Re: Another Newbie asking "Which Anti-Virus Sofware is the Best?"
- From: jimrainfordson@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 31 May 2006 10:41:48 -0700
Regarding your MP idea I've been doing exactly that. If I ever get to
a point that I want to backup my OS, I reboot my last backup, make the
new changes (and updates) and save the image.
As for the rest, I've saved and filed your post. I like your
solutions, particularly the hot swappable option. I'm gonna have to
take another look at everything and reconsider my options.
BTW Art, what do you use for browser, email client, and usenet? (I
figured KAP as your fw)
Jim
Art wrote:
On 29 May 2006 19:51:43 -0700, jimrainfordson@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
I like your idea of a back up hard drive as an alternative so an actual
second PC. Might be nice if I could hot swap them somehow. I'll have
to look into that more.
I've thought about putting something up at my web site concerning the
creation of and use of a bootable cloned backup drive. For the NT
based OS (Win 2K and XP) the freeware util XXCLONE works well for
the purpose of creating a bootable (file system) cloned backup. I've
used it on my Win 2K machines with both FAT32 and NTFS many times
during my evaluation period, and it never missed a beat.
There are several considerations involved with this. First of all,
it's a good idea to maintain just a relatively small partition to
contain only Windows + Program Files. I'll call this the "Main
Partition" and refer to it as MP. It needs to be just a few
gig, so a suitable backup drive can be as small as, say, 6 gig.
Then cloning and restore operations take a small amount
of time ... maybe 10 minutes or so ... and it cuts down on
the cost of the backup drive.
People who collect tons of large multimedia files should keep
them on a separate large partition and back them them up,
if they wish, on CD.
Now, users who continually try out programs (such as freeware
buffs) and accumulate many they want to keep aren't really
suited very well to MP cloning since they are continually
faced with the not-so-easy problem of determining whether
or not their MP is clean before backing up (recloning). The
method is best used by those who wish to maintain a almost
static backup which rarely, if ever, needs recloning. The best
bet is to clone the MP immediately after a fresh install of
Windows followed by a Windows Update to make sure it has
all the service packs, rollups, and critical security patches
installed. You can also install your favorite applications
programs. Providing you did all this while behind your
router/fw the chances are very slim that you will be backing
up malware of any kind.
There are other considerations as well. Some users, such as
my wife, accumulate valuable data they want to keep via
email (tons of stuff from genealogy forums). The way I've
arranged for her to backup this data, is via a separate
"daily backup" hard drive. Hard drives are far more reliable
than CD, and if I ever have to restore her MP it's a simple
matter of swapping the backup drive that's in her removeable
drive tray. Thus, we maintain two kinds of backup ... a static
one for her MP which sits on a shelf, and a dynamic one for
her data which she uses for daily backup. For daily backup,
I use the freeware XXCOPY. While her accumulated data
of various kinds seems like a lot, it only amounts to a few
hundred meg, and again, a small capacity backup drive
is more than sufficient. The key lock on the removeable
drive is also a electrical power switch to the drive which
is considered "hot switchable" ... it's safe to turn it on
and off while the machine is powered up. There is a risk
involved with the daily backup since it would be possible
for destructive malware to attack data during the backup
operation. This is one good place to use a top notch
updated realtime av monitor. But in fact, she doesn't
bother, and we've never had any problems. Safe hex
goes a long way :)
Concerning the hardware arrangement, the backup drive
is connected as a secondary master, which requires a
separate drive cable if your machine doesn't have one.
The BIOS on my machines can be set to boot from that
backup drive by setting the BIOS to try booting from
HDD1 first. Then the backup becomes drive C: and
restoration to HDD0 (which contains the MP) is a
matter of cloning C: to E: (or whatever the MP drive
letter turns out to be on your machine).
Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
.
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