Restore Question

I have done a successful full restore to a new PC C drive without a problem. My concern is how to do a restore to a C drive that has a virus, or some other software problem preventing it from running correctly. I thought a restore just wrote over the existing c drive data, until I read things like:
"By default, the program will not overwrite any files and folders, thus giving the files on the hard disk unconditional priority over the archived files". It also went on to say (In the True Image Guide) "Selecting the Overwrite existing files checkbox will give the archived files unconditional
priority over the files on the hard disk, though, by default, the system, hidden files and folders, as well as more recent files and folders are preserved from overwriting. If you want to overwrite those files and folders too, unselect the appropriate checkboxes".
I am totally confused on how to do a complete restore from an Archive on my external HD to replace what is present on the PC C drive. Is there a simple answer to this? Would I have to delete the original c drive data before the restore?

 

Maybe when restoring files the priorities are important.
Maybe also that when restoring an image of a drive, or a partition, the entire drive or partition is written. At that time any virus info left on the target drive would be either overwritten, or be left in unused areas where it would not be known or be a part of any known file.

File restores restore individual files. Image restores restore entire images.

I do wonder about info in the lowest areas of a drive, such as boot info, being able to remain infected somehow.

 

The program gives you the option of overwriting files or not.

If I had a drive I suspected of being infected, then I'd do a full hardisk restore using the ATI backup choices under My computer rather than My Data. This will ovewrite all the partitions on the hdrive and with the partitons as they are stored in the backup file. It's the equivalent of doing a rapid format of the hdisk. You have the option when doing restores under ATI My Computer to only do one or another partition rather than the entire disk; this is useful in many situations, but for infections, I'd do the whole drive.

First I'd run a good antivirus prog like Kaspersky, and I'd certainly run it after doing the restore.

good luck.

 

I have been doing full backups by selecting selecting my computer. If I understand what you all are saying is that if I do a full restore, it will overwrite what I now have (potentially bad data) with the full restore file I had created, without me having to specify to Overwrite. Is this correct? Thanks again for your assistance.

 

If you are making an image of your computer there will be no "overwrite" question asked. This is only for a data file backup which deals with selected files and will not result in a bootable volume even if all the files are selected.