Another good reason for good backups

cereberus · Aug 19, 2022

z3r010 said:
I don't have any backups, I don't see the point as I have nothing worth saving, and a reinstall takes minutes.

Perhaps a touch of porkies here? I bet you have backups for the forums?

z3r010 · Aug 19, 2022

cereberus said:
Perhaps a touch of porkies here? I bet you have backups for the forums?

Servers don't count.

Ghot · Aug 19, 2022

z3r010 said:
Servers don't count.

LOL

Haydon · Jan 1, 2023

Bree said:
And another good use......

My System One is a UEFI/GPT supported device. It's running a Windows install that started life on my old 'main machine', an unsupported Legacy Bios/MBR machine. To migrate the installed Windows 10 with all my data and installed apps I clean installed Windows 10 on the new machine, made a system image of the old machine, then restored just the C: partition to the new machine to replace the one created by the clean install.

With Windows 10 now running on supported hardware, shortly after that Windows Update offered it the upgrade to 11.

I realize that this is an old thread, but there have been a couple of other threads in the mean time, like the one thread on scanning backups for malware, and the other (pretty scary) thread on malware that survives an OS reinstall.

a) I wonder how malware issues influence a decision on migrating the C: partition to a new machine.

b) True, malware can hide in user data files as well, and merely migrating user data files to a new machine can migrate the malware also ...

... but the malware issue in b) is less severe than in a) or is that not true?

Happy New Year!

kelper · Jan 1, 2023

z3r010 said:
I don't have any backups, I don't see the point as I have nothing worth saving, and a reinstall takes minutes.

A reinstall takes me about 90 minutes and I have to be in attendance. A restore takes 10 minutes and I don't have to babysit it.

Bree · Jan 1, 2023

Haydon said:
..... I wonder how malware issues influence a decision on migrating the C: partition to a new machine.

In the case of my migration that you quoted as an example I was confident that the old machine was clean before I imaged it for the migration. There had never been any indication of malware, and it came up as clean in any scans I did. The main reason for deciding on a migration over a clean install was that there was software on the old machine that I wanted to keep, but which could not be reinstalled.

jimbo45 · Jan 1, 2023

These days the cloud is good for really important stuff - especially as cloud storage is cheap at the moment.
my main storage backup are ripped CD's and DVD's which I couldn't do again -- about 7 TB of music and video -- I store that stuff on external storage but it doesn't change much --and who buys DVD's or even CD's these days.

I do save some interesting TV stuff from time to time as things like the BBC only keep programs accessible for 30 days and some of their stuff is quite good when I've got time to watch it. With a VPN I find also the new ITVX stuff has some good archive programs -- the ads are much less intrusive than on their terrestial ITV channel.

Since I keep OS's on small partitions (usually vhdx files) it only takes minutes to back up the OS to a fast NvmE device - so backing up to me saves a load of problems if I try something and it doesn't work or an upgrade goes wrong.

I love @z3r010 comment on Backups -- It's a Server !!!!!!.

Happy New year everone.

Cheers
jimbo

hdmi · Jan 2, 2023

Haydon said:
I realize that this is an old thread, but there have been a couple of other threads in the mean time, like the one thread on scanning backups for malware, and the other (pretty scary) thread on malware that survives an OS reinstall.

a) I wonder how malware issues influence a decision on migrating the C: partition to a new machine.

b) True, malware can hide in user data files as well, and merely migrating user data files to a new machine can migrate the malware also ...

... but the malware issue in b) is less severe than in a) or is that not true?

Happy New Year!

I don't migrate my C: partition to a new machine, but that's only because I want to test the new machine, thoroughly, by starting afresh just so I can see if I can install updates/drivers/software and can apply settings/tweaks normally. I find that skipping that extra mile easily compares to running certain tests in a VM and later discovering that running in a VM had unexpectedly skewed some of the test results in such ways that they no longer are representative of what will happen outside this VM after I ran these tests. On normal systems, there is no reliable way to simulate so, installation errors/conflicts can only be detected properly by following installation procedures like normal, in a normal environment. That is, if the procedures in question can also be affected, unpredictably and in multiple/complex ways by dissimilarities in hardware/drivers/settings/updates/software/etc..

Hidden malware in user data is mitigated by knowing your filetypes (what filetypes can contain executable code and/or scripts that can be executed, or can be executed specifically on a system that has not already been compromised) and by comparing MD5 hash codes of the files, also in addition to knowing what it is that you download exactly from where. Always check your sources, do your own research (or more importantly, learn to do it correctly), partially depend on code signing and on trusted authors of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) e.g. from GitHub, use isolation software e.g. Sandboxie-Plus and/or run in a VM (or run Sandboxie-Plus in a VM, lol), upload less-trusted executables on VirusTotal, and combine various other strategies like this. All in a multi-layered type of (well-organized) approach to data security. If you are scared of some malware potentially being capable to survive a reinstall of Windows, then either you can delete Windows from the new computer before you connect it to the webz and never use Windows, or you can build a PC with no Windows and never use Windows. It's Windows. Ergo, it is what it is.