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#1
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
Hi
Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca |
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#3
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
Rebecca Sansom wrote:
Hi Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This is bad advise. Disabling System Restore should be done only after all infection cleanup is completed. The reason being, if something goes wrong (anything is possible) you will have no way to reverse your actions. The only way to re-infect the system is to undo the current restore point. Update Norton and do a virus scan. If Norton finds the virus in the System Volume Information fold only, that's the time to purge all existing restore points by disabling SR. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? No, System Restore does not work that way. You will only loose the ability to undo the current state and restore to a previous date. The current state of the system will not be changed by disabling SR. Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. No. By disabling SR it's all or none. Once the system is infection free, other than the System Volume Information folder (where SR holds it's restore points) disable SR, then enable it. For more on System Resto Description of System Restore http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org |
#4
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
Bert:
Glad you saw this post. I'm a little puzzled by your response, so I hope you can straighten something out for me on this topic. I have always understood that the possibility that an infected computer's restore points contain a copy of the virus is greater than the possibility that restoring the system would fix whatever problems an antivirus program's removal procedures might cause. Therefore, if you are fairly certain that you have a virus, you wouldn't want to keep your restore points. -- Ted Zieglar "You can do it if you try." "Bert Kinney" wrote in message ... Rebecca Sansom wrote: Hi Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This is bad advise. Disabling System Restore should be done only after all infection cleanup is completed. The reason being, if something goes wrong (anything is possible) you will have no way to reverse your actions. The only way to re-infect the system is to undo the current restore point. Update Norton and do a virus scan. If Norton finds the virus in the System Volume Information fold only, that's the time to purge all existing restore points by disabling SR. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? No, System Restore does not work that way. You will only loose the ability to undo the current state and restore to a previous date. The current state of the system will not be changed by disabling SR. Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. No. By disabling SR it's all or none. Once the system is infection free, other than the System Volume Information folder (where SR holds it's restore points) disable SR, then enable it. For more on System Resto Description of System Restore http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org |
#5
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
I agree with you Ted.
-- Peter Toronto, Canada XP Home SP2 "Ted Zieglar" wrote in message ... Bert: Glad you saw this post. I'm a little puzzled by your response, so I hope you can straighten something out for me on this topic. I have always understood that the possibility that an infected computer's restore points contain a copy of the virus is greater than the possibility that restoring the system would fix whatever problems an antivirus program's removal procedures might cause. Therefore, if you are fairly certain that you have a virus, you wouldn't want to keep your restore points. -- Ted Zieglar "You can do it if you try." "Bert Kinney" wrote in message ... Rebecca Sansom wrote: Hi Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This is bad advise. Disabling System Restore should be done only after all infection cleanup is completed. The reason being, if something goes wrong (anything is possible) you will have no way to reverse your actions. The only way to re-infect the system is to undo the current restore point. Update Norton and do a virus scan. If Norton finds the virus in the System Volume Information fold only, that's the time to purge all existing restore points by disabling SR. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? No, System Restore does not work that way. You will only loose the ability to undo the current state and restore to a previous date. The current state of the system will not be changed by disabling SR. Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. No. By disabling SR it's all or none. Once the system is infection free, other than the System Volume Information folder (where SR holds it's restore points) disable SR, then enable it. For more on System Resto Description of System Restore http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org |
#6
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
Hi Ted and Peter,
This subject has been highly debated. The following comments sum up results and options of the debate, which I agree with. AumHa Forums: Purging old System Restore points http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=152...2516 fe78cd83 System Restore and malware removal - what is best practice? http://msmvps.com/spywaresucks/archi.../17/66724.aspx -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org Ted Zieglar wrote: Bert: Glad you saw this post. I'm a little puzzled by your response, so I hope you can straighten something out for me on this topic. I have always understood that the possibility that an infected computer's restore points contain a copy of the virus is greater than the possibility that restoring the system would fix whatever problems an antivirus program's removal procedures might cause. Therefore, if you are fairly certain that you have a virus, you wouldn't want to keep your restore points. "Bert Kinney" wrote Rebecca Sansom wrote: Hi Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This is bad advise. Disabling System Restore should be done only after all infection cleanup is completed. The reason being, if something goes wrong (anything is possible) you will have no way to reverse your actions. The only way to re-infect the system is to undo the current restore point. Update Norton and do a virus scan. If Norton finds the virus in the System Volume Information fold only, that's the time to purge all existing restore points by disabling SR. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? No, System Restore does not work that way. You will only loose the ability to undo the current state and restore to a previous date. The current state of the system will not be changed by disabling SR. Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. No. By disabling SR it's all or none. Once the system is infection free, other than the System Volume Information folder (where SR holds it's restore points) disable SR, then enable it. For more on System Resto Description of System Restore http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org |
#7
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
Thanks very much, very useful, I am clear on what I need to do now!
