virus program that does not interfere with backup software?

[trob3]

I recently purchased F-Secure and subsequently found out that it is
interfering with the creation of backups. I have a lot of data that
would be very costly for me to lose and so I must have a reliable
backup. I want this backup to be automated. In other words, I don't
want to have to manually unload the virus scan. Will all virus software
interfere with the creation of a backup? Does anyone have
recommendations for this situation? Thank you very much in advance for
your assistance.

 

[Dave Cohen]

I recently purchased F-Secure and subsequently found out that it is
interfering with the creation of backups. I have a lot of data that
would be very costly for me to lose and so I must have a reliable
backup. I want this backup to be automated. In other words, I don't
want to have to manually unload the virus scan. Will all virus software
interfere with the creation of a backup? Does anyone have
recommendations for this situation? Thank you very much in advance for
your assistance.

I haven't experienced any problems, but your post isn't very clear as to
what sort of problems you are experiencing.
Dave Cohen

 

[quadaces]

I recently purchased F-Secure and subsequently found out that it is
interfering with the creation of backups. I have a lot of data that
would be very costly for me to lose and so I must have a reliable
backup. I want this backup to be automated. In other words, I don't
want to have to manually unload the virus scan. Will all virus software
interfere with the creation of a backup? Does anyone have
recommendations for this situation? Thank you very much in advance for
your assistance.

I have Kasperski 6.0 running and my backups with Acronis True Image
9.0 work automatically. I've never experienced my anti-virus
interfering with automated backups.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: <[email protected]>

| I recently purchased F-Secure and subsequently found out that it is
| interfering with the creation of backups. I have a lot of data that
| would be very costly for me to lose and so I must have a reliable
| backup. I want this backup to be automated. In other words, I don't
| want to have to manually unload the virus scan. Will all virus software
| interfere with the creation of a backup? Does anyone have
| recommendations for this situation? Thank you very much in advance for
| your assistance.

No.

If you are experiencing a problem with F-Secure that is unusual. In companies and
enterprises where data is extremely important, backups are made quite often with anti virus
software installed. I have never heard of or had a problem on workstations and servers
using McAfee software.

The questions this raises are...
What backup software are you using and what media are you using ?

 

[Lou]

I haven't experienced any problems, but your post isn't very clear as to
what sort of problems you are experiencing.
Dave Cohen

I had antivir stop a backup to a USB hard drive when it found something
inside a huge zip file that was a backup of messages from yahoo mail. I
told it to ignore and the backup went OK.

Lou

 

[trob3]

I haven't experienced any problems, but your post isn't very clear as to
what sort of problems you are experiencing.
Dave Cohen

My system is Win XP MCE 2002 SP2. I am using NTBackup (a version of
Veritas that comes with windows). For the record I have tried other
file based backup programs and have the same issue. I backup selected
folders on C drive to a folder on C drive. For about 300 files I find
the following message in NTBackups log. Each time it is mostly, but not
exactly, the same files. The files are mostly my data and applications.
I can be sure that most of them were not open at the time the backup
ran. NTBackup runs as a scheduled job using account Rob. Rob is in the
administrators and backup operators groups. I have confirmed that Rob
has full rights to many of these files. If I unload F-Secure the
messages go away.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\bin\grep.txt" - skipped.
Reason: Access is denied.

F-Secure has additionally stopped software installs and various
automatic update programs. Again, if I unload F-Secure the issues are
resolved.

F-Secure has an option named System Control. I am having all these
problems even with System Control disabled. The only thing that
resolves these issues is completely unloading F-Secure.

Additionally I have certain email alerts that come to me several times
a day from my broker. Every time F-Secure causes a popup a dialog to
appear warning me about the email. If it matters, my broker is
Fidelity. This can be stopped but only by completely disabling email
scanning.

F-Secure has no (free) product support. Customer service is free, but
has not responded yet (I requested they cancel my subscription). Thier
website has a lot of very elementary technical information (grandma
level stuff) but nothing like a knowledge base, a detailed technical
issues FAQ or list of known issues.

 

[Jim]

My system is Win XP MCE 2002 SP2. I am using NTBackup (a version of
Veritas that comes with windows). For the record I have tried other
file based backup programs and have the same issue. I backup selected
folders on C drive to a folder on C drive. For about 300 files I find
the following message in NTBackups log. Each time it is mostly, but not
exactly, the same files. The files are mostly my data and applications.
I can be sure that most of them were not open at the time the backup
ran. NTBackup runs as a scheduled job using account Rob. Rob is in the
administrators and backup operators groups. I have confirmed that Rob
has full rights to many of these files. If I unload F-Secure the
messages go away.

