backing up files before reformatting

So I wentout and bought an external HD. Maxtor One Touch 200GB....I wanted a WD My Book 250GB but they were out of stock....oh well back to my question. As those of you who have read my other post know...I've got something in my system that is causing it to act strange...I've tried just about everything and most of them more that once....So I give up...I'm just going to reinstall windows and reformat.
Here's my question:
If I have files on my hard drive and I don't know if they are infected with some sort of malware....would it be safe to save them to my external HD or would doing so infect the external and the newly reformated HD on my laptop once I reinstall windows?
Is there a way to 100% verify that the files are safe for transfering if my antivirus is not finding anything but my system is still acting strange?

Any help on this would be appreciated and as always I thank you in advance for you time and effort.

 

This is difficult to say. Some viruses will affect any file they come in contact with, while other will sit in one file and do nothing to multiply. Most of the time though, viruses affact Windows files, and don't come in the files which are pictures of documents like that. If you have scanned the files you want to move the external hard drive, then it should be okay. The antivirus you used, however, must contain the latest virus definiation. This will ensure that it can at least have a chance to catch the latest viruses. Hope this helps.

 

Also, make sure that you use one of the spyware checkers such as spybot S&