The Bear Minimum

bearbottoms · 14. Aug 2011, 03:29 PM

The Bear Minimum

The simplest and most effective computer management theme.

I don't know about you, but I detest constant fiddling and management of my computer. I want to use it with the least hassle. I've always sought out a balance between the most effective and simplest management theme. What follows is the four step theme I am currently using. It's easy to get side-tracked and complicated with details, so I will try to avoid such and stick to the meat of it. You can learn how to image from my security page if needed.

The written details are much lengthier in appearance than the simplicity of the four step process:

1. Make a primary Image of a factory restoration of your computer with all MS updates and save it to your external hard drive.

2. Then install your additional programs, copy your data/media files and portable programs to My Documents and make a secondary image.

3. Make a third image after enough changes are made to your system and you would not be satisfied restoring the secondary image.

4. Create an account with SugarSync and point it to the My Documents folder. That's it.

You can skip steps one and two if you know your computer is clean (are you sure?), however, I prefer to always have a factory image currently updated with MS security updates and a secondary fresh image of everything. It comes in handy. Put them off for a rainy day if you like.

Here are the details: First and most important, be sure to copy all of your data and media files to an external hard drive or cloud source and scan them at Virus Total and or with Malwarebytes to insure they are clean.

Next, restore your computer to a factory clean state. This requires a factory image located on your hard drive or factory restoration media. Think this through and make sure you have everything necessary to bring your computer back to factory state including all of your programs!

Now boot to the clean machine and allow it to perform all Windows security updates. Depending on how long your operating system has been on the market, this will take a long to longer time.

Create an Image of your newly restored system (normally C: drive) with an imaging program such as Macrium Reflect and save it to an external hard drive (if you don't have one, get one.) This Image will be the primary and one of at least three Images you will maintain for your system. You will never have to make a primary Image again unless you wish to update it ever so often as your operating system ages and enough new MS updates have been released. MS updates cause the most significant time issue regarding restoring to factory fresh systems. The primary Image is the Image you will fall back to if all else goes awry or the one you may use for testing malware or software.

Next install all of your additional programs that require "installation" including anti-malware software (I only use Windows firewall and Microsoft Security Essentials) and copy your data files and portable programs to named folder structures in My Documents. Now create your secondary Image. A secondary image will always be kept as the second best Image to restore to.

As time goes by and your system has changed enough that you would not be satisfied restoring to the second Image, make a third Image, but keep the secondary Image as a backup in case you make a bad Image (either unknowingly infected or corrupted.) A third image will always be kept as the best Image to restore to.

As time goes by and you again find that you would not be satisfied restoring to that third Image, make a new "third" Image but save the old third image as the "second" Image and delete the old second image. Simple and effective. While not as simple as doing nothing, it is the simplest of the most effective computer management themes.

The fourth and final phase is data management. (Backup programs and incremental backups become obsolete. Never need to fiddle with this painful chore again.) The process I am about to relate is real-time and totally automatic after setup.

Setup an account with SugarSync and point it to the My Documents folder (5GB free real-time auto-sync online storage and once this is done, you are finished with the fourth step forever.) (For huge media collections, use your external hard drive for backup or buy cloud storage.) Any changes to your data, media files, or portable programs in the My Documents folder are real-time automatically backedup to your online SugarSync account. If or when you restore an image, SugarSync will automatically update older or missing data/media/portable files. These files/programs in the My Documents folder are also accessible from any of your mobile devices with a SugarSync app or other computers through your SugarSync account.

Making an image with Macrium Reflect is too simple. Install the program and run it. Click make a new image. It asks what you want to image: C drive. It then asks where you want to put it: x:/ external drive. Press start. That's it.

Restoring an image with Macrium Reflect is too simple. Make a boot CD when you first run Macrium, of find it in the menu. Put the boot CD in your CD drive and restart your computer. It will boot to the CD and Macrium Reflect will appear. Choose restore an image. It asks what image you want to restore: choose x:/ external drive. It ask what partition you want to restore over: choose C:/ drive and press go. It writes the image over C drive.

CONCLUSION

So if you become infected or simply wish to revert to a saved image, boot with the Macrium Reflect CD and choose which image you want to restore from your external hard drive and point it to your computers C drive which takes about 20-30 minutes to overwrite. SugarSync will automatically take care of your My Documents folder.

NOTES

The reason I only use Windows Firewall and MSE is it is impossible to completely or surely defend against malware as the malware developers are always one step ahead of the anti-malware developers. Attempting to completely prevent malware (which is impossible) can lead to an overburden of anti-malware programs and maintenance tasks, and the malware developers will still be one step ahead. I also practice "safe hex" computing.

The best approach to any infection, hardware failure, or file corruption is RECOVERY. Recovery does not mean cleaning. It means restoring your computer to a known safe state either by restaging (very timely) or overwriting a partition with an image (20 minutes average.) You can never be sure you can truly clean infections and it usually takes much longer than restoring an image (many hours compared to minutes.)

