Robert in CA wrote:
Ok so we select the most recent Mrimg to avoid the loss of data
and I've already put working documents on the Patriot drive for
safe keeping. What about bookmarks? Do I have to save them as
well?

I understand what your saying and perhaps that's what I should be
doing although I'm not using much of my C: drive as you can see:

https://postimg.cc/zHFyRBNP

https://postimg.cc/Yv9vhMsb

https://postimg.cc/q6J3wn1d === Previous Versions enabled ???

https://postimg.cc/gw4dRZLh ("Check now" picture)

Should we check the drive for errors on both computers before we
clone an mrimg? Should I defrag both computers?

I still have (2) Startech cases and perhaps I should dedicate one for all
my personal files as another way to protect my data and just connect it
daily to use it. I would also do it manually so I can see what's going on
but it should be an easy matter. Once we create Win 7 Pro on the spare
HD's I can use one for all my personal data. Basically, it would be the
same exact setup I have now except all my persona data would off this
computer and as you say I would free up this C: drive. Would that make
it run faster?

I went back and checked the 780 mrimgs because the ones I gave you had
old dates and as you noted I create backups every month so there should be
more current mrimgs for the 780 and I found them:

https://postimg.cc/GBDgnwdm


The most current being 3-4-21 for both the 780 and 8500 since I do them the
same day.

So should I clone the 780 ? Then if the backspace key returns we know it should
for the 8500 as well.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert


You can do a CHKDSK if you want. In File Explorer, you highlight the partition
needing a check, do Properties on it, then under the Tools tab is "Check Now".
To be able to repair C: , the machine may tell you a reboot is required.
At the beginning of the reboot, before C: is mounted, that's when it
can run the check. That could take a while. The basic check just verifies
any linkages. It does not verify that all files are readable.

Your Previous Versions picture, is coming from System Restore points.
So that's the storage area it uses on C: . It has a limited amount of
storage for Previous Versions. The oldest Previous Version is thrown
away, to make room for the latest one.

https://www.howtogeek.com/56891/use-...ve-your-files/

I think that might get backed up, but I haven't verified that.
THe actual storage location, could be vaguely related to
"System Volume Information" at the top of C: , but you're not
allowed to look in there.

Taking materials off C: , the purpose of that is to de-duplicate
your backups a bit. It depends on how many copies of the
materials, make sense to keep. If you do full backups, one after
another, then every one of those has a copy of Downloads for example.

Storing materials in a separate partition, you still have to back up
the separate partition. But, you can alter the frequency of such
backups, to whatever makes sense to you. For example, I have 1.3TB
of stuff off of C: , and that might get backed up twice a year.
I could easily lose newer materials. But being as large as it is,
first I have to find space to store the output :-/

Features such as Incremental Backups in Macrium, make the storage
of backed-up material more efficient. But that's a function in the
paid version.

*******

You can do CHKDSK, before defragmenting, for safety.

When you make backups with Macrium, the clusters are recorded
in cluster-order. The hard drive head does not fly around
trying to trace down chunks in "file name order".

file1.txt cluster 1, cluster 3 === fragmented, two clusters
file2.txt cluster 2, cluster 5 === fragmented, two clusters

Macrium backup order is 1,2,3,5... to the MRIMG.

During the Restoration process, if you resize the restored partition,
it (as a side effect) can defragment a bit. So you can get a bit of
defragmentation during restore, by resizing a partition. The defragmentation
is not "done with a purpose", it's not "perfect", but you'll notice
that it's been screwed around a bit.

None of the defragmentation options work like the built-in
feature in Windows XP. There, the files were shoulder to should,
like a brick wall. The Windows 7 defragmenter doesn't do that.
The Windows XP defragmenter could easily run for 8 hours.
The Windows 7 one, maybe 10-15 minutes (because it doesn't work as hard).

https://i.postimg.cc/zDxRR4yv/jkdefrag.gif

In that example, JKDefrag is being used from the command line.
These are some examples of JKDefrag commands:

jkdefrag -a 1 -d 2 C: # Graphical representation of current fragments
# This is how I can tell how hard it will be for
# any tool to clean up.

jkdefrag -a 5 -d 2 C: # Dumb function, to consolidate free space by
# "shoving all the files downwards". Still needs
# a defrag after this!

(Now, run the Windows 7 defragmenter, which is sorta intelligent)

jkdefrag -a 2 -d 2 C: # Defrag. Run this after Windows 7 defrag for
# best results. It defragments the files larger than
# about 50MB or so, that Win7 didn't process.

-a N The action to perform. N is a number from 1 to 11, default is 3:
1 = Analyze, do not defragment and do not optimize.
2 = Defragment only, do not optimize.
3 = Defragment and fast optimize [recommended].
5 = Force together.
6 = Move to end of disk.
7 = Optimize by sorting all files by name (folder + filename).
8 = Optimize by sorting all files by size (smallest first).
9 = Optimize by sorting all files by last access (newest first).
10 = Optimize by sorting all files by last change (oldest first).
11 = Optimize by sorting all files by creation time (oldest first).

https://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/

https://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/JkDefrag64-3.36.zip # 64-bit version

*******

That backspace key is going to haunt you. It's some application
you've installed, and could have been one of your automatic updates.
I would be surprised, if going backwards had good odds of fixing it.

I just don't know how to debug keyboard issues. Yes, there's a translation
table, but applications can install filter drivers too, devcon might
list such things, but I don't know if there are any additional failure
modes or holes in the scheme where they are messing about. Maybe it could
be caught with ProcMon, seeing some compute activity captured at the
instant the key is pressed. But generally, I don't have a warm feeling
on the topic. ProcMon is always a "needle in a haystack" - analysis
is a pain. And I can't help you from here, because I don't know
what application is doing it, and it's pretty hard to simulate.

(The new versions are Win7 and higher)

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sys...nloads/procmon

I tried a fake test case here with that, and could not find
the trigger event. Already, an easy test, I can't catch it.

Paul