Re: Hard drive seems wiped by virus

[gufus]

Hello, (e-mail address removed)!

(e-mail address removed)

Like a idiot I clicked the applet, and now cannot access my hard drive,
looking at the HDD, seems to be empty, Any idea how I can fix this

I'll take a shot at it, HDD seem's to be empty? Are you able to safe boot
into Windows?

 

[harrye]

Hello, (e-mail address removed)!

(e-mail address removed)


I'll take a shot at it, HDD seem's to be empty? Are you able to safe boot
into Windows?

You absolutely cannot beat backing up your entire C: with an imaging
program like Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect or one of the others
that are available. TI has saved me so many times over the years that
I consider it to be the best money spent on any program I have ever
bought.

 

[Dennis]

On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:56:25 -0500,

You absolutely cannot beat backing up your entire C: with an imaging
program like Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect or one of the others
that are available.

I've been meaning to ask...

Is it better to backup the entire disk sector by sector, including
unallocated sectors? In other words, what are the best settings if I
want to recover from crash or virus/malware?

BTW, I use Acronis.

 

[harrye]

I've been meaning to ask...

Is it better to backup the entire disk sector by sector, including
unallocated sectors? In other words, what are the best settings if I
want to recover from crash or virus/malware?

BTW, I use Acronis.

The only time I'd do a time consuming sector by sector backup cloning
a drive is if I were running an encrypted C: drive using a program
such as True Crypt. I'm no guru, but Acronis' simple full backup
w/succeding incremental backups have always saved me. It's a heck of
a lot faster, also than cloning.

 

[Dustin]

(e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net wrote in

You absolutely cannot beat backing up your entire C: with an imaging
program like Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect or one of the
others that are available. TI has saved me so many times over the
years that I consider it to be the best money spent on any program I
have ever bought.

It would be better if it was a portable version of any of those. So it
could be placed on a bootable cd and a true clone take place to an
external drive from the machine you booted the cd from. Now, that would
be nice. If you know of any, please feel free to respond.

 

[G. Morgan]

It would be better if it was a portable version of any of those. So it
could be placed on a bootable cd and a true clone take place to an
external drive from the machine you booted the cd from. Now, that would
be nice. If you know of any, please feel free to respond.

Norton Ghost is very portable, one executable, can be run on a DOS or PE boot
disk.

 

[Dragon]

(e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net wrote in


It would be better if it was a portable version of any of those. So it
could be placed on a bootable cd and a true clone take place to an
external drive from the machine you booted the cd from. Now, that would
be nice. If you know of any, please feel free to respond.

True Image allows you to make bootable rescue media which contains a
complete copy of True Image.
Seems to fulfil what you asked for.
I've used it to clone disks.

Henry

 

[FromTheRafters]

You absolutely cannot beat backing up your entire C: with an imaging
program like Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect or one of the others
that are available. TI has saved me so many times over the years that
I consider it to be the best money spent on any program I have ever
bought.

I agree, disk imaging is the best recovery scheme.

It also pays to have more than one such scheme, and more than one such
copy for each scheme.

 

[FromTheRafters]

(e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net wrote in


It would be better if it was a portable version of any of those. So it
could be placed on a bootable cd and a true clone take place to an
external drive from the machine you booted the cd from. Now, that would
be nice. If you know of any, please feel free to respond.

Hmmm, please forgive me for responding, but I have used MaxBlast which
is a free version for Seagate/Maxtor drives. It has a sort of DRM thing
going on where it makes sure that you have at least one Seagate or
Maxtor drive involved. It is not the full fledged Acronis disk imaging
program so it might be suitable for a quick backup before rescue
operation - if someone were to defeat or circumvent the DRM it might be
possible to use it on non-Seagate/Maxtor drives too. )

I use a 200Gig Maxtor in a USB housing for storing images so I don't
have to concern myself with defeating the 'sort of' DRM thingy.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per (e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net:

You absolutely cannot beat backing up your entire C: with an imaging
program

+1.. with the additional stipulation that it is well worth the
while to separate "Data" and "System"... "Data" being kept on a
separate physical drive or, at least, a different partition.

 

[gufus]

Hello, (e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net!

