Back up Nortons Utility ?

[JerometheGiraff]

After recently having a high risk virus, I was thought that by buying Norton 360 would remove the virus, the good news was that it found the virus the bad news is it couldn't remove it. I was left to reinstall windows after a back up from Paragon Back up and Recovery (Free Edition) didn't work. Norton comes with a back up tool are there any reviews on Norton's back up utility ?

I would also like to mention that I was previously using Windows 7 x32 which was installed on my O: partition. Reinstalling Windows 7 x64 on the O: partition, windows renamed the partition to C: and I lost files I had on my C partition is it possible to get at least some of it back ?

 

[zigzag3143]

After recently having a high risk virus, I was thought that by buying Norton 360 would remove the virus, the good news was that it found the virus the bad news is it couldn't remove it. I was left to reinstall windows after a back up from Paragon Back up and Recovery (Free Edition) didn't work. Norton comes with a back up tool are there any reviews on Norton's back up utility ?

I would also like to mention that I was previously using Windows 7 x32 which was installed on my O: partition. Reinstalling Windows 7 x64 on the O: partition, windows renamed the partition to C: and I lost files I had on my C partition is it possible to get at least some of it back ?

When you re-installed win 32 on O:\ did you format the partition?

 

[karlsnooks]

After recently having a high risk virus, I was thought that by buying Norton 360 would remove the virus, the good news was that it found the virus the bad news is it couldn't remove it. I was left to reinstall windows after a back up from Paragon Back up and Recovery (Free Edition) didn't work. Norton comes with a back up tool are there any reviews on Norton's back up utility ?

I would also like to mention that I was previously using Windows 7 x32 which was installed on my O: partition. Reinstalling Windows 7 x64 on the O: partition, windows renamed the partition to C: and I lost files I had on my C partition is it possible to get at least some of it back ?

In direct answer to your question: I recommend using Win 7 Backup and Restore which is part of Win 7.

Now to your virus problem:

If that computer has a working OS, then download, install and run MalwareBytes.
Malwarebytes

If not, then there are two products which I can recommend. Each of these can be burned to a CD (or put on a USB stick with a little more work).

You will end up with a .iso file which you must burn to a cd. If you have a working Win 7 system, then that's easy. Just click on the iso and the Win 7 burner will pop up and tell you to insert a cd/dvd.

I have tried both of these. I have the greater confidence in the Kaspersky product. Fortunately, or unfortunately, my test computer did not have any viruses but both have very good user interfaces.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk (free)
Panda SafeCD (free)

 

[Maxxwire]

JerometheGiraff- You might have some success retrieving some of your data from the reformatted drive, but a substantial part of it has already been overwritten with Win 7 x64. There are a lot of backup programs on the market. FWIW I have used Macrium Reflect to back up both of my Vista x86 and Win 7 x64 computers and it has never failed once to restore a perfectly working image to the drive.

~Maxx~
.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

FWIW I have used Macrium Reflect to back up both of my Vista x86 and Win 7 x64 computers and it has never failed once to restore a perfectly working image to the drive.

Will using Macrium Reflect be successful at retrieving some of the files that were over written upon installing Windows x64 on the same partition that was Windows x32 ? How does it compare with tools like Norton Back up there are quite a few back up utilities out there I'm just trying to find the one that is the most reliable and that is good whether that be something I currently have or another tool.

 

[karlsnooks]

Jerome,
I am not a user of Macrium but several are. I will leave that question for them.

Norton products don't seem to have made the jump to Win 7 smoothly.

I use only the tools that come with Win 7 including Win 7 Backup & Restore.

I will tell you that your chances of recoverying, at this stage of the game, from reformatting and installing on a partition are slim to none. I have used recovery software, a commercial product, to recover from a format but that was immediately thereafter with no install or usage in between.

 

[Maxxwire]

Jerome, I will tell you that your chances of recoverying, at this stage of the game, from reformatting and installing on a partition are slim to none. I have used recovery software, a commercial product, to recover from a format but that was immediately thereafter with no install or usage in between.

No backup imaging software will be able to un-delete your lost files and I'm afraid that karlsnooks is right that the chances are slim to none at getting them back even with data retrieval software at this point.

In the past I have lost large chunks of data myself and learned the hard way that the old saying is true...

"If you only have your data backed up twice you don't really care about it..."

I now have Karen's Replicator freeware programmed to back up my data to 4 different drives.