For sensitive data, use TrueCrypt containers (folders) placed in the My Documents folder or do not keep these files on a drive connected to the Internet at all. It really is easy and essential to learn how to use Truecrypt.

External Hard Drives are not secure as they can be damaged or stolen. If you are concerned about external hard drive risks, there are off-site alternatives to save backup copies of your Images. My C: drive is about 60GB. Macrium Reflect compresses the image with normal (default) compression to about 20GB.

As a secondary backup to my SugarSync account, I use DropBox for the most important files. I put the Dropbox folder in My Documents and keep my most important data files there, and since the My Documents folder is also backed up by SugarSync, you have duality. Dropbox allows 2GB free storage. These storage amounts are plenty for my needs. If you find you need more storage, ADrive allows 50GB free storage but it is not real-time sync'd. You can probably get several ADrive accounts with email alias's but these have to be manually managed.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
http://www.virustotal.com/
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
http://sugarsync.com/
http://www.dropbox.com/
http://www.truecrypt.org/

wdhpr · 14. Aug 2011, 11:07 PM

Your guide for the Bear Minimum seems to be thorough enough. I really like your method for syncing the My Documents.

I too have multiple images of my OS. One for the bare minimum and another that I keep updated. There is one problem however. If my computer's hardware fails I am unable to use my restore CD to remake my system on a rebuilt or new computer. Most computers in the USA only come with restore CDs or the restore image is on a partition in which is used to make restore CDs.
I blew up a mother board a few years back and set out to replace the mother board and upgrade the ram. I found it wouldn't work unless I had a paid version of a MS Windows OS. The end result was I ended up buying a new computer and from there I just reloaded my personal files which I had on DVDs and DropBox I also retained copies of all my applications, utilities and games along with the registration info. The bottom line was, I ended up having to reinstall all my stuff.

I have shifted to using Linux 95% of the time. I can back it up with a single image on a DVD. My personal stuff is is stored the same as with windows. The main difference is I can rebuild my Linux OS as it was were I left off in a matter of hours instead of days as it is with Windows.

bearbottoms · 15. Aug 2011, 12:02 AM

I understand. Factory images on the hard drive do not do much good when the hard drive fails. I will not purchase a computer without the full installation disks...even if I have to pay a small fee.

Macrium Reflect can restore to new hardware with Macrium ReDeploy to move Windows to a new or virtual PC including Windows Server!

Linux does have it's benefits and drawbacks.

