"Delta" and Stuff (Maintenence & Backups)

Hi buf and Murf, And thanks for your individual inputs. Now we are starting to get an idea of what is being done. We'll let this thread run for at least 24hrs if not longer to give a chance for everyone the world over to read/post.

That is one thing to remember if you post a "New Thread". Give the chance for the world to turn 'cause some people that are members are sleeping as you post. And one of them may have your answer.

One other thing to be aware of is that we have posters at one of the three levels of expertise - newbie, intermediate, and expert and we work at all three levels in real time. Regardless of which level you are at, if you see something you don't understand, do two things. Save to file for further study and by all means ask a question which can save you countless hours in the learning department. Also you can save the thread for later reference.

:):)

Great thread! Since I support a 280+ node network, my maintenence is on a little larger scale than most home users. My home computers (with the exception of the Wife's) are directly related to work, so they fall under the supervision of that network. Hers has the standard run of NAV, M$ updates, and CD burner so she can backup her own stuff - mostly just for pics of the kid.

Now for the big network, that's another story. Does anyone here have any experience with SMS server?

[list=1][*]Delete TIF,Cookies & History files from a DOS prompt not only to free space but also so they do not subsequently get scanned etc[*]Run Adaware[*]Run NAV full system scan[*]Defrag all drives via registry so that it runs before the desktop loads[*]Ghost all drives[/list=1]

All this on weekly basis on Friday evening

Have 5 weeks worth of Ghost images at any one point in time.
Using XOSL to multi boot WinMe (for family), Win98SE (Games) and Win98SE (work related )

Daily-

-update a/v (Kaspersky AVP)
-delete temp folder & tmp files
-empty browser cache, index.dat, history
-clean MRU lists (MRUblaster)

Weekly-

-Defrag (diskkeeper)
- update, run Spybot S&D
-system virus scan
-wipe pagefile.sys
-backup drive (Driveimage)

Monthly-

-look for new Proxomitron filters
-check for upgrades on various installed software

Yearly- (more or less, often more ;) )

-format drives and reload OS's (dual boot)
-clean dust out of computer case

When needed-

-Apply MS security patches
-add new entries to hosts file

Good Morning All,

We are getting some good inputs on what different people do. As can be seen many different ways and programs to do it with.

From the question on Ghost yesterday. This is a reminder not to gloss over or take for granted everyone is on our particular level of expertise - whichever one you are on at the moment. And we have seen that there is or are questions about individual programs. What are they and how they work. Some of this is easily looked up. But in many cases a clear step by step how to is not given. This can be covered after everyone is given a chance to post what they do.

10ECsoon brought up the SMS server and did anyone have any experience with it. Google has quite a bit to check out on this server.

Fink and Nix weighed in with there lists of what they do. There's some that Fink uses that I do not so will have to take a look at them. The question in my mind was why does he use those particular ones?

Something to keep in mind. We are looking at a large area of subject matter and we need to go at a pace so we do not overwhelm ourselves.

I have had a few questions start to form in my mind already. How about the rest of you? Hmmmmm?????? :)

greengoose1 wrote-

Quote:

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The question in my mind was why does he use those particular ones?

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Which one(s) would you like to know about?

I might guess the reloading of my OS.. I have a habit of constantly testing or trying out new software of all types and then usually uninstalling it... and as we all know uninstall routines often don't get rid of everything and leave remnants behind and even a good look around doesn't get everything. I don't really trust registry cleaning tools all that much so I don't use them any more after some annoying experiences.

I've also found that lots of the freeware progs I use regularly become unsupported or outdated and need to be replaced anyway so I also use that as an excuse to clean up and start over with new ones. ( in particular firewalls and a/v programs both of which spread throughout the OS and are most likely to cause problems even after uninstallation)

Also I experiment with different partition sizes and file systems to see which I find most efficient.

I wipe my pagefile pretty much for theoretical reasons... privacy issues... although no one has access to my computer but me I do it because it's just part of my safe computing routine.

And yes I know ;) that win2k and xp can do it automatically at shutdown but that adds way too much time to rebooting for someone like me who's constantly rebooting to install new progs.

