How Often Does Windows Xp Perform A System Backup?

[Guest]

how often does windows xp perform a system backup? i haven't been doing it myself unfortunately, and now i have to use recovery discs to get my computer working again (sasser worm).

i was trying to figure out how much i am actually going to lose.

[Guest]

if you havent been creating backups yourself and you are using the master recovery discs supplied with your system you will lose everything since you owned it as master recovery discs basically do a clean install, if you are using your own created discs you will lose everything from when they were created ,the sasser worm can be removed if your system will run , take a look at www.symantec.com for sasser worm removal tools which are a free download and cover all variants

[Guest]

it won't start up at all. resets itself in the starup process.

first they told me it was a worm, now they say it could be bad RAM... either way i am prepping myself for the loss of everything from the past 2 years.

thanks for the help.

[Jaime Andrés]

Not necessarily. You should be able to fix either of the two problems described and you still have the option to install another HDD with the same O/S and read and retrieve files from the corrupted disk.

[Guest]

http://www.windowsxpuser.com/forums/viewto...pic.php?p=20419 (http://www.windowsxpuser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20419) this will give you a few more pointers , as this link says you may well be able to install your hard drive as a slave in another pc and then run a sasser removal tool on it ,although its not guaranteed it may well be worth a try if your only other option is to format and lose everything

[locustfurnace]

Try using a floppy base Anti/virus scanner to rid yourself of possible infections, try F-Prot for DOS (http://www.f-prot.com/download/home_user/download_fpdos.html).
If it is bad RAM you would not lose anything, just replace the RAM module and pick up where you left.
Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) (Freeware)
is thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers. BIOS based memory tests are a quick, cursory check and often miss many of the failures that are detected by Memtest86.

[Guest]

thanks for all the suggestions. hopefully one of you is right!

[hildred241]

It's probbably to late but:

XP makes a system restore point every month by default, so assuming you aren't posting o0n a different computer and you can boot up, use that to restore to a month were you didn't have the virus. Backup documents that you've made really recently on floppy or CDRW.

As far as I know, with each system restore, it takes all the files, and makes it exactly the same as when it was you are restoring to, including your ducuments.

I've tested this before without a virus, and it deleted my recent files, and I only had the ones that I had at the restore point :). However, when I had a virus, Bisby.A to be precise, it ha got itself into my system restore data files :(, so system restore wouldn't work for me then, but aslong as your virus isn't in them files, you should be alright.

Oh, and if you want, you can go back to before you did the system restore, as XP keeps a record, and you can undo the restore.

The restore is found here:

Start > All programs >Accesories >System Tools >System Restore.

Hope that helps.

[hildred241]

Oh, sorry, I forgot that yyou couldn't boot. Maybe you can boot into safe mode?

[Guest]

the tech guys at the shop said the best they could do was burn all my files to a dvd and then wipe my pc clean. which is better than nothing and i am actually pretty pleased with it that solution.. i just have to reinstall all the programs.

they are running behind cause the hurricane set everyone back a week or so, but i should have my pc back by tomorrow.

thanks again for all the help guys. :)

[ShadowFalls]

this does not sound like a virus at all, this sounds as if its a problem with the operating system itself, have you tried running the repair console on the windows xp disc?

[Guest]

no, i didn't have the xp disc for whatever reason, so i had to buy the restore discs. none of the "professionals" seemed to think that was an option, or atleast they never mentioned it to me. they all think it's a worm.

[ShadowFalls]

it sounds like they are lying to you and trying to take the easier way out, not the first time I have seen this. For them it seems, it is easier to blame it on a virus, probably would be an easy fix if they knew what to do.