14. Aug 2011, 03:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
bearbottoms Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Lousiana Posts: 3	The Bear Minimum The Bear Minimum The simplest and most effective computer management theme. I don't know about you, but I detest constant fiddling and management of my computer. I want to use it with the least hassle. I've always sought out a balance between the most effective and simplest management theme. What follows is the four step theme I am currently using. It's easy to get side-tracked and complicated with details, so I will try to avoid such and stick to the meat of it. You can learn how to image from my security page if needed. The written details are much lengthier in appearance than the simplicity of the four step process: 1. Make a primary Image of a factory restoration of your computer with all MS updates and save it to your external hard drive. 2. Then install your additional programs, copy your data/media files and portable programs to My Documents and make a secondary image. 3. Make a third image after enough changes are made to your system and you would not be satisfied restoring the secondary image. 4. Create an account with SugarSync and point it to the My Documents folder. That's it. You can skip steps one and two if you know your computer is clean (are you sure?), however, I prefer to always have a factory image currently updated with MS security updates and a secondary fresh image of everything. It comes in handy. Put them off for a rainy day if you like. Here are the details: First and most important, be sure to copy all of your data and media files to an external hard drive or cloud source and scan them at Virus Total and or with Malwarebytes to insure they are clean. Next, restore your computer to a factory clean state. This requires a factory image located on your hard drive or factory restoration media. Think this through and make sure you have everything necessary to bring your computer back to factory state including all of your programs! Now boot to the clean machine and allow it to perform all Windows security updates. Depending on how long your operating system has been on the market, this will take a long to longer time. Create an Image of your newly restored system (normally C: drive) with an imaging program such as Macrium Reflect and save it to an external hard drive (if you don't have one, get one.) This Image will be the primary and one of at least three Images you will maintain for your system. You will never have to make a primary Image again unless you wish to update it ever so often as your operating system ages and enough new MS updates have been released. MS updates cause the most significant time issue regarding restoring to factory fresh systems. The primary Image is the Image you will fall back to if all else goes awry or the one you may use for testing malware or software. Next install all of your additional programs that require "installation" including anti-malware software (I only use Windows firewall and Microsoft Security Essentials) and copy your data files and portable programs to named folder structures in My Documents. Now create your secondary Image. A secondary image will always be kept as the second best Image to restore to. As time goes by and your system has changed enough that you would not be satisfied restoring to the second Image, make a third Image, but keep the secondary Image as a backup in case you make a bad Image (either unknowingly infected or corrupted.) A third image will always be kept as the best Image to restore to. As time goes by and you again find that you would not be satisfied restoring to that third Image, make a new "third" Image but save the old third image as the "second" Image and delete the old second image. Simple and effective. While not as simple as doing nothing, it is the simplest of the most effective computer management themes. The fourth and final phase is data management. (Backup programs and incremental backups become obsolete. Never need to fiddle with this painful chore again.) The process I am about to relate is real-time and totally automatic after setup. Setup an account with SugarSync and point it to the My Documents folder (5GB free real-time auto-sync online storage and once this is done, you are finished with the fourth step forever.) (For huge media collections, use your external hard drive for backup or buy cloud storage.) Any changes to your data, media files, or portable programs in the My Documents folder are real-time automatically backedup to your online SugarSync account. If or when you restore an image, SugarSync will automatically update older or missing data/media/portable files. These files/programs in the My Documents folder are also accessible from any of your mobile devices with a SugarSync app or other computers through your SugarSync account. Making an image with Macrium Reflect is too simple. Install the program and run it. Click make a new image. It asks what you want to image: C drive. It then asks where you want to put it: x:/ external drive. Press start. That's it. Restoring an image with Macrium Reflect is too simple. Make a boot CD when you first run Macrium, of find it in the menu. Put the boot CD in your CD drive and restart your computer. It will boot to the CD and Macrium Reflect will appear. Choose restore an image. It asks what image you want to restore: choose x:/ external drive. It ask what partition you want to restore over: choose C:/ drive and press go. It writes the image over C drive. CONCLUSION So if you become infected or simply wish to revert to a saved image, boot with the Macrium Reflect CD and choose which image you want to restore from your external hard drive and point it to your computers C drive which takes about 20-30 minutes to overwrite. SugarSync will automatically take care of your My Documents folder. NOTES The reason I only use Windows Firewall and MSE is it is impossible to completely or surely defend against malware as the malware developers are always one step ahead of the anti-malware developers. Attempting to completely prevent malware (which is impossible) can lead to an overburden of anti-malware programs and maintenance tasks, and the malware developers will still be one step ahead. I also practice "safe hex" computing. The best approach to any infection, hardware failure, or file corruption is RECOVERY. Recovery does not mean cleaning. It means restoring your computer to a known safe state either by restaging (very timely) or overwriting a partition with an image (20 minutes average.) You can never be sure you can truly clean infections and it usually takes much longer than restoring an image (many hours compared to minutes.) For sensitive data, use TrueCrypt containers (folders) placed in the My Documents folder or do not keep these files on a drive connected to the Internet at all. It really is easy and essential to learn how to use Truecrypt. External Hard Drives are not secure as they can be damaged or stolen. If you are concerned about external hard drive risks, there are off-site alternatives to save backup copies of your Images. My C: drive is about 60GB. Macrium Reflect compresses the image with normal (default) compression to about 20GB. As a secondary backup to my SugarSync account, I use DropBox for the most important files. I put the Dropbox folder in My Documents and keep my most important data files there, and since the My Documents folder is also backed up by SugarSync, you have duality. Dropbox allows 2GB free storage. These storage amounts are plenty for my needs. If you find you need more storage, ADrive allows 50GB free storage but it is not real-time sync'd. You can probably get several ADrive accounts with email alias's but these have to be manually managed. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx http://www.virustotal.com/ http://www.malwarebytes.org/ http://sugarsync.com/ http://www.dropbox.com/ http://www.truecrypt.org/ Last edited by Anupam; 14. Aug 2011 at 08:30 PM. Reason: Links and references for commercial services removed.

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14. Aug 2011, 11:07 PM	#2 (permalink)
wdhpr Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: The north Coast Posts: 1,117	Your guide for the Bear Minimum seems to be thorough enough. I really like your method for syncing the My Documents. I too have multiple images of my OS. One for the bare minimum and another that I keep updated. There is one problem however. If my computer's hardware fails I am unable to use my restore CD to remake my system on a rebuilt or new computer. Most computers in the USA only come with restore CDs or the restore image is on a partition in which is used to make restore CDs. I blew up a mother board a few years back and set out to replace the mother board and upgrade the ram. I found it wouldn't work unless I had a paid version of a MS Windows OS. The end result was I ended up buying a new computer and from there I just reloaded my personal files which I had on DVDs and DropBox I also retained copies of all my applications, utilities and games along with the registration info. The bottom line was, I ended up having to reinstall all my stuff. I have shifted to using Linux 95% of the time. I can back it up with a single image on a DVD. My personal stuff is is stored the same as with windows. The main difference is I can rebuild my Linux OS as it was were I left off in a matter of hours instead of days as it is with Windows.

15. Aug 2011, 12:02 AM	#3 (permalink)
bearbottoms Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Lousiana Posts: 3	I understand. Factory images on the hard drive do not do much good when the hard drive fails. I will not purchase a computer without the full installation disks...even if I have to pay a small fee. Macrium Reflect can restore to new hardware with Macrium ReDeploy to move Windows to a new or virtual PC including Windows Server! Linux does have it's benefits and drawbacks.