Save Your Stuff! Seminar

Why?

The biology teacher walked into my computer lab. "I've got a crazy computer! Every time I open the browser to get on the web, this ad keeps popping up and won't let me do anything else but go there!"

"OK," I said, "I'll be right there." On my way to his room I wondered how his computer had become infected. Our network was behind a firewall. His account was only a user and not an administrator. We were running the best corporate anti-virus software that was out there. In spite of all that, his computer was still infected. It's not a matter of "if" but "when," I repeated to myself for the hundredth time.

Dealing with situations like these were familiar and bothersome, but not nearly as painful as they once were. With my old network, when a computer got a virus or software became misconfigured or Windows started bogging down, I would have to swap computers to keep the users going, then bring the computer back to my lab and try to clean it. Usually that was a huge time waster and I would need to re-install everything anyways. Hours down the drain. That's when I began thinking....

Even though our network was setup so all the teachers and students kept their data on the server, and even though most of the major software installed itself from the server, there were still a lot of steps to go through and every computer was a little bit different. Some were connected directly to different printers, which meant different drivers. Some had software only the business office was permitted to have. Others had unique peripherals or user preferences. So that meant everything had to be customized, and it was still easy to miss something, even though I wrote everything down.

What I began wishing for was a way to not only avoid re-installing Windows and all the software, but a way to save all the settings and customizations the user liked. For example, we all know what it means to save a Word document, but did you know that there is a way to also save where you put your toolbars and what view you use to edit your document? In other words, I wanted to be able to snap my fingers and the computer would magically return to exactly the way it was before the disaster. So how could I do that?

What I found is not as easy as snapping your fingers, but it is close! The process you do is easy and the program you need is free. It takes about 3 minutes of sitting in front of the computer using only one program that needs only a few steps that you don't have to memorize. Then you can kick up your feet and take a nap for 10-20 minutes while it does its thing. When it wakes up, and you wake up, you have a computer returned to the exact configuration you saved before the disaster hit! Easy! Nice! Anyone can do it!

When my friend's laptop got a similar annoying virus (he was running anti-virus software also!) I configured his computers for him and taught him how to save and restore. Yes, the initial configuration takes some time, but you are very grateful and feel paid-off after the very first time you use it. Now my friend is organized. He knows where his data is stored, so now he backs up every few days. And he is well-prepared for his next computer problem. Do you know where all your data and settings are? If you don't know where they are how can you back them up? Backing up the whole computer every time is not the answer! That does not happen often enough and you are almost guaranteed to find things missing when you restore. One-touch backup is commercially popular because it sounds good, but just like online backup, it only solves part of the problem.

Benefits

Unless all you do is surf the web, your computer holds valuable data, pictures, and documents. Power outages, hard drive crashes, viruses, user error, and other factors put your information at risk, especially if it is 3 years old or more. My method, worked out while managing a school network of over 130 computers, is the cheapest, safest, and easiest method I know. Here are some benefits it will give you.

1) Viruses are always ahead of anti-virus software. You will get a virus. My approach is based on recovery and prevention, rather than prevention alone. Now viruses can be disinfected in seconds or minutes, by you, for free!

2) Windows always slows down and gets "clogged" the more it is used. Now Windows never needs to be re-installed. (Note: This seminar is aimed at Windows XP. Most, but not all, of these instructions apply to Vista and Windows 7.)

3) Your files are safe no matter what happens to Windows.

4) A backup plan never used is useless. Now your backups will be smaller and faster and more frequent!

5) Windows will be customized to run faster and easier for you.

6) Easily recover from dreaded registry errors.

7) You'll be given some high quality, free software. This is not only for backup purposes but for many other common computer activities. In this economy, free is a good thing!

8) You'll gain more control over, and feel more comfortable with, your PC.

9) You'll learn a better, safer way to browse anywhere on the web.

Overview

The goal is to separate your data (documents, photos, music, etc...) from Windows and all your other programs. You can do this by saving everything on a portable hard drive, but a better way is to split your hard drive into partitions. This is an electronic splitting of your hard drive so you have a C drive and a D drive. Your DVD drive gets moved to E. You then tell Windows that you want your data on D and that is what you backup regularly. C is for Windows and that is where your problems will come from, but you can restore it at anytime without affecting the D drive.

