Reverse utility

[onesmartidiot]

yo

it seems about every 10 weeks i blow my computer up with viruses or spyware (depending on the warez site that jacks my computer). this always results in me franticly backing up all my data to another hard drive and reinstall windows, which isnt that bad but my xp disc is sp1 (and getting it updated after install is a pain!). i dont use norton or webroot because they slow down my system and cause my memory hungry programs to go slooow. so...

at my school they had software that every other week took the computers and wiped out anything that wasnt supposed to be there. ex: if you didnt save your work to the server and left it on your desktop, it was deleted. it was ice drive or freeze drive i think, i dont really remember (it never loaded or had a screen during boot but it was there)

does anyone know the name or type of software this is? and would it work for me like

redo my system and put on all my music, videos, updates and programs. then whenever i screw it up just restore it to this state?

the system restore dosent work against malware and stuff but i think this software will.

im on cold medication so if anything didnt make sense im sorry ! lol

 

[Nodsu]

Any disk cloning program can do this for you.

Then again, how can you be sure that the original image is malware free?
I do recommend growing up and/or using a safer browser like Opera or Firefox

 

[onesmartidiot]

lol

there isnt malware in the xp install, i just want to go back to a "fresh xp sp2 with updates" whenever it screws up.

 

[N3051M]

hows this:
-make two partitions on your main HDD - 1: Windows (20gb) 2: Data (everything else)
-Create a Windows XP Slipstreamed with SP2 (or if you cant just download SP2 onto a cd and then when you've installed winxp SP1 then install SP2 after you get into windows) and install it on the Windows partition.
-Install all the other programs/updates thats essential to you eg office, antivirus, firewall etc as well
-before you connect to the net or install/go to anything "iffy" make a disk image (using Norton Ghost or Acronis etc) of the windows partition on a blank CD/DVD and label that "Windows XP SP2 with everything on it" or something and keep that safe..

Use a backup software to keep regular backups on another HDD/partition and it'll make System Restore look like a.............

 

[onesmartidiot]

i think that idea is cool, but i dont get a few things.

are you saying make 2 partitions during the initial install?
{partition one install windows partition 2 leave blank}
and while on the first partition you could see and use the second?
i know that whatever they use at my school isnt that complicated lol

i looked up "disk cloning" and didnt really find what i was looking for.
alot of them were backup programs.

i will save my documents and stuff to my 120gb passport (like i have to do when at school, save stuff on my "P: drive not the desktop)and i want the programs and documents that i dont take around (like the 36 gigs of music) to be frozen to the "ultimate restore point".

i just thougt of somthing while typing this, can i put 2 different installs of windows xp on 2 different partitions?

like, when i turn on the computer, it does the post stuff then asks
"load windows xp pro
load windows xp pro
load ubuntu"

ive had the GRUB loader that installs with ubuntu and it has xp pro and all the ubuntu stuff.

would that work? then one enviroment would be the "grown up one" lol and the other would be solely for messing up.

then i dont have to back anything up , just install windows again.

i think i rambled mostly but lemme know if it didnt make sense

 

[N3051M]

are you saying make 2 partitions during the initial install?
{partition one install windows partition 2 leave blank}
and while on the first partition you could see and use the second?

Actualy having the second partition is optional, its like how you put all your stuff on your 120GB passport.. maybe i should've mentioned that you format it and store all your data on there, so when windows stuff up you can just wipe that partition without care and you still have your data intact

i just thougt of somthing while typing this, can i put 2 different installs of windows xp on 2 different partitions?
like, when i turn on the computer, it does the post stuff then asks
"load windows xp pro
load windows xp pro
load ubuntu"

lol.. i was thinking "why the hek would you want two of the same thing?" untill i read the next sentence which made sense..
I guess you could do that.. come to think of it one of my friends used to have 2 instalations of windows (1 bare, optimised for music recording etc, the other for general use) before he bought his mac G5..

But there's a rule thats pretty smart, and probably stark obvious: Backup before "messing around" or making big system changes.. and for some of us backup is just saving a "snapshot" or image of the HDD not just copying your data over in their original format..

I guess the stuff they used at your school is probably a server with the fresh image or a "master computer" which runs a disk-wipe-reinstall remotely triggered through the network after the day/period end.. its either that or activating a network/security feature in XP pro that doesn't let you save on the local C drive only the network drive or just wipes the new data saved (etc) as part of the user logout process.. probably a $$ solution (except the windowsxp thing, which i don't know how it works)

 

[onesmartidiot]

i watched a systems dude redo one of the dells at my school and it was novell zenworks, and it took 2 hours because it was retriveing an image from the server. (so there goes that idea lol)

i redid my system with 3 xp pro installs, i have a 200gb hdd and i set 2.5 gigs for linux (which means i left it unpartitioned)
6 gigs were set for my "blow it up" partition of xp.
10 were set for an experimental xp that would be used for games or somthing and whatever was left was for my main install with all my email, flash, and photoshop on it.

when post is done, i can choose which of the 3 windows i want to login to (is there a way i can edit the text for these choices?)

they each act like different installs of xp because i had to install my msi network disc 3 times but

each windows can "see" the drive of the other windows.
i wanted there to be 3 completely different installs that couldnt mess with eachother in any way.

i havent even wasted the time to download and install sp2 on them yet because it may need redone so that it works the way i want.

anyone know what i could do to make these partitions invisible to eachother?
(a free soulution would be nice!

 

[N3051M]

when post is done, i can choose which of the 3 windows i want to login to (is there a way i can edit the text for these choices?)

you could. Start>Run>msconfig>Boot tab etc.

Look for Boot Managers. I know there is one that hides your other partitions while you're on the one, but i can't recall what it was..

 

[onesmartidiot]

i went to that screen and played around, i have it so that the 160gb windows loads by default but it wont let me edit anything textwise.

since i have nothing to back up if i need to redo it again, ive expiremented on a few things.

i have to go to each of the 3 partitions to install things :EX: on xp 1 i installed flash 8 on xp 2 i did photoshop and xp 3 i did dreamweaver

i cant access any 2 programs from the same xp boot but

i on purpose downloaded some crap i knew would have spyware on one of the xp boots, but its effects show up on all the xp's.

figure that one out

(it didnt hose up my system too bad )

 

[N3051M]

If you've installed a certain software on one windows, and try to run it on another you'd most likely encounter errors, since some registry settings and where-is-this-file things are missing. But some programs that are designed as freestanding could be used cross-windows..

antivirus/malware scans the whole HDD including other partitions. You can set it to scan only the one drive/XP and see if it comes up. If its a spyware that latches on the startup then in theory only the xp install that's infected would have the max effect on.. but also important to note other spyware/etc act differently and have different functions.. which spyware did you try?

i went to that screen and played around, i have it so that the 160gb windows loads by default but it wont let me edit anything textwise.

oo.. now i remember where it was that i did that
Right click My computer>Properties>Advanced Tab>(startup and recovery) [settings]>(system startup) [Edit]
Should come up with a notepad file. Be carefull not to change anything else if you don't know what its for because your PC may not boot up hehe..

 

[onesmartidiot]

i found that notepad file on accedent fixing my friends compaq last night haha
so if i got 2 different hdds would that keep the xp's from overlaping?

 

[N3051M]

i think as long as the lines:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

have the correct numbers in the right locations to identify where and which windows is.. and also probably change the name identifyer as well (instead of seeing 3 exact same "windows xp" on the list...)

correct me if that wasn't the answer you were looking for