(e-mail address removed)

You absolutely cannot beat backing up your entire C: with an imaging
program like Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect or one of the others

Agreed... I got to setup imaging software one day. I /DO/ BU my sensitive
data daily. I have 2 HDD(s) in my server, one for the system, the other is
sensitive data, and a USB HDD with my sensitive data on in a fire proof
safe. All encrypted with TrueCrypt.

that are available. TI has saved me so many times over the years that
I consider it to be the best money spent on any program I have ever
bought.

In your option, what a good choice for Imaging software?

 

[harrye]

Per (e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net:

+1.. with the additional stipulation that it is well worth the
while to separate "Data" and "System"... "Data" being kept on a
separate physical drive or, at least, a different partition.

That's the way I've been doing it for years. This also lessens defrag
time for C:.

 

[harrye]

Hello, (e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net!

(e-mail address removed)


Agreed... I got to setup imaging software one day. I /DO/ BU my sensitive
data daily. I have 2 HDD(s) in my server, one for the system, the other is
sensitive data, and a USB HDD with my sensitive data on in a fire proof
safe. All encrypted with TrueCrypt.


In your option, what a good choice for Imaging software?

Well, I got lucky in that Acronis was the first such program I bought
of its kind years back, and it's worked perfectly from day one. I
have version 8. I haven't updated to the more modern versions because
of the problems with their newer versions I have read about in their
user forums. As for the other programs out there, I also have Macrium
Reflect, with which I make full backups onto other outboard disks I
have. Outside of what I have, I don't know anything about all the
other programs. I stick with what works for me. If it ain't broke,
don't fix it. )

 

[gufus]

Hello, (e-mail address removed)'t.suck.net!

(e-mail address removed)

Well, I got lucky in that Acronis was the first such program I bought
of its kind years back, and it's worked perfectly from day one.
'k

I have version 8. I haven't updated to the more modern versions because
of the problems with their newer versions I have read about in their
user forums. As for the other programs out there, I also have Macrium

Thanks for your input Bro. I guess it like any software (your millage will
vary) I've been into computers since 1988, also many different fields,
networking, a BBS (Fidonet) and designing websites, writing everything from
HTML, CCS, Java, CGI, PHP etc.... )

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per gufus:

In your option, what a good choice for Imaging software?

I've been using TeraByte's DOS version of "Image" for quite a few
years.

Not a lot of bells and whistles, but it runs fast and the price
was right (less than twenty USD).

 

[gufus]

Hello, (PeteCresswell)!

(e-mail address removed)
On Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:45:57 -0400

I've been using TeraByte's DOS version of "Image" for quite a few
years.

Thx.. I'll add it to my list.

Not a lot of bells and whistles, but it runs fast and the price
was right (less than twenty USD).

Sweet.

 

[Dustin]

Norton Ghost is very portable, one executable, can be run on a DOS
or PE boot disk.

I've got the latest and greatest v11.5; and it doesn't seem to be
portable. Actually demands I "install" it, then provide a key which it
will use to activate. I'll try copying the ghost folder contents to a
machine tomorrow just to see if it fires up, but I'm suspecting it will
not.

 

[Dustin]

Hmmm, please forgive me for responding, but I have used MaxBlast
which is a free version for Seagate/Maxtor drives. It has a sort of
DRM thing going on where it makes sure that you have at least one
Seagate or Maxtor drive involved. It is not the full fledged Acronis
disk imaging program so it might be suitable for a quick backup
before rescue operation - if someone were to defeat or circumvent
the DRM it might be possible to use it on non-Seagate/Maxtor drives
too. )

Yea.. maxblast, we used it on occasion at the old shop. Won't help me
tho.

As for true image rescue cd, the last time I made one, it booted into
linux; and offered to restore an image for me, not allow me to create a
new one... so I'll check back into that.

I've got the new ghost, but... kinda iffy on the portability aspect..
Will check into that.

 

[G. Morgan]

I've got the latest and greatest v11.5; and it doesn't seem to be
portable. Actually demands I "install" it, then provide a key which it
will use to activate. I'll try copying the ghost folder contents to a
machine tomorrow just to see if it fires up, but I'm suspecting it will
not.

What is the MD5 of ghost32.exe?

Mine is: B3904F5AEB951F962968C8F13F41ACE7

No installation, no key prompt.

YHM.

 

[Dustin]

What is the MD5 of ghost32.exe?

Mine is: B3904F5AEB951F962968C8F13F41ACE7

No installation, no key prompt.

I've got to find the damn cd! LOL. I could have sworn I stuck it on a
shelf.. but can't seem to find the damn thing...

btw, thanks..