To summarize: You are separating your data from Windows, pointing Windows to your D drive, imaging your C drive, and backing up your D drive. (Imaging is a special way of backing up.)

The cost? The only thing you need to buy is a portable hard drive. All the software you will need is free. You do NOT need online backup subscriptions, anti-virus subscriptions, or any other expenses. I'll point you to free solutions that work very good. With the money you will save you can more than pay for the portable hard drive.

Let's get started! ---------------------------------------------

Prep Stage

There are several key items that MUST be taken care of before starting.

1) Image your hard drive to a portable drive! If you goof up somewhere you can always restore from that image.

*** Go to Seagate's website and download their free imaging software called DiscWizard or go to Paragon's website and download their free software. (Note: DiscWizard works on Seagate or Maxtor hard drives. Check Device Manager in My Computer properties for your hard drive type. If you are not sure what you have, get Paragon.)

*** Whichever one you choose, install it and immediately make and burn a Restore CD. That is your magic key for a lifetime of computer bliss! When your computer rebels and misbehaves you will reboot with that CD and restore the image file you will make on the next step.

*** While still in DiscWizard or Paragon, backup your C drive to your portable drive. This is your temporary image until we make your new, better image.

(Note: If the links change or you have difficulties along the way with any of this process, email me at royallyon@gmail.com. If you end up hiring me to do this for you, I can give you all the free software you will need, but otherwise I can't distribute all of it.)

2) Have your Windows key handy. It should be on a sticker on your computer or on a sticker on a CD that came with your computer.

3) Collect pc, printer, and other peripheral drivers. You should have CD's that came with the equipment or else you need to download them from the manufacturer's website. For the computer itself, you will almost definitely need to download from the web. For Dell computers go here, and for HP/Compaq computers go here. Download ALL drivers that are listed for your computer to your portable hard drive. Also make sure you have selected the right operating system!

4) Collect setup programs for all your software. We will be wiping out your hard drive and starting from scratch. If you have Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite or other software then you need to have the install CD/DVD handy, or have a setup file backed up with your other files.

5) If you have not installed a lot of software, you can skip this step. Open Windows Explorer by right clicking on the Start menu, then clicking Explore. Right click on the Program Files folder and click Properties. Write down the total for Size or Size on Disk, whichever is bigger. Right click on the Windows folder and click Properties. Again, write down the total for Size or Size on Disk, whichever is bigger. Add up the total Gigabytes (use 1000 MB = 1 GB). You'll use that number in the next stage.

HW Stage

Now that you have double checked and made sure that ALL steps in the prep stage are complete you are ready to setup your computer. First, we will do what I call the hardware stage, because our first goal is to get all the hardware working. (Again, make sure you have all drivers downloaded and ready on your portable hard drive. We don't want to go on the internet and risk viruses or adware, etc... We want to keep the computer totally clean for now.)

1) Boot with your Windows CD and advance to the screen that deals with partitions. This will be the last time you have to install Windows on that PC! Before the actual install, be sure to delete the partition(s) and create a new C and D partition. If you want to keep your factory recovery partition, that's a good idea. Make the C partition first and make it 20 GigaBytes (20,000MB) or double the total GB you calculated in the prep stage. Give the rest of the space to the D partition. Now go ahead and install Windows on drive C.

2) Now that Windows is working, time for a little safety measure. Go to Windows Explorer (hold the Windows logo button down on your keyboard and hit "E" and let go quickly.) On the menu click Tools | Folder options | View and make sure there is no checkmark next to "Hide extensions for known file types." Now you can tell the difference between a regular file and a program file (.exe, .com, .bat, .vbs, .js, .application, etc...). One way viruses infect a computer is by tricking people to double click on them. Think twice before double clicking on a program!

3) Do not put your files back on the hard drive yet! First we need to install your drivers and redirect your personal data folders, then your PC will be ready for files. I have a script to handle this in seconds. All it does is edit the registry in two places. Start the registry editor by clicking Start, then Run. Type in "regedit" without the quotes and hit Enter. Now go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders. The critical value there is "Personal." It is the "My Documents" folder. Change it to point to a folder on the D drive that you made. For example, D:\Bob or D:\Fernando. Also make sure to change "Desktop." For example, D:\Bob\Desktop or D:\Fernando\Desktop. Next go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders and again make sure you change "Personal." You can also change any other values, but make sure you change them to the same folder in both places. Shell Folders and User Shell Folders must match! After rebooting, Windows will look at the new place on D instead of on C, and all your documents will now save to the D drive!

4) Now we need to finish making your computer fully operational. In the Control Panel double click on System | Hardware | Device Manager. Your goal is to install all the necessary drivers so that the component tree is collapsed to a single level with no red or yellow symbols showing. Be prepared to reboot multiple times. (Aren't you thankful you won't have to do this again!)

5) Once your computer's devices are fully working you can connect to the internet, but don't browse! All you want to do is activate Windows. Click on the bubble in the lower right of your screen and it will activate you in seconds. Now you are done with the hardware stage, so let's save it so you don't have to do it again!

6) Install your same imaging software from the prep stage, or boot with the Restore CD you made. Use it to save an image of your C drive to your portable drive. This is a permanent backup file for the life your computer, so don't lose it!! This file will keep you from re-installing Windows ever again and is a good foundation to build on if you ever want to change your bigger software image you will make in the next stage. Burning it to a CD or DVD is a great idea!

Software Stage

I like to think of the software stage as a "layer" that sits on top of my hardware stage. Install all your software to the C drive like you did on your old system. All this software sits on top of the hardware and I never need to go back any deeper in the layers than the hardware layer. Even if I start over and remake the software layer from scratch (to upgrade a bunch of programs, for example), I always start over from the hardware image. I never re-install Windows.

After installing all your software, copy all your data files to the new folder on drive D. Remember that image you made in the very first step of your whole hard drive? All your data files are in there. In Windows Explorer you can double click on that .tib file and it will open up in a window which will let you drag and drop your files and folders into your new folder on the D drive. Start working with them as normal and redo all the customizations you are missing. Also, now is the time to start up any software and test it for proper installation and change any settings, register, etc... That way you won't have to do that every time you revert to the software image you are about to make.

At this point I run a bunch of setup programs and a variety of scripts I wrote to do things like make a well-organized and convenient Start Menu for the user, customize file associations, replace notepad with notepad++, etc... There are many standard installations I do, such as the latest versions of Java, Flash, Shockwave, Silverlight, media players, and browser extensions. Don't forget service packs and updates! I run the latest version of Firefox with the NoScript extension installed. Very safe! Very secure! I rarely run Microsoft's insecure Internet Explorer-- only when sites will work right no other way. I also go into the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and any exe that I don't want running on startup I turn into exex. That trick disables the program, but leaves a record so I can change it later if I need to.

Last, but not least, reboot to make sure all installations are complete and then defragment your hard drive. In Windows Explorer, right click on the C: drive, go to Properties | Tools | Defragment now. Most imaging software will preserve your defragmentation.

Finally, before making your software image, you need to decide if you want to install Windows Steady State. Let me explain. Whether you use it or not, you will make a software image, but if you have Windows Steady State (WSS) installed you can gain some benefits. AFTER you are done making your software image and you have rebooted into Windows, you can turn on disk protection. WSS will then immediately reboot. What will happen from now on is that any changes made to drive C: will be wiped out on reboot. In other words, every time you reboot, your hard drive will look exactly like a fresh, clean, no-virus version of your software image! You have cut your recovery time down from 15+ minutes to 15 seconds!

However, a few pieces of software don't like WSS. I think Adobe CS4 is one of them. Also, some high-performance games may slow down a little bit. You will just have to experiment with what you have.

Either way, WSS or not, when you notice viral activity or system degradation, simply restore your software image and you are back to a clean system partition while your data sits safely on the D drive-- backed up nightly of course!

Hope you have smooth sailing from now on! I do!