Can a backup suffice to switch PC to a newer larger HDD?

Hello, I have very little experience with TrueImage, as all I have used it for was to make backups (that I never had to use), and burn a bootable Acronis CD, which I have never had to use. I have True Image 8.0, and I have made regular backups of my primary 30GB HDD, which has 2 partitions, by saving backups of each partition separately on an external USB storage drive.
Recently, my PC was infected by Smitfraud C and Virtumonde malware. I could try removing the malware, but am concerned that the primary HDD could be compromised for future attacks.
If I used Acronis to restore the backups from a month ago (before the infection occured), I am not sure that will erase code (including the infection) written to HDD recently; i.e., I can reincarnate all data from the backup, but the recently-acquired malacious code remains on the HDD. Is my guess correct?

If my guess above is correct, is it possible for me to go this way:
remove the current primary HDD;
pop in a new (and larger) 40 GB HDD into the tower;
use a Maxtor CD-based utility to format and partition the new HDD into 2 partitions;
insert the Acronis bootable CD;
hook up my external USB storage drive containing the .tib backup files;
(BIG QUESTION HERE: Will the Acronis CD have loaded the CD drivers needed to work with my external USB storage drive??)
Have Acronis (running from the CD) recreate contents of each backup on to the new partition in the new HDD (possible?), such that I don't have to re-register the Windows XP OS, or any other software (possible?)

I realise that Acronis has a clone function to carry everything from one HDD to a new HDD, but since I shouldn't do that with an infected HDD, I am trying to figure out if I can use the .tib backups to move everything to a new HDD.

Thank you for you replies.

 

If you've read the forum for any length of time, one thing that is advised from the beginning is to create that bootable CD, boot with it and make sure it will see your external USB drive. However, let's hope you're lucky and it will.
One thing with the new drive is that there is no need to format it first. Boot with the CD and use the Add New Disk feature. This will create a partition for the Recovery/Restore feature to be able to work. Note though, that when you start the Recovery, TI will recognize that there is already a partition on the new drive (the one it just created) and will say that it is necessary to delete it before the Recovery process can proceed. So go ahead and accept that option.
I don't know how a restore will affect the need to re-register. Some users say they do some don't.

 

Thanks for the reply- it helped me.

I realised that one needs to have the external USB storage drive plugged into the PC, BEFORE booting with the Acronis TI rescure CD.

I am now having TI, running off the CD, check the .tib backups on my extrernal drive. Its slow, over the USB connection (as expected). I also checked that my primary (infected) HDD light is not blinking, which is good, because I did not want TI to be reading any (malacious) files residing on that HDD.

For my education, I would appreciate any comments about my supposition, that restoring an image does not overwrite/eradicate any malacious code that might have been written on a HDD since the last backup.

 

Restoring an image will overwrite everything on the drive. If the image was made before you were infected you should be OK. If not you may want to run Sybot S&D http://www.spybot.info/en/download/index.html and Adaware SE Personal http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php or an anti-virus depending on what you need.

 

Just restore the image of the boot drive. That will wipe out everything on the drive since the image was made.

It is very unlikely that the malware affected the second drive, but you can restore the image of that if you want to.

There is no need to buy and install new drives. Restoring the image will be very thorough in cleaning up the problem. To convince yourself, you can buy one of the top rated anti-spyware programs such as Webroot's SpySweeper and install that on the restored drive and let it do a thorough scan in addition to your antivirus scans.

 

Thank you all for the replies.

jmk94903, do you mean that spyware/trojans commonly target the primary partition that has the OS? Would a virus, though, also propagate to a second partition that was used only for data and pictures, and not for any executables/programs? Thanks.

 

Hello mrsarkar,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that as it was mentioned above when you restore disk/partition image all the data stored on the restored partition will be replaced by the image data.

Please note that Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD is Linux based and has it's own assortment of drivers for the wide variety of hardware. We would recommend that you boot your computer from the Acronis True Image Bootable CD created with the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0 and check it's functionality. To get access to updates you should first register your software.

Yes, upon restoration is completed you will get a system back to the moment of image creation.

Please also note that if you are to restore the system partition only (not the entire disk) to the new drive you will need to fix the MBR (Master Boot Record) after the restoration. Please check this article for the instructions on how to perform this task.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Thank you. Will post back if I run into any issues.

 

... format the drives before restorations