Deep Freaze

[Suchy]

I am thinking of instaling Deep Freaze at my machine at home. After seeing how well it performs at work, I think that it is the best cure for viruses, errors and other stuff like that.
I know that if my computer crashes, or freazes I will be screwed if I run Deep Freaze., but I am willing to take that risk.

What do you guys and gals think, is Deep Freaze a good choice for a home pc?

[pop pop]

Never heard of it.

[Suchy]

Well Deep Freaze is a safety program. The way it works is that when the computer is shut down or restarted, any changes (such as instaled programs, viruses, files...) are going to be deleated. When Deep Freaze is deactivated, via password, any change to the pc (again instaling a program, saving a file...) will be permenant after activation (entering password).

Ofcourse you can set up Deep Freaze to be efective on HD 1 and not on HD 2 (for example) or a server, so that you can save four files there.

So if you have a virus or 20 of them and you restart your pc, they will be gone. But if you are working on something, and you save it on your desktop (for example) and the pc crashes, the file is gone.

[rond36]

It is Deep Freeze (http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp) not Deep Freaze

I don't think I would want that program running on a home PC!
I feel this program is more suited for a workstation that stores data on a server or NAS system not on a local hard drive.

The program is more or less a drive imaging program that restores a default image on every reboot.

If you create or change any files on your hard drive they are deleted or changed back the next time you reboot.

Imagine this:

You are writing a prize winning novel you are on page 375 and saved every page and the power goes out!

When the power comes back on and after a few choice words you start writing the preface.

Or this:

You are playing this killer RPG you are on level 35 and about to kill the big boss to win the game any your video card decides it doesn't want to play anymore and locks up the computer you press the reset button!

When you restart the game you are standing naked in a field without any weapons and on level 1.

Or:

You want to update Windows XP-SP1 to SP2 you download the update on a dialup modem (6 hrs) install it and it reboots the system!

You are back to SP1

[Whyzman]

Being from Minnesota I'm not afraid of a Deep Freeze...but the scenarios you painted rond have me literally shaking in my boots! :D

[DigitalJ]

As long as you fully understand the risk, do your thing. The scenarios rond pointed out are the nasty and obvious ones...I'd be worried about something a little more silly and subtle...such as saving a confirmation number in a text file hours ago just before you deleted that inappropriate pic of angelina jolie from your desktop. Now you get up to make another pot of coffee, and BAM! Your computer crashes. You forget all about those two little mundane actions, and your fiance sits down to the computer to check her email and finds the newly reloaded pic on the desktop. Then your order gets messed up and you go to retrieve the confirmation number and it's gone. Now you're out $50 and your fiance.

Okay so maybe that's a little far fetched, but I guess I just wouldn't trust myself not to say "son of a...." every day at least once.