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Confirm Alternate Data Stream Loss

Posted: 18 Feb 2006, 14:23
by ollixx77
Hi, is it possible to witch this warning off? I get before every copy action this annoying warning message, that I'll lose ADS information.

Regards, olli. Using 2.5 Beta 11

Re: Confirm Alternate Data Stream Loss

Posted: 19 Feb 2006, 10:27
by jis
ollixx77 wrote:Hi, is it possible to witch this warning off? I get before every copy action this annoying warning message, that I'll lose ADS information.

Regards, olli. Using 2.5 Beta 11
This warning is very useful. You probably want to copy files from NTFS to FAT or FAT32?
Citation from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_data_stream:
You can have data loss when sending files via fork unaware channels (e-mail, filesystems without multiple forks support -or even when copying between filesystems with forks support, if the program that made the copy is unaware-, compressed archives) and not be aware of that.

Posted: 19 Feb 2006, 10:50
by ollixx77
I know that I loose some additional data when I copy files from NTFS to FAT. ADS is used so far only for thumnails, XP Zone Identifer and some viruses. All things which I can forego.

Posted: 19 Feb 2006, 11:15
by jis
ollixx77 wrote:I know that I loose some additional data when I copy files from NTFS to FAT. ADS is used so far only for thumnails, XP Zone Identifer and some viruses. All things which I can forego.
Ok, so solution for you will be probably new item in Confirmations in Options for ADS Operations.

I am just curious. Which one from three examples you mentioned is responsible for excessive number of warnings when you are copying files from NTFS to FAT? I suppose, that you don't have so much stealth viruses on your system :)
You still do your downloads by plain IE?

Posted: 19 Feb 2006, 20:04
by ollixx77
No, Im using Opera.
The ADS seem to result mostly from an antivirus programm. A tool from http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Streams.html revealed several streams with this data ":KAVICHS:$DATA 36". The usenet say its from Kaspersky AV. I think I'll delete all ADS information on my data partition, because I don't use this virus scanner anymore.

Posted: 20 Feb 2006, 01:12
by jis
ollixx77 wrote:I think I'll delete all ADS information on my data partition, because I don't use this virus scanner anymore.
I can recommend this small and fast tool:

ADS Spy
http://www.richardthelionhearted.com/~m ... loads.html
A small tool to list, view or delete Alternate Data Streams (ADS) on Windows 2000/XP with NTFS file systems. ADS is a way of storing meta-information for files without actually storing the information in the file it belongs to, carried over from early MacOS compatibility from Windows NT4. Recently browser hijackers began using this technique to store hidden information on the system, and even store trojan executable files in ADS streams of random files on the system. Use with caution.

Posted: 27 Feb 2006, 12:21
by Petr Solin
I think the best would be to add Kaspersky AV ADS to list of ADS which can be lost without problem (as thumbnails under Win2K). I have already sent email to ollixx77 with utility for listing ADS. When I receive results (precise name of that ADS), I will patch it.

Posted: 27 Feb 2006, 15:33
by jis
Petr Solin wrote:I think the best would be to add Kaspersky AV ADS to list of ADS which can be lost without problem (as thumbnails under Win2K). I have already sent email to ollixx77 with utility for listing ADS. When I receive results (precise name of that ADS), I will patch it.
I think the best solution would be to add a new item in Confirmations in Options for ADS Operations. Please, don't throw away some ADS and others not.

Posted: 27 Feb 2006, 15:56
by Petr Solin
jis wrote:I think the best solution would be to add a new item in Confirmations in Options for ADS Operations. Please, don't throw away some ADS and others not.
If I do it as you suggest, all users with Kaspersky AV will probably turn off this ADS Loss warning, because it's really annoying and useless when informing only about some AV data that are generated automatically. And I still think that all ADS of unknown type can be important, so it would not be reasonable to ignore them. That's why I don't want to make ADS Loss warning optional.

Posted: 27 Feb 2006, 16:26
by jis
Petr Solin wrote:
jis wrote:I think the best solution would be to add a new item in Confirmations in Options for ADS Operations. Please, don't throw away some ADS and others not.
If I do it as you suggest, all users with Kaspersky AV will probably turn off this ADS Loss warning, because it's really annoying and useless when informing only about some AV data that are generated automatically. And I still think that all ADS of unknown type can be important, so it would not be reasonable to ignore them. That's why I don't want to make ADS Loss warning optional.
So what about compromise: Add a new item in Confirmations in Options for ADS Operations, but for turning on/off ADS Loss warning only for known types? Isn't this better than silently ignore known ADS?

Posted: 01 Mar 2006, 13:31
by Petr Solin
jis wrote:So what about compromise: Add a new item in Confirmations in Options for ADS Operations, but for turning on/off ADS Loss warning only for known types? Isn't this better than silently ignore known ADS?
Sorry, but I don't think it's so important. At least for now, I won't add any similar option.

Posted: 01 Mar 2006, 16:36
by jis
Petr Solin wrote:
jis wrote:So what about compromise: Add a new item in Confirmations in Options for ADS Operations, but for turning on/off ADS Loss warning only for known types? Isn't this better than silently ignore known ADS?
Sorry, but I don't think it's so important. At least for now, I won't add any similar option.
It's a pity :(
But it's up to you. Maybe in the future :)

Posted: 03 Mar 2006, 13:33
by Petr Solin
I have fixed this problem. Kaspersky AV ADS was added to list of ADS which can be lost without problem.

Do not blindly delete your ADS's!

Posted: 25 Apr 2006, 10:51
by zarevak
Please do not blindly delete all your ADS's.
More and more programs are using them to store additional information. For instance Windows Mail (successor of Outlook Express in Windows Vista) will use them to store information about emails, that cannot be read from the email itself. (e.g.: flags, account the email was delivered to, read/unread state, ....)