transfer hdd data senario

[killswitch92]

if i had a computer virus i couldnt get rid of, how would i transfer my programs and personal data to another hdd as a backup to restore back to the infected hdd after formatting it and reinstalling windows?

[+BudMan MVC]

For starters you should already have a backup of your important info.. If you don't then you should look into fixing that.. Lets say it wasn't a virus or a desire to do your hdd. What if your HDD just died.. They do that ;)

Then your files and programs would just be gone??

As to recovering your stuff off existing infected OS, your best bet might be to boot some other OS, like a linux live CD. Copy off your important stuff. Then wipe the drive, reinstall the OS and then put your files back.. Making sure you scan them for infection before you run anything, open any office docs, etc.

Then you really need to look into a proper backup.

[Som]

very very very few viruses are bad enough you have to format your hard drive...

[killswitch92]

so lets say i have something like microsoft office or quickbooks, a game or 2 installed but didnt have a cd. if i had to restore it exactly back to the way it was. just copy everything through another os then transfer it back (copy and paste in a nutshell)? could i possibly connect the hdd to another computer and do it that way? i know its better to use another os like linux cause its different coding, if i used another windows os to do it theres a chance my pc would be infected in the process. im just trying to understand the way its done lets say as if a pc tech had done it for me.

[Som]

so lets say i have something like microsoft office or quickbooks, a game or 2 installed but didnt have a cd. if i had to restore it exactly back to the way it was. just copy everything through another os then transfer it back (copy and paste in a nutshell)? could i possibly connect the hdd to another computer and do it that way? i know its better to use another os like linux cause its different coding, if i used another windows os to do it theres a chance my pc would be infected in the process. im just trying to understand the way its done lets say as if a pc tech had done it for me.

there are a lot of files in system32 in the windows directory that would have to be copied & registered, if you had the hard drive it might be possible. If you don't have the cd but you do have a legit licence you could download the software *cough* warez-bb and use a product like office key finder to get you licence from the original hard drive.

Also use windows if your familiar with in , just have an up to date antivirus and you'll be grand..

what exactly is the problem, what is the virus?

[+BudMan MVC]

"something like microsoft office or quickbooks, a game or 2 installed but didnt have a cd."

Keep in mind most of these programs would have tones of registry entries not just files in a directory, etc.

Again I have to ask where is your backup? Your just now thinking of this - what would of happened if your HDD died and you had no access to anything on it?

You should of had an image of your system as backup, if you want ti back to how it was.. As to software that you installed, why would you not have the media? Did you not think at some point you might need to install it again.. Say like a hdd failure ;)

As mentioned you can always get the media, either through alternative channels or from the makers of said software if you "lost" your media... But trying to copy exe and dll files over from an infected OS to another machine to try and get some software to run like office.. Yeah its quite possible those could be infected.. And you still have the hundreds if not thousands of reg entries something like office creates.

I would copy off your pictures and videos, any office "docs" and such -- and then install software you need again. Be it you have to obtain the media or not.

In the FUTURE, once you have your system setup again - I would suggest you look into taking an image of your system, so that you can restore it from bare metal. In case of future infections or hardware failure.

[killswitch92]

im just using this scenario as an example to help understand how to solve it. i myself have backups of everything important to me. but im always asked all the time to help with computer problems and i just said the heck with it might as well be a technician, so im working towards that as a career. ive just always wondered how they did things like that. ive heard people say they took their pc to a place, wiped it clean and restored it all exactly to the way it was. i always wondered how? i can understand pics and vids, documents and such. but all your programs, games, etc. too? that part i never understood. ive never messed with data recovery, mainly just fixing errors and troubleshooting.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

For a home environment with just one PC, I would install a new hard disk drive, get the operating system, drivers, applications and security software all loaded and updated on the computer, then connect the old hard disk drive to the computer and copy just the data files to the new hard disk drive. Keep in mind, though, that some data files can have links to malware embedded in them, or scripts that behave maliciously, so examination of those is critical.

At no point, though, should you be copying any binaries (program files, libraries, drivers and other executables) over from the old hard disk drive to the new hard disk drive. You do not move any applications over from the old hard disk drive. Even though they may not be detected as being infected, they may be damaged in some fashion. Remember, anti-malware software does not actually tell you whether a file is infected or clean; what it does tell you is whether or not it detected a threat in the file. That might seem like a trivial or even disingenuous concept, but it's not. It's a key one, and one that many people often forget.

When finished, disconnect the old hard disk drive and thoroughly scan the system, preferably by using several different bootable discs (like the Trinity Live CD, plus the discs that you can download or make from Avast!, Avira, BitDefender, ESET, Kaspersky, Microsoft, et cetera). At this point, you're probably the closest thing to certain to being clean, although you may want to rebuild/update the bootable media in a week or so from each anti-malware vendor and perform those scans again, just to be sure.

Go ahead and let the old hard disk drive sit on a shelf for a few weeks or months, until you are certain you are no longer going to need any files from it ever again. When you're comfortable you've reached that point, go ahead an wipe it. You don't have to do anything fancy (multiple passes using random data, et cetera), a plain-old "overwrite all sectors with null values" type operation is sufficient.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[+BudMan MVC]

"wiped it clean and restored it all exactly to the way it was"

Yeah I think there was something loss in translation - coming from a user that is clearly understandable.. They prob had no clue to what they were talking about.

Unless there was an IMAGE of the machine taken before an infection or corruption or failure, its impossible to put it back "exactly" how it was.. Sure you could grab the documents and even icon placements of the users desktop, etc. But your not taking their installed software file by file and putting them back.. You could reinstall such software, like office, chrome, etc.. But your not taking the stuff file by file off the old disk and restoring it on to a new disk, or wiped disk.