restoring all data from external hard drive

[Guest]

I have Win xp. I have backed up everything on an external drive. I am trying
to restore everything now. Before I backed up everything, my registry was
infected with mallware. My printer would freeze, among other things, I was
not allowed to rid my computer of the Mallware using RegistryFix or any other
antivirus software. How can I safely restore all of my files on from the
external hard drive without reinfecting a clean install? Also, what do I have
to reinstall in addition to everything on the external hard drive?

 

[Frankster]

Best bet is to simply restore your data. Reconfigure XP (printers and
whatnot). Reload all your apps.

-Frank

 

[Guest]

right but how do i do that?

Best bet is to simply restore your data. Reconfigure XP (printers and
whatnot). Reload all your apps.

-Frank

 

[Frankster]

Can't you use do it "backwards" from the way you backed it up? There are
tons of backup methods. I have no idea which one you used.

-Frank

 

[Guest]

Robbywon:

You didn't say what backup software you use, but with Norton 9.0, I can
restore folders, directories, files etc.

Usually, software and data is separated thus:

- Operating system, application software on a drive C, and data on a logical
drive D:
- Operating system, application software on a drive C, and data in
"MyDocuments", "My Pictures", "My Video" etc.

To restore application and data separately:

- Reinstall the operating system
- Reinstall your software separately, in my case Microsoft Office, Quicken,
Quickbooks etc.
- Restore data to Drive D, or to MY Documents etc.

This is why separating out software and data logically makes restoration
much easier.

NOTE:

I have a network where all of the data resides on a PC acting as the server.
All PC's, laptops got most of the application software installed, i.e.
Microsoft Office, Quicken, Quickbooks etc., so if any one of them crashed,
gets infected etc., I simply use another PC or laptop to access the data
sitting on another PC altogether.

I don't have to do anything immediately if any PC crashed. My six and nine
year olds have their own Windows XP PC, and even each of these has a "Mom and
Dad" user set up with Microsoft office, Quicken Quickbooks installed just in
case. The laptop is normally used as the backup in case a PC crashed.

The data on the PC server is backed up to a USB drive, also backed up
offsite remotely, and a daily copy of "MyDocuments" made so I don't even have
to worry about restoring using Norton 9.0, my backup software.

 

[Ken Blake]

I have Win xp. I have backed up everything on an external drive. I am
trying
to restore everything now. Before I backed up everything, my registry was
infected with mallware. My printer would freeze, among other things, I was
not allowed to rid my computer of the Mallware using RegistryFix or any
other
antivirus software. How can I safely restore all of my files on from the
external hard drive without reinfecting a clean install? Also, what do I
have
to reinstall in addition to everything on the external hard drive?

I'm not at all clear on what you did. Did you clean reinstall Windows?

You say you backed up "everything," but exactly what does "everything"
encompass? Data? Programs? What program did you back it up with?

If you did a clean reinstallation of Windows, you can restore your data, but
if you also backed up programs, those backed-up programs are useless. You
can't restore them, but have to reinstall them from the original media.