... the working principle behind HDGUARD

During the installation of HDGUARD the included wizard creates a special 'swap' file in the free space of the hard disk drive.

After HDGUARD is installed it integrates with Windows to practically become a part of the operating system. The swap file is hidden and behaves similarly to the Windows swap file, as the action runs unnoticed by the user in the background.

When HDGUARD is activated, all write and delete access on the protected drive(s) is diverted to the hidden file.

For instance if a user has just changed the system setting or if he unintentionally deletes an important file, Windows Explorer will display the result of such action exactly as it would be expected normally.

However, in reality this change has been made in the hidden file only, whilst the protected files remain physically untouched.

The system appears as changed until a restart, when the entire contents of the hidden file are simply discarded. The reference entries to deletions and changes recorded in it are thus no longer available.

The PC is instantly returned to its original condition

The robustness of this process comes from the fact that no alterations are made to the protected files at all and the 'self-healing' of the system results from simply 'ignoring' the changes at every restart. Since this process requires no back-up or data mirroring it is extremely fast and instantaneous, which in turn prevents any noticeable slowdown of the PC. The hidden file dynamically expands in size according to user activity, so it is advisable to have at least 10% or a minimum of 150MB hard disk space available.