question about a system image

HuskerFan · 14 Dec 2015

I have a asus laptop i couldnt get my printer to work. well it came down to i have been infected with some very bad trojans and virus. they couldn have fixed it for 109 bucks but i dont have that kind of money. I have system Image on a external hdd. If i put that on my laptop will it get rid of the virus and trojans? I know doing a clean install will but i want to be able to upgrade from windows 8.1 which came with the computer. how do i save all my favorites also.

Clive K · 15 Dec 2015

If the image was made when the virii and trojans weren't present, they won't be there. I make images for that very reason.
And for a hard drive failure.

Molyy · 16 Dec 2015

better to reformat the hard disk, and reinstall the system. Some virus are very tricky. You don't really know where it is.

axe0 · 17 Dec 2015

HuskerFan said:

I have a asus laptop i couldnt get my printer to work. well it came down to i have been infected with some very bad trojans and virus. they couldn have fixed it for 109 bucks but i dont have that kind of money. I have system Image on a external hdd. If i put that on my laptop will it get rid of the virus and trojans? I know doing a clean install will but i want to be able to upgrade from windows 8.1 which came with the computer. how do i save all my favorites also.

"they couldn have fixed it for 109 bucks" sounds like scam

I would boot into safe mode and run at least several scans

Diagnostics Test

Malware scan

Please run a threat scan with Malwarebytes*, a full scan with your AV, scan your system with Adwcleaner, Kaspersky TTDSKiller, ESET Online Scanner and SuperAntiSpyware

Note

*(Uncheck trial version in the installation process)

We don't know what kind of infection this is, so it could well be that even formatting the hard drive may not remove them (newest kinds of infections)

trigan5 · 17 Dec 2015

Clive K said:

If the image was made when the virii and trojans weren't present, they won't be there. I make images for that very reason.
And for a hard drive failure.

I used to have Acronis program to make system image of my Windows 7 but when I installed Windows 10, it told me that the Acronis program would interfere with the installation if I remember correctly so the Acronis program had to be deleted.
Now that I have Windows 10 on my computer and it seems to be working fairly well, can you please advise me what program is best that will enable me to create a system image of my computer. I also have a laptop with Window 10. So I will wish the program to be usable on my laptop as well.
Thank you.

axe0 · 17 Dec 2015

Macrium reflect is a good one, many are using it as am I

cato · 18 Dec 2015

I like Macrium Reflect so much that I bought it. It has saved me several times. We have the free version on my wife's computer and it works just fine also.

CmmTch · 18 Dec 2015

I've always used the built in backup/image function that comes with windows. Works fine for what it's designed to do, I had to use it a few times with Win7 and once with W10. Both times everything went fine, took about 20 to 30 minutes and it was exactly like it was when the backup/image was taken.

I installed an internal HDD specifically for backups and have it do a backup and take an image every Sunday night. There are many third party programs that will do a backup, they may be more user friendly, easier, etc... But you've already got an existing program installed on your computer from windows if you just need to backup and take an image.