is your impression of what a firewall does?? I think you are
mis-informed.

 

[Vincent]

Hello Vincent *and* (LOL) Marianne,

Evidently you're either a very immature person or you've got a
serious bout of split-personality.

???

Are you really that stupid? How many computer/internet users do you
think there are in Italy? Astonishing coincidence that two persons in
Italy use computers and even more astonishing that both of them should
agree that you are spreading misguided advice! I expect to see you here
soon telling us the virtues of One Care AV products and telling users
how all other AV products are not good. The depth of your ignorance
increasingly shows with each post that you make. I agree with the
previous poster, you have little knowledge of computer security and your
understanding of securing private data is laughable to say the least.

Vincent

 

[Danno]

In the past few days, ever since ZoneAlarm was turned off, System Restore
seems to be working properly, except for one issue.

There are now 11 restore points instead of only one. Ten of those 11 SR
points are a normal size of approx. 65 Mb. But once again, there is one
restore point that is abnormally large at 462 Mb. And that one occurred
with ZoneAlarm turned OFF, as did the other ten. And once again, that huge
file is filled with 100 .RDB files that are all the same size of 2.87 Mb
each. So far, we've suspected ZoneAlarm as being the culprit. But I don't
think we can say that now, considering that ZA was shut off when this big
restore point was created. If this keeps up (creation of huge SR points),
I'm gonna be back at stage one. I'd be concerned about that.

Any thoughts?

Danno

Good morning!

This morning there were no new SR points, although I shouldn't necessarily
expect one. So I've created a new SR point and have turned off SR, and
re-started it. So now there is only the one new SR point. ZoneAlarm is
still turned off and will remain turned off for at least two weeks. I
have AVG on my computer but have kept it inactive while ZoneAlarm was
active. I can't see any harm in using AVG for the next two weeks (and
probably beyond).

For you fine folks who have so kindly contributed your thoughts in this
thread, it might be several days before I have the evidence I need that
things are back to normal. Or maybe they won't be back to normal and I
might have to resort to further measures like re-installing System Restore
as detailed by Daave.

But out of respect for your help, I'll keep posting here (for those who
are still interested), as time goes by. We're still in the investigatory
stage here. If Zone Alarm is truly the culprit, I'd like to be able to
provide the evidence so others won't have to deal with this.

Thanks very much for your determination and interest. I'm very impressed
with you guys.

Dan

 

[Unknown]

Update to SP3 recently? SP3 creates restore point.

 

[Daave]

In the past few days, ever since ZoneAlarm was turned off, System
Restore seems to be working properly, except for one issue.

There are now 11 restore points instead of only one. Ten of those 11
SR points are a normal size of approx. 65 Mb. But once again, there
is one restore point that is abnormally large at 462 Mb. And that one
occurred with ZoneAlarm turned OFF, as did the other ten. And once
again, that huge file is filled with 100 .RDB files that are all the
same size of 2.87 Mb each.

What is the date of that point? What activity occurred at that time? Was
it after any updates were installed (Windows or Microsoft)?

 

[Danno]

Great question Daave! Have you ever considered a career as a detective? It
was the last restore point (created last night), and it's the only one of
the 11 that was an automatically created point. The other ten were either
created my me manually (for test purposes), or created when I was updating
drivers, etc.

 

[Daave]

That might be it, then. Tuesday's the day for updates. Did you
update Windows or Office yesterday (manually or automatically)?

 

[Danno]

No, I didn't.

That might be it, then. Tuesday's the day for updates. Did you update
Windows or Office yesterday (manually or automatically)?

 

[Daave]

In the past few days, ever since ZoneAlarm was turned off, System
Restore seems to be working properly, except for one issue.

"Turning off" ZA may not be enough (there's a chance that part of it is
still running without your knowledge). I would uninstall it to detemine
once and for all if it's responsible.

I'm not sure you need ZA anyway.

 

[Gerry]

Danno

Do you have any other rdb files elsewhere other in the System Volume
Information folder or a Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm is not the only programme
that generates rdb files.

Do you have Apache on your system?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry]

Daave

That thought had crossed my mind. Autoruns might reveal part of Zone
Alarm still running.


--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Danno]

I've searched the entire machine and the only place where .RDB files occur
is in "system volume information". There are currently a total of 183 of
them. 150 are in one single SR point, and the balance are in the other 10
SR points. Strangely, two of the SR points have zero .RDB files.
Apparently there are no .RDB files in ZoneAlarm.

I do not have Apache on my system.

 

[Danno]

Yeah, that wouldn't hurt to completely uninstall it and see if any more .RDB
files ever appear again. Besides, I find ZA to be a big bloated pain in the
ass. I'll do that and let ya know the result.

 

[Bill in Co.]

I've searched the entire machine and the only place where .RDB files occur
is in "system volume information".

I would expect that to be the case (since they are for the System Restore
function)

There are currently a total of 183 of
them. 150 are in one single SR point, and the balance are in the other 10
SR points. Strangely, two of the SR points have zero .RDB files.
Apparently there are no .RDB files in ZoneAlarm.

But that does NOT mean that ZoneAlarm wasn't involved in all of this.

 

[Danno]

Gerry, I think parts of Zone Alarm are still running, because there is an
annoying process running in the background continually called
"ScanningProcess.exe". For the most part it is pretty quiet, but every
minute or more it pops in to action and takes up a minimal amount of CPU
resources, but none the less it's active... it's not really sleeping.
What's even more annoying is that there is another process called vsmon.exe
that also pops in and out of action on a regular basis... along with
ScanningProcess. And lo and behold.... I discovered that both of these
processes are a part of ZoneAlarm's fire wall.

I'm not very computer savvy, but I'd sure like to know why these annoyances
are running in the background when I have ZoneAlarm turned off. When I
switch it off, I expect it to be OFF.

I'm pretty certain you guys have helped me zero in on the culprit. If so,
then the original question I posted has been answered. Honestly, I wouldn't
have possibly have figured this without your guidance. Detectives you
should be. lol

I'll uninstall Zone Alarm and give you the results in a couple of days.
It's going to be good news, I'm quite certain.

Thanks again for your determination.

Dan

 

[Gerry]

Bill

I have searched to see if there are any reports of other software
producing multiple RDB files. I only found ones relating to Zone Alarm.
You can get very large restore points after major system changes but
Danno has not said anything about carrying out this type of activity
immediately before this latest restore point.


~~~~


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

was created.

 

[Gerry]

Danno

With Zone Alarm swtched off (?) is the Windows Firewall working?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Danno]

Gerry...thanks for reminding me to check that. In the past, any time I
turned Zone Alarm off, ZA would automatically switch the built-in firewall
back on. But by un-installing ZA, that feature went with it, so..... I
forgot to turn it back on until you just reminded me. Thanks again!