I too used to be a once a year format and reinstaller....until I started cloning....when I did my last format and reinstall I kept a master clone....that way worse case I can go back to my basic setup with windows 2000 and all my programs that I used daily installed....and I can do it in under 15 minutes...vs several days.

Fink, These two I am not familiar with, at least by these names.

Kaspersky AVP and MRUblaster. Why did you choose these two over others? :)

Kaspersky antivirus was on the last machine I worked on...said the system was fine.....ran panda online scan and found 6 virus....I cannot put alot of stock in that russian antivirus at all.

kaspersky

I chose AVP as my primary a/v program after extensive testing over a long period of time (still ongoing really). I have a collection of old and new viruses that I add to all the time and test various a/v programs on them in .exe form, zipped form, double zipped form and AVP detects more and most often... rarely misses whereas every other a/v I've tested misses one or some all the time. It's also got a relativley small mem footprint and loads quickly. (I use it manually, don't let it start at boot)

MRUblaster

Simple and also deletes index.dat on boot and some other features (& it's free)

Thanks for the info. Will have to give them a test drive. One I have been checking is PurgieIE. Saves alot of time in clearing files. It is also shareware, meaning not free. Use this with my maintenence procedures on the wekends.

Now my schedule is not chipped in stone because if I have been extra busy I will do a Scandisk and Defrag more than once a week. :)

Ridge reminded me of someting - running chkdsk in W2000 & XP. That's something I do from time to time, but I run it from the Command Prompt. Just typing chkdsk on its own at the prompt will run it in read-only mode and it will say if it needs to run with the /f or /r switches.

And Sarrkatic alluded to another thing I like to do, which is when I first install Windows I like to get all my preferences and settings set to the way I like them, get all the drivers installed and then burn a Ghost image to CDR. That way if I ever want a clean install of Windows I can save several hours. All that I need to do after that is re-install apps and Windows Updates.

On the grounds of prevention being better than cure, on my Windows 2000 box I keep a second instance of W2K on another partition purely for testing any software that I might have some doubts about. I keep it updated with Windows Updates, Spybot & Adaware and Norton Internet Security, but otherwise it's basically just a clean W2K installation. After I've tested out the software I'll Ghost it back to how it was and install the softaware onto my main W2K or XP installations. It works really well and I've never been caught out by an unexpected nasty surprise since I started that regime.

Sarrkazztic-

Using someone elses computer (if that's what you meant :) ) isn't necessarily the best way to determine the effectiveness of an a/v program.. you don't know how often it was updated, whether it was used properly, turned off, warnings ignored, or the viruses were there before the a/v was installed.

Like I said I've always found AVP to be extremely reliable but there are so many opinions about every a/v program that subject can and does account for many threads on its own. It's pretty much a never ending topic.

SuperSparks, That is a good idea of having a Ghost of the "C" drive on another drive just for seeing if a new program you downloaded would be compatible with the rest of what had been setup.

Because I have been caught with a "Nasty Surprise" and it is no fun to straighten out

Now why didn't I think of that?

(Now all but Sarkazztic can answer that question. :D :D )

I'm going to include this post, so hopefully I'm not too late again, or speaking out of turn, as usual.

There is more reasoning behind refreshing the config on occasion than most people probably realize.
I try to avoid free-trial programs, as Fink hinted about, not only because the abilities built into these free-trials, (demos and such) are limited, but mostly because a time-out timer has been provisioned somewhere in the system. This keeps the free-trial from running again, say six months later and after it has been entirely forgotten about. These become permanent in the config, and as one member noticed in another thread, everything gets ghosted. So, Sarkazztic mentioned the procedure that I use, which is to simply keep a template config that is only used to refresh a config after the drive is formatted, or for when changing to a brand new hard drive. Formatting alone does not always remove these embedded timers anymore.

Additionally, you can check any of the programs you are interested in downloading to see if they are malware before ever downloading them, by checking the list at PepiMK's website (SpybotS&D).
http://spybot.safer-networking.de/in...gebase/threats

A real informative thread, glad to see Delta is back again…