"Bert Kinney" wrote: Hi Ted and Peter, This subject has been highly debated. The following comments sum up results and options of the debate, which I agree with. AumHa Forums: Purging old System Restore points http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=152...2516 fe78cd83 System Restore and malware removal - what is best practice? http://msmvps.com/spywaresucks/archi.../17/66724.aspx -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org Ted Zieglar wrote: Bert: Glad you saw this post. I'm a little puzzled by your response, so I hope you can straighten something out for me on this topic. I have always understood that the possibility that an infected computer's restore points contain a copy of the virus is greater than the possibility that restoring the system would fix whatever problems an antivirus program's removal procedures might cause. Therefore, if you are fairly certain that you have a virus, you wouldn't want to keep your restore points. "Bert Kinney" wrote Rebecca Sansom wrote: Hi Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This is bad advise. Disabling System Restore should be done only after all infection cleanup is completed. The reason being, if something goes wrong (anything is possible) you will have no way to reverse your actions. The only way to re-infect the system is to undo the current restore point. Update Norton and do a virus scan. If Norton finds the virus in the System Volume Information fold only, that's the time to purge all existing restore points by disabling SR. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? No, System Restore does not work that way. You will only loose the ability to undo the current state and restore to a previous date. The current state of the system will not be changed by disabling SR. Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. No. By disabling SR it's all or none. Once the system is infection free, other than the System Volume Information folder (where SR holds it's restore points) disable SR, then enable it. For more on System Resto Description of System Restore http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org |
#8
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
Thanks for the links. My point of disagreement - friendly disagreement, of
course - with Jim is on this point that he makes early on: "...it is better to be able to take a step back to a working version of Windows - even an infected one! - rather than have Windows trashed completely." Then again, I'm someone with a comprehensive backup strategy, so wiping out my system and restoring a backup, if it comes to that, is no big deal. These days, I zero confidence in an infected computer. Like so many other things in computerdom, the answer depends on how well prepared you are. No solution is perfect. (And for the record, in 12 years of personal computing, none of my computers have ever succumbed to infection.) -- Ted Zieglar "You can do it if you try." "Bert Kinney" wrote in message ... Hi Ted and Peter, This subject has been highly debated. The following comments sum up results and options of the debate, which I agree with. AumHa Forums: Purging old System Restore points http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=152...2516 fe78cd83 System Restore and malware removal - what is best practice? http://msmvps.com/spywaresucks/archi.../17/66724.aspx -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org Ted Zieglar wrote: Bert: Glad you saw this post. I'm a little puzzled by your response, so I hope you can straighten something out for me on this topic. I have always understood that the possibility that an infected computer's restore points contain a copy of the virus is greater than the possibility that restoring the system would fix whatever problems an antivirus program's removal procedures might cause. Therefore, if you are fairly certain that you have a virus, you wouldn't want to keep your restore points. "Bert Kinney" wrote Rebecca Sansom wrote: Hi Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This is bad advise. Disabling System Restore should be done only after all infection cleanup is completed. The reason being, if something goes wrong (anything is possible) you will have no way to reverse your actions. The only way to re-infect the system is to undo the current restore point. Update Norton and do a virus scan. If Norton finds the virus in the System Volume Information fold only, that's the time to purge all existing restore points by disabling SR. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? No, System Restore does not work that way. You will only loose the ability to undo the current state and restore to a previous date. The current state of the system will not be changed by disabling SR. Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. No. By disabling SR it's all or none. Once the system is infection free, other than the System Volume Information folder (where SR holds it's restore points) disable SR, then enable it. For more on System Resto Description of System Restore http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org |
#9
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Disabling System Restore Points after a successful restore.
Ted Zieglar wrote:
Thanks for the links. My point of disagreement - friendly disagreement, of course - with Jim is on this point that he makes early on: "...it is better to be able to take a step back to a working version of Windows - even an infected one! - rather than have Windows trashed completely." For users with limited resources, SR can give them a second chance. Then again, I'm someone with a comprehensive backup strategy, so wiping out my system and restoring a backup, if it comes to that, is no big deal. These days, I zero confidence in an infected computer. Like so many other things in computerdom, the answer depends on how well prepared you are. No solution is perfect. (And for the record, in 12 years of personal computing, none of my computers have ever succumbed to infection.) Obviously, you are an advanced user, and have a strategy in place, just in case. g Restoring back to an infected state is a nice options, when all else fails. -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org "Bert Kinney" wrote Hi Ted and Peter, This subject has been highly debated. The following comments sum up results and options of the debate, which I agree with. AumHa Forums: Purging old System Restore points http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=152...2516 fe78cd83 System Restore and malware removal - what is best practice? http://msmvps.com/spywaresucks/archi.../17/66724.aspx -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org Ted Zieglar wrote: Bert: Glad you saw this post. I'm a little puzzled by your response, so I hope you can straighten something out for me on this topic. I have always understood that the possibility that an infected computer's restore points contain a copy of the virus is greater than the possibility that restoring the system would fix whatever problems an antivirus program's removal procedures might cause. Therefore, if you are fairly certain that you have a virus, you wouldn't want to keep your restore points. "Bert Kinney" wrote Rebecca Sansom wrote: Hi Sorry I have a bit of a sillly question. I have successfully rolled back my system using system restore to a date before I got a popup virus that Norton was unable to remove. The virus looks like it has gone from my pc. I want to now run a complete virus check and Norton advises that I disable system restore before I do this. This is bad advise. Disabling System Restore should be done only after all infection cleanup is completed. The reason being, if something goes wrong (anything is possible) you will have no way to reverse your actions. The only way to re-infect the system is to undo the current restore point. Update Norton and do a virus scan. If Norton finds the virus in the System Volume Information fold only, that's the time to purge all existing restore points by disabling SR. This action will delete all the restore points and I am therefore afraid that this will then lose me the state that I now have i.e virus free and return the virus? No, System Restore does not work that way. You will only loose the ability to undo the current state and restore to a previous date. The current state of the system will not be changed by disabling SR. Is this the case or can I just go ahead and disable system restore without losing my restored state. No. By disabling SR it's all or none. Once the system is infection free, other than the System Volume Information folder (where SR holds it's restore points) disable SR, then enable it. For more on System Resto Description of System Restore http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html Any advice much appreciated. Rebecca -- Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org |
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