What's a backup?

I received another frantic call on Saturday from a mate who is having problems with his computer. It seems there is something wrong with his computer as the keyboard isn't working properly and every time he accesses the internet, his browser opens HUNDREDS of windows...sure sign of a virus.

Calling in to his place, I knew immediately what to do...blow away his system as he had dozens of viruses on his machine and it was going to take days to remove them all. I told him my plan and asked when he last ran a backup. A blank look came over his face - What's a backup?

Great. Instead of taking a few hours to rebuild his machine, I was going to have to spend days backing up his machine before I could rebuild it. I quickly removed his hard drive and told him I'd be back in a few days. The look on his face was priceless - WHAT!!! How am I supposed to keep in touch with everyone?

I quietly told him that he had 2 choices, either I take the drive and try to save his files or he loses the lot. Amazing how quickly people come around to your way of thinking when the are about to lose thousands of photos!!!

Well, it's taken18 hours to retrieve a copy of his hard drive and ensure all his files have been recovered. I think a few more days without his PC will encourage him to back up in future.

It's very fortunate for him that he didn't catch one of the many "ransom ware" viruses that are around. If he had one of those, there is no way I could have saved any of his files and he would have lost decades worth of photos.

Please everyone, if you have a computer, tablet or smart phone, BACK IT UP on a regular basis and verify the backup contents. It may be your only hope if you have something serious go wrong with your technology.

Windows 8 strikes back

I recently was asked to help out a close friend with issues she was having with photos she had taken for a client. Being new to Windows 8 she was having a lot of problems finding which photos she had edited and which ones still required editing.

Just as she was making progress (she had to deliver to the customer in 2 days) Windows 8 decided to install some patches.  Not an issue you would think, however, the install failed and as it is supposed to do, roll back the installation.

System advised rollback was successful and a reboot was required.  Reboot was performed and the system restarted...well it tried to, but the PC kept saying there was no boot media...oops.

It looks like the "rollback" had been so successful that it not only deleted some of the critical files, it also corrupted the MBR.

I recreated the MBR, still no luck.  Following instruction on various forums (yes this is a common problem with Windows 8) - no luck.

So here she was, no PC, customer files inaccessible and 2 days to deliver.

As a workaround I removed the drive, copied ALL her files onto another laptop and ran a quick scan to confirm all files were present....they were.  Running a quickly thrown together script I was able to identify the latest versions of the photos she required & copy them onto a USB key for her customer. A few hours work and a VERY relieved friend.

I'll be rebuilding her laptop over the next few days, installing Windows 7 as it's what she knows and hopefully won't have similar surprises.

I'm also burning a copy of all her critical files onto DVD AND copying them onto an external USB drive.  I'll leave it to her as to where she keeps the backups.  My recommendation - one copy (preferably the DVDs) to be kept off-site.

Lesson to be learned:

• Backup up critical files when they change
• NEVER allow patches to be applied when you are working on something critical
• Keep the phone number of your "technical guru" on speed dial
• When in doubt (especially with IT) stick with what you know

Until the next disaster.

Thursty