Symantec PGP desktop

Defraggler
1

Does Defraggler supports a hard disks which is PGP Whole Disk Encrypted by Symantec PGP Desktop?

During defragmentation, Defraggler may move critical PGP files (PGPWDE01 & PGPWDE02) which are used during bootup of a computer protected by PGP Whole Disk Encryption. If the PGPWDE01 & PGPWDE02 files are moved during defragmentation, the system may not boot properly to the operating system.

Does Defraggler allow me to exclude files from defragmentation? It is necessary to exclude the PGPWDE01 & PGPWDE02 files from defragmentation. The files are hidden by default on Windows systems and are located in the root of the encrypted disk/partition. The Windows native Disk Defragmenter does not move the PGPWDE01 & PGPWDE02. What's about Defraggler?

2

Hi dejudicibus, and welcome to the forum.

I can't answer your first question about decryption support, although others may be able to, but you can exclude files and folders in Defraggler via "Settings\Options\Exclude".

Hope that helps.

:)

3

Yes, thank you

4

I can't answer your first question about decryption support, although others may be able to, but you can exclude files and folders in Defraggler via "Settings\Options\Exclude".

Dos EXCLUDE works also for hidden + system (protected) files?

5

It seems it does not work. When I try to select PGPWDE01 to exclude it (Exclude->Add->Open) I get a message that says that I cannot open that file. I do not know why Defraggler tries to "open" a file to add it to the exclude list but I suspect that it uses an API to open the file stream to get info about that file and it cannot be opened because it is protected.

6

Adjacent to the Exclude TAB is the Advanced TAB which includes the option "Save All settings to INI file"

Tick that option.

Select any "convenient file" that is on the same or adjacent path as PGPWDE01

Then click OK and close Defraggler.

My experience with CCleaner, and very probably your experience with Defraggler,

is that you will find in the same folder as Defraggler.exe a new Defraggler.ini.

This Defraggler.ini.can be opened with Notepad and you can locate the path and "convenient file",

and change this to designate PGPWDE01 ( preserving whatever special syntax is present on that line ),

then save the Defraggler.ini.

Launch Defraggler and you should now see that PGPWDE01 is excluded,

and it should remain excluded if you now cancel "Save All settings to INI file" to restore normal configuration via registry.

7

Adjacent to the Exclude TAB is the Advanced TAB which includes the option "Save All settings to INI file". Tick that option.

Select any "convenient file" that is on the same or adjacent path as PGPWDE01. Then click OK and close Defraggler.

My experience with CCleaner, and very probably your experience with Defraggler, is that you will find in the same folder as Defraggler.exe a new Defraggler.ini.

This Defraggler.ini.can be opened with Notepad and you can locate the path and "convenient file", and change this to designate PGPWDE01 ( preserving whatever special syntax is present on that line ), then save the Defraggler.ini. Launch Defraggler and you should now see that PGPWDE01 is excluded, and it should remain excluded if you now cancel "Save All settings to INI file" to restore normal configuration via registry.

OK, if I understand correctly your suggestion, this is a trick to create an exclude entry in INI file that I can manually modify later. However I am very prudent unless you are REALLY sure it works. In fact, if Defraggler has problem to "see" or "access" the file to exclude it by GUI, I wonder if it will be able to recognize it and really exclude it if I insert it in INI file. If it does not work, I will be no more able to access my laptop, forever. No way to recover a damaged PGP protected HD.

I would prefer if a future version of Defraggler would support PGP encrypted disks. I would feel more comfortable.

8

Although I have only done this with CCleaner,

I am absolutely confident that if you follow my directions,

AND IF as a result you see what you hoped for when you attempted

"When I try to select PGPWDE01 to exclude it (Exclude->Add->Open)"

Then you will have achieved the exclusion setting that you were hoping for.

Regardless of how you achieve an exclusion,

I know nothing about the certainty of any such setting in defraggler because I have not experimented with them.

I was only offering assistance on how to achieve a setting.

I suggest that rather than worry about the consequences of damage to PGPWDE01 etc by utilities such as Defraggler (amongst many other tools),

it would be better to have a backup strategy that will restore normality regardless of whether damage was done by any utility or malware or a lightening strike down the chimney.

I have total confidence in Macrium Reflect to backup and restore all my partitions,

including the hidden and letter-less "System Reserved" partition that holds BitLocker and Boot files.

There are other competing partition image backups which also have users that live by them ( and die with them :( )

N.B.

On two occasions this last year a Windows Security Update devastated my system and made it unusable.

Each time I rebooted and it failed, and then I inserted my Macrium Boot Recovery CD and it took only 6 minutes to restore my system back with the previous day's backup.

On one occasion my Laptop 30 GB HDD was replaced with an empty 160 GB HDD (a Christmas present)

and several minutes later the recovery CD had restored the image backups of the 30 GB drive,

and everything worked the same as the day before - but better because I had an extra 130 GB of unallocated space to use.

9

Dos EXCLUDE works also for hidden + system (protected) files?

Yes, the option does work on hidden system files. I have both "pagefile.sys" and "System Volume Information" set as excludes.

If you selected the correct exclude option in Defraggler, ie "file" ...

post-8751-0-69308000-1358354693_thumb.jpg

... then all I can think is that it's the encryption causing the problem.

I have no personal experience with encryption, and haven't anything better than Alan's suggestions I'm afraid.