On Feb 14, 10:57*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:23:30 -0500, wrote:
On Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:45:04 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per Stormin Mormon:
Something got me. And, it did some kind of damage that two techies could not
recover.

What kind of anti-virus were you using?

On my daughter's machine, Avast threw a warning once but my macho
son-in-law just *had* to click the button that said "Ignore this
warning" and the system got hosed beyond recovery.

It wasn't a Trojan, but a bad USB controller that moved me to a backup
scheme where at least a couple of my backup drives are not readily
available - i.e. I have to drive to get to them.

That way, when things go really South, and it hasn't dawned on me yet
that something is hosing my backups as I attach them in an effort to
recover... the non-availability will hopefully save me from myself.

I also have a rule - which I will hopefully have the presence of mind to
follow - that once I am down to a single backup, I will never, *ever*
attach it to the problem PC. * Instead, I will make copies on another PC
and use the copies.

The easy way to do this is download Disk Wizard from Seagate/Maxtor
and clone your C: drive. Store it somewhere and when you get some
strange crash you have a good starting point. You can just store a
disk image, you don't need a spare drive but that does make an easier
fix. Refresh this clone periodically.

In that regard it is best to keep your C: drive as small as possible
and keep your data files on another drive. Data is simple to back up
and restore. The C: drive is harder to restore because of the way
Windoze installs software. You really need a cloned drive.

*This allows you to restore to a new drive quickly - but if the
microcode on a drive goes bad, it is going to be pretty difficult to
get the clone back onto the dead drive. *There are likely programs
available similar to the old "low level format" used on MFM and RLL
drives - but they will be VERY specific - kinda like the low level
format was specific to both drive and controller back in the early
days.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I wouldn't bet on that. How do you talk to something when there
is no one home? The drive has to have enough valid firmware to
enable it to recognize commands. If you screw with that, I don't
ee how you're going to get new code into it with the drive in a
normal PC. I would think it
would then require connecting to the drive with a special programming
adapter of some kind to put the code into it, if that is even
possible.

You would think that the drives would be built so that the firmware
could not be changed. But apparently according to that previous
post citing a drive manufacturer, it is theoretically possible to
screw with the firmware. Now that he's told the world it's possible,
it's probably raised the level of interest for hackers.....