Question about system image restore and SD

Discussion in 'hardware' started by blacknight, Sep 24, 2017.

  1. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    Last August I had a problem with my pc and I had to give it to a technician ( not too good I'm afraid ). He decided to format my SSD at low level and then reinstalled the OS ( Seven 64-bit ). The tech said to me that I couldn't to restore a system image done before the low level format, because may be that the restore process delete the new EFI and that image couldn't restore the previous.


    It's true ?
     
  2. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    You shouldn't have any problem restoring the image, in my opinion.
     
  3. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    You say "last" August. Do you mean 1 month ago? Or August 2016?

    Are you just wondering or are you having problems and want to restore this old image to fix the problems? IMO, restoring to previous images is a last ditch effort to fix problems. It is typically better to fix what is wrong and move on rather than back up and start over. This is particularly true for security reasons alone. Plus, restoring to an older image (or formatting and reinstalling) does not give you the opportunity to learn what was wrong so you can prevent recurrence.
     
  4. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    I mean August 2017: I'm not sure what was the cause of the problem: I used EasyBCD to modify the boot, but something was wrong and EFI broke: I couldn't restore an image, I couldn't reinstall Seven... the only thing I could do was to copy my data using WonderShare Live; since I had to leave for my vacation I gave my pc to a technician :doubt:.
    Now my system works, I only want to know if eventually I could restore the image that I did a week before the problem or if really the SSD format and the OS reinstall make it impossible ( I don't believe it, but I want to be sure ).
     
  5. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    What do you mean "security reasons alone"?
     
  6. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Not really a problem here since this is just a couple weeks back to August 2017. If restoring way back to Aug 2016, that would put the OS WAY behind in security updates.
    Since your system works now, I would make a new image of this point in time and go from there.

    Other than that, I agree with Roger and see no reason why (since this is W7) you cannot restore back to the older image if that was really needed.
     
  7. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    Maybe he switched form Legacy boot that you were using before to UEFI boot? After restore you might have to change that mode in BIOS I guess, but otherwise I don't see a problem.
     
  8. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    blacknight,

    Which software was used to create the image?
     
  9. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    AOMEI Backupper.
     
  10. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    Although
    Cruelsister in another thread here clarified the CCleaner question, I 'm not sure that the backdoor or some other trace remained in my system, and I have an image done on 17 July 2017.....
     
  11. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    Thank you, I 'll check it.
     
  12. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    I don't understand the point you are trying to make here. You have security software, right? Make sure it is updated and scan. And make sure you have the latest version of CCleaner and you will be okay.
     
  13. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    I can have 1000 reasons to restore a previous image, my problem is not if is good for me to restore, but if it's safe.

     
  14. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    In Windows - system info - doesn't appear the BIOS Mode, and i can't understand why. Now I'm not sure which actaully is the Mode. So, if I restore the image and the Mode is different, I will not able to boot and my pc will be blocked ?
     
  15. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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  16. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Have a look in Disk Management. Either post a screenshot or let us know which partitions are present on Disk 0 and the wording in the rectangles.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2017
  17. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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  18. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    There is no way of answering that.

    The problem with backup images is unless you know for certain the system was totally free from malware or data corruption before taking the image, the backup image may contain corrupt data or malware and end up restoring that corrupt data or re-infecting your system with malware.
     
  19. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Bingo. A mirror is exactly that, all the good and all the bad, exactly as it was. Long story made short: NEVER make an image backup unless you know is it pristine.
    Acadia
     
  20. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    blacknight,

    Thanks for the screenshot. That is a Legacy MBR system. Can you mount your backup image and check the partitions to see if it is from a Legacy MBR system or a UEFI system.
     
  21. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    Unless you are reasonably sure it's clean. It's not possible to be 100 percent certain.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2017
  22. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    Thank you Brian K, I'll check it. I thought that it was not UEFI because with CMD GPT has not asterisk, but I was not sure.
     
  23. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    blacknight,

    In your earlier posts you mentioned EFI. A Legacy MBR system doesn't have an EFI partition and that's why I'm asking these questions.

    Do you recall if your August AOMEI image was a System or an Entire Drive image (Disk image)? You might not be able to successfully restore from a System image but it depends on how different your partitions are now compared with August.
     
  24. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    No. I know that the July's image is safe ! My problem is if is safe to restore it after the SSD formatting: Brian K understood it.
     
  25. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    If you had a Disk image it would definitely work. Nothing the technician did would you prevent you from restoring a Disk image. But a System image could be a problem. I suggest making a Disk image now and if you have a problem restoring the August image the current Disk image would save you.
     
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