Install OS from backup

Blaze · February 20, 2014, 06:28:09 PM

My older sister has a notebook that is abysmally slow, and since there are only a few programs that she wants to keep, I was going to back those up and reformat the hard drive and reinstall from my OS backup.
My question is if I can reformat the hard drive and plug the USB with my backup into it to boot from that like I want, and if it'll install the OS from the back up without removing the back up on there.

Honestly, this notebook is so incredibly slow, the only way of ever hoping to speed it up is just wiping the entire thing out.
I doubt it even has a legitimate OS on it in the first place, it was bought from a store, and she says it has W7 32 bit on it, but seeing as the wallpaper apparently can't be changed at all...
Either way, a reformat seems to be the only hope, it takes minutes for anything to load or change or move, and forget about accessing the internet with it... :D

I got my 32GB USB for my backup just today, so I'll be making a backup of my OS tonight, so I'll be doing this tomorrow, just want to verify it's going to work as I hope.
Being I can wipe the entire drive, then boot and reinstall from my Backup USB.

Edit: As soon as I made this topic, CCleaner closed on the notebook without me ever clicking exit on it...

Oh yeah, her Notebook is a Toshiba and my Desktop is an HP if that matters.

Grauniad · February 20, 2014, 06:30:10 PM

Most likely, no.

Blaze · February 20, 2014, 06:34:31 PM

Quote from: Grauniad on February 20, 2014, 06:30:10 PM
Most likely, no.

Care to elaborate? Or give an alternate idea?
She was using a Tablet for her computer needs, but through several series of events, it's dead and has to be mailed in to be fixed.

asmussen · February 20, 2014, 06:43:34 PM

Are you asking if you can use the recovery image you made on your own system to restore her laptop? That is unlikely to work. It's possible that her laptop may have a similar recovery partition that you can restore from, or that you can create factory recovery media from to reinstall the laptop to ITS original factory configuration.

Blaze · February 20, 2014, 06:49:27 PM

Quote from: asmussen on February 20, 2014, 06:43:34 PM
Are you asking if you can use the recovery image you made on your own system to restore her laptop? That is unlikely to work. It's possible that her laptop may have a similar recovery partition that you can restore from, or that you can create factory recovery media from to reinstall the laptop to ITS original factory configuration.

There is no hard drive partition on her notebook.

Grayzzur · February 20, 2014, 06:52:38 PM

Recovery images tend to be very specific for that brand/model of computer. It is unlikely to work on a different brand/model computer. Generic windows install media can be used on any computer, but you probably won't be able to activate more than one machine with only one license.

Sometimes laptops have a sticker on the back or bottom with a windows activation key. If it doesn't have it's own recovery image, you may be able to contact support for the manufacturer of that laptop and ask about replacement install media, if you have that key. (Note that the keys on the laptop stickers tend to only work with OEM versions of Windows install media, not with the Retail versions.)

Blaze · February 20, 2014, 06:55:57 PM

Quote from: Grayzzur on February 20, 2014, 06:52:38 PM
Recovery images tend to be very specific for that brand/model of computer. It is unlikely to work on a different brand/model computer. Generic windows install media can be used on any computer, but you probably won't be able to activate more than one machine with only one license.

Sometimes laptops have a sticker on the back or bottom with a windows activation key. If it doesn't have it's own recovery image, you may be able to contact support for the manufacturer of that laptop and ask about replacement install media, if you have that key. (Note that the keys on the laptop stickers tend to only work with OEM versions of Windows install media, not with the Retail versions.)

Alright, I don't see a windows key, but we have the serial number.
Making backups of the programs she wants to keep now. Then going to see what I can do to speed it up.

Blaze · February 20, 2014, 07:55:43 PM

Making an OS recovery of her computer and going to restore to that afterwards, then run a full scan for anything and everything.
Anybody wanna tell me what to use for a scan?

Was thinking Malwarebytes.

Blaze · February 21, 2014, 01:51:48 AM

Backup failed three times now...
This is getting very annoying. I'm giving up for the night seeing as I have to be up at 5 a.m, which is in three hours. Fun. ::)

Anyhow, going to boot in safe mode tomorrow, install better Anti Virus seeing as it's got the free version of Avast! and run a full scan while still in safe mode.
Hopefully then I can get a backup made, if not then I'm out of ideas. The backups failed due to Avast apparently blocking Malware.

Edit: Yeah, it's got malware, just did a quick search, pretty nasty one from the comments, BrowserProtect.
This is going to take longer than I thought... Considering I'm about 90% sure there is more than just that.

Grauniad · February 21, 2014, 08:43:13 AM

Blaze, sorry, I was not near a keyboard when I responded yesterday.

Apart from all the other concerns mentioned, there is the issue that you cannot back up installed programs, wipe the OS and reinstall the backup. 2 Reasons. One, usually programs just don't work that way, and second, the vector for malware is most often executable code - .exe, ddls, etc.

I will shortly create a topic about how to deal with malware on a computer.