~Maxx~
.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

I will take a look at the two programs suggested. I didn't loose a ton of data a small chunk of what I lost has been recovered but there was other stuff including notes and design stuff I lost. Hopefully I can remember over time and rebuild some stuff I lost as well. I won't make the same mistake next time, I lost more data in previous formats/re-install then this time so that was the only blessing

 

[Maxxwire]

I won't make the same mistake next time.

That is the same motivation that I have been running under in building up my file backup system. Unless you have a large drive in your computer that you can use you will need an external drive to back up to and I have run the gamut as far as the 1-2 TB Western Digital and Seagate drives available at local brick and mortar stores in that 4 out of 5 of them that usually only run in 480 Mbps USB 2 and have all failed within 6-18 months!

After spending well over $500 on a series of failed external HDD's I did some serious research and came across the LaCie Hard Disk MAX 2TB Quadra eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB 2.0 RAID Portable External Hard Drive that uses a 3 Gbps eSATA connection which I have measured at 160/90 read and write times in Raid 0 and when the two 1 TB drives are run in Raid 1 they are mirrored images of each other and if 1 should fail it can be replaced and re-imaged from the other for added security.

The LaCie 2 TB drive does cost a little more than the others did, but from the reviews I've seen there are people who have been using this drive for over 4 years with no performance issues. This LaCie HDD also has a fan which comes on during heavy use which I think has a lot to do with enabling its longevity and is almost silent when the drive is at idle.

~Maxx~
.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

Thanks Maxxwire, I will keep that drive in mind for the future For now it's Macrium all the way and never let that happen again, what about the case with multiple computers backing them all up at once but separately can it be done with software and hardware if so what are the routes for both ?

 

[Maxxwire]

What about the case with multiple computers backing them all up at once but separately can it be done with software and hardware if so what are the routes for both ?

I use Karen's Replicator to back up my data and with a file backup program like this you can program it to do a scheduled backup all of the new files in each of your computers to an external drive or drives. It will take some time to set up all the file backup paths in each computer, but once that is done you can choose whatever time interval you like between scheduled backups.

~Maxx~
.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

I use Karen's Replicator to back up my data and with a file backup program like this you can program it to do a scheduled backup all of the new files in each of your computers to an external drive or drives. It will take some time to set up all the file backup paths in each computer, but once that is done you can choose whatever time interval you like between scheduled backups.

Don't most backup programs have a scheduler ? You seem to swear by this product, what makes this one better over the other programs mentioned in this thread ? How reliable is it can I guarantee it will live up to what you say it will

 

[CarlTR6]

While I don't use Replicator, I can vouch for some of Karen's other programs. She is very competent and knowledgeable of Windows.

 

[Maxxwire]

JerometheGiraff- I prefer to use Karen's Replicator because it is an excellently written diminutive resource conserving 2 MB free piece of backup software that is not the product of a software giant like Western Digital's backup software they included in a 1 TB Drive I bought from them which was monstrously large at over 600 MB in size with a price tag of $40, but rather a single individual's brilliant effort at a highly efficient and totally accurate backup software design offered to the public absolutely free.

~Maxx~
.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

I suppose I never heard of Karen's Replicator so I assume it can't be as good as the major ones out there. I will try it out !!

 

[CarlTR6]

Let us know what you think of it. Most of her utilities and tools work really well and have no bloat. Her programming is rock solid.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

What about if you had to install the backup contents of one PC onto another, or parts of it?

 

[malexous]

Norton products don't seem to have made the jump to Win 7 smoothly..

First time I've heard that. Care to elaborate?

JerometheGiraff, you've paid for it, why not try Norton 360's backup?

Here's a review mentioning it: Symantec’s Norton 360 Version 4.0 – Review

Don't evaluate Norton's protection capabilities from what you've seen. It's well known that anti-viruses tend to have trouble removing threats in an already infected machine. Norton Bootable Recovery Tool is for those times.

 

[Maxxwire]

What about if you had to install the backup contents of one PC onto another, or parts of it?

This can be accomplished with Karen's Replicator by programming the 1st computer to backup to identical files located on the external hard drive and then programming the 2nd computer to have those files on the external drive backed to it by Karen's Replicator after the initial backup is finished which will produce an identical file backup on the 2nd computer or parts of it.

Most of her utilities and tools work really well and have no bloat. Her programming is rock solid.

This is so true! Watching the GUI while a backup is being done is like watching the files blaze by in the Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark doing the text parsing test where the files display is nothing but a blur!

~Maxx~
.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

Malexous, you are right. Based on that review I decided to go with Norton back up since I bought it and it would be a waste not to use what I paid for, if things don't work out then I'll go with the recommendation brought upon by Maxwire