That Sinking Feeling

That’s the question I usually ask when confronted with a drive failure, or a malfunctioning system. More often than not, the answer is usually a no. Its a tough lesson to learn, and backup is such an easy thing to do these days. Just remember all hard drives will eventually fail. There should be no more excuses, having a backup is an essential part of daily life now, everything is kept on a computer these days right? Along with installing an anti virus program, there should be some sort of backup process happening.

So let’s talk about backup, what can you and should you be doing about this? Yes I know trying to perform and maintain this boring task is hard, but as they say an ounce of prevention yadda yadda. These days backup software is designed to do it for you and you won’t even notice it running. I can’t tell you how many times a good backup has saved the day, from accidentally deleting that file to restoring entire drives. As a general rule, you want to have a least 3 copies of every important file. One on the computer, one on an external drive, and another somewhere not near the physical location of the computer (ie in the “cloud”). I’ve experienced this first hand when my house flooded. There goes my computer..along with the backup drive sitting right next to it. Lucky for me I had a 3rd copy of everything important stashed elsewhere online and not in my home.

While there are several decent and affordable 3rd party software vendors out there that can do this job, I will focus on the ones that you already have installed and you probably didn’t know it comes with your OS. If you are a Windows Vista or Windows 7 user, Microsoft has included a built in Backup and Restore program, much improved over its XP predecessor. As for Apple users, it should be obvious that there is something called Time Machine begging for you to configure it if you have not already. To get started with either, please go and invest some money in an external drive that attaches via USB and get one that will be large enough to hold all your data off the internal system drive and any additional stored data on the computer you would like to backup.

Windows 7 Backup and Restore

To get started using the built in backup software all you need is the external hard drive as I mentioned (or for the tech savvy a network file share on another system). There are two ways to invoke the Backup and Restore screen; one is to simply search under the start menu (the Windows bubble on the bottom left) for ‘backup’ and it should eventually bring up the listing above for Backup and Restore or click the long way and go to Start->Control Panel->System and Security->Backup and Restore.

To follow the prompts to get an initial backup is quite simple. Click the “Set Up Backup” option and another dialog will open that looks like this screenshot:

The first step is to choose the destination for where the data is to be stored, hopefully your external drive will be listed here. Or, for the advanced user one can choose a network share located somewhere else on the local network. Keep in mind the amount of data stored could be huge so it will take longer for the initial backup to complete. The next screen will ask you what data to backup, there are two options here. If you are not sure, you keep stuff locally in your profile folders (Documents, Photos, Music etc folders called Libraries) and you trust Microsoft to do it for you, choose the first option “Let Windows Choose”. This option also creates a system image and saves all installed programs as well. If you have additional data on another internal drive select the “Let Me Choose” option and on the next screen a layout of all your folders and drives is displayed. Make sure you check off all your user folder libraries, any other folders with data outside these and check the “Include a system image of drives: C:”

Clicking next will bring up a confirmation screen. Before clicking on finish however make sure you click on “Change Schedule” as by default it is set to run on Sundays at 7pm only. A backup is only as good as the last time it ran so once a week is not enough. I like to schedule mine for twice a week at a minimum and at a time when I know the computer will be turned on. Also note that if the backup window is missed, the program will run the next time the computer is on. Make the appropriate changes and save them. If this is the first time being setup the backup process will start. You with me so far? It may seem complex but really its not.

Next Steps

To make things even more easy for restoration purposes, Microsoft also provides a method of creating a System Repair Disc that ties into this backup system. If you machine has a fatal hard drive failure and cannot be brought back to life, simply boot off this CD/DVD and follow the prompts to restore the system onto a new drive. On the same screen for Backup and Restore off to the left is the option to create one with a CD/DVD burner. Make that and keep that in a handy location in case you ever need it.

Cloud Backup, The Third Copy

On top of running a local backup, I also recommend keeping a third copy of your data somewhere else that’s not local.  You don’t have to keep absolutely everything out there, just the files, photos and other data that definitely should not get lost. For the paranoid, most services offer secure encryption so no one can get at this stuff without knowing your password.  From the services I’ve seen, many have a scheduled backup option so again there is nothing to remember to do. A cursory Google search yields many options to go with from free to monthly costs, so read up on features and reviews accordingly. I personally use Jungledisk backup with Amazon S3 storage as the storage backend, which is an older service now powered by Rackspace and may not be available anymore.

1. Boot from your Windows XP CD or DVD and start the recovery console.

2. Once you are in the Repair Screen, type this command: CHDIR $NtUninstallKB977165$\spuninst.

3. Type this command: BATCH spuninst.txt.

4. When complete, type this command: exit.

Update: According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, they have updated information on this problem. They are currently claiming this BSOD is caused by a rootkit that is present on the system before the update is applied. So, once the procedure to remove the update is performed, it is imperative the computer is checked for this infection. The investigation is still on going.

Update #2: After some investigation the sample computer I have was in fact infected with the suspected rootkit Rootkit.Win32.TDSS . After recovering of the system outlined above, download this program TDSSKiller.zip from Kaspersky. Run it on the system and it should detect and  clean it right away. Then after reboot the computer can finally be properly updated. As added bonus you can try this program as well Hitmanpro 3.5,  this program found all kinds of nasties. Its free for 30 days.

The estimated retail prices for upgrade packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

Aww boo! Even though it less than what Vista costs today, this is still too expensive for my tastes.  Two other tidibits of info, if you are a diehard first in line type Microsoft will be offering a Pre Order discount of about half off starting tomorrow (Friday June 26th 2009) at select retailers like Best Buy, Amazon etc.  But only until July 11th!  Fear not if you don’t want to take the early plunge, also starting tomorrow if you buy a new computer ” from a participating OEM or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate on it will all receive an upgrade to the corresponding version of Windows 7 at little or no cost to customers.” This is good until January 31st 2010.

OK, that doesn’t sound like a bad deal to me.

• 32 bit is here

• 64 bit is here

So what does this do? Upgrade to Windows 7? Uhm..not quite sorry. This is primarily a bug fix release, and most of the improved items are happening under the hood. Some notable changes in this Service Pack are:

• SP2 includes ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media.
• SP2 integrates the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology.
• SP2 improves performance for Wi-Fi connections after resuming from sleep mode.
• SP2 includes Windows Search 4.0

The full list of changes can be found here.  Happy downloading!

This is an interesting little worm we’ve got on our hands, it has the ability to attack on multiple fronts and mutate from different vectors.   Go out and make sure your machines are up to date with the latest patches people, this one is based on a vulnerability discovered in September 20008 affecting all Windows products from 2000 on up.  Security blogger Byron Acohido has a great write up on how to see if your machine is infected and what to do about it.  So if you can’t seem to get to websites such as Microsoft.com, Symantec.com, or McAfee.com you most likely could have the infection. Not to worry, there are plenty of free tools out there that remove the worm.

More information about this worm can be found here, here and here.