Warning: Unable to open "C:\bin\grep.txt" - skipped.
Reason: Access is denied.

You are doing file and folder backups. In this mode, ntbackup is not able
to backup open files. Any program which has open files in the folders that
you wish to retain will cause this problem.
The way to circumvent the problem with ntbackup is to backup the entire disk
using the ASR wizard. In this mode, ntbackup uses shadow copying which will
proceed without troubles.

F-Secure has additionally stopped software installs and various
automatic update programs. Again, if I unload F-Secure the issues are
resolved.

Most decent anti virus programs will interfere with software installs, etc.
I use Norton, and before doing any of this, I shut it down. Surely you can
do the same with F-Secure.

F-Secure has an option named System Control. I am having all these
problems even with System Control disabled. The only thing that
resolves these issues is completely unloading F-Secure.

Additionally I have certain email alerts that come to me several times
a day from my broker. Every time F-Secure causes a popup a dialog to
appear warning me about the email. If it matters, my broker is
Fidelity. This can be stopped but only by completely disabling email
scanning.

That is the way most antivirus programs work. Don't you want to know that
the email has malware? Just because the return address says that it came
from your broker doesn't mean that it actually did.
I also use NOD32 which warns me if and only if there is a problem with a
specific message.

F-Secure has no (free) product support. Customer service is free, but
has not responded yet (I requested they cancel my subscription). Thier
website has a lot of very elementary technical information (grandma
level stuff) but nothing like a knowledge base, a detailed technical
issues FAQ or list of known issues.

Jim

 

[trob3]

The files in question are application and data files which I know not
to be open. For example, there is an HTML file which contains the
license and terms for one of my applications. What would hold such a
file open? Besides, if the files were open then why would NTBackup work
when F-Secure is unloaded? I am logged in at the time that the backup
runs but all my applications are closed.

I did use the wizard and NTBackup is doing a shadow copy. (I verified
this by checking the log). The wizard, by the way, does not require
that you backup up the entire disk. You can choose folders.

I could understand why F-Secure would stop an install if it wasn't for
the fact that I have System Control disabled.

Regarding email scanning, the user shouldn't have to see the same false
hit repeatedly.

I do appreciate your reply, but I think there are still some unresolved
questions here.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: <[email protected]>

| The files in question are application and data files which I know not
| to be open. For example, there is an HTML file which contains the
| license and terms for one of my applications. What would hold such a
| file open? Besides, if the files were open then why would NTBackup work
| when F-Secure is unloaded? I am logged in at the time that the backup
| runs but all my applications are closed.
|
| I did use the wizard and NTBackup is doing a shadow copy. (I verified
| this by checking the log). The wizard, by the way, does not require
| that you backup up the entire disk. You can choose folders.
|
| I could understand why F-Secure would stop an install if it wasn't for
| the fact that I have System Control disabled.
|
| Regarding email scanning, the user shouldn't have to see the same false
| hit repeatedly.
|
| I do appreciate your reply, but I think there are still some unresolved
| questions here.

Exclude the files in question from being scanned by F0-secure and then run NTBackup again.

I also suggest getting a better backup application. NTBackup is a very limited "stock" OS
supplied utility.

 

[trob3]

Some of the files are executables, and I think it would be overly risky
to remove them from scanning. Also, the list of files does vary by
maybe a dozen or so files, so it would not be possible to exclude
everything. Besides, that means I got to check the backup log
everytime, should new files need to be excluded.

Have you had problems with NTBackup or know someone who has? What
backup program would you recommend? What are your thoughts about
SyncBackSE?

 

[Larry Sabo]

The files in question are application and data files which I know not
to be open. For example, there is an HTML file which contains the
license and terms for one of my applications. What would hold such a
file open?

[snip]

Use Unlocker to determine what is locking the file. I've found many
desktop search programs lock files, e.g. Copernic, ESP!, PowerDesk,
and frustrate my efforts to close a USB drive after making a backup.
Unlocker will tell which, if any, is locking te file.

Larry

 

[trob3]

Since the errors all go away if I unload F-Secure, it must be F-Secure.
Besides there no programs running at the time the backup is being
taken. Not in the foreground at least; there may be some background
processes. Besides what program would hold open a wide assortment of
data files belonging to different applications? Or what would hold open
an EXE file?

Obviously there is a bug in F-Secure. I wouldn't be surprised if some
feature or aspect of Win MCE is contributing. Otherwise the bug would
be more widely known.

In any case, If I can solve this problem by replacing F-Secure with
another virus scan, and thereby save myself the hassle of figuring this
issue out it is worth the money to me. So that is the course that I
will take.

I appreciate everyones comments. While we didn't solve this, at least
we have documented the existance of this issue for others.