Novice Alert! 
I don't know the difference between a data backup and system backups. I'd like to understated more about backups in general as well as in detail. Is there a good resource for learning this? Something that cuts through the computer lingo? 
I've suffered through a couple of hard drive crashes over the years and have held my breath hoping my backup had everything and in a format that could be recovered. I just finished replacing a dead hard drive and reloading the operating system (system restore), programs, many layers of updates, and files. I keep thinking there's gotta be a better way. Going forward I'd like to at least feel more assured, especially that my extensive Outlook email files will come through these ordeals. 
Thanks for any help, Cynthia 

----- Original Message ----- 
I have cleaned my computer when it was infected before. I keep backups, so all I have to backup is whatever isn't on the latest data backup (my data backups are separate from my system backups). If you haven't done this, you have a few choices. 

You can back up every file individually (meaning you select each file, not entire folders) and then do a virus scan on the finished backup. This is time consuming and you won't like it. It's what I did. You can also do virus scans on each hard drive individually, then back up the drive after you are certain it is not infected. I would also scan the backup after it is done, just to make sure. Once you are certain that you have uninfected backups, then you can delete the data and proceed. 

I always keep data backups on DVDs. Once I have a backup that I know to be error and virus free I make at least 2 copies. This ensures that I can still retrieve my data if one copy gets corrupted. It has saved my data many times. 

Denise 

P.S. System backups should still be done, of course. They are just not done in the same sets. 


----- Original Message ----- 
Has anyone else had fun?? with this VIRTUMONDE virus?? I've cleaned 2 units, they were straight hard drives. Now, my main computer!! It's partitioned into 3, "C", "E" videos 
& "F" documents. I'm thinking of putting E & F on flash drives while I clean #1 computer. 
Will I carry the virus into my reworked computer via the drives or not. My OS XPpro sp3 
I hate to lose all my pix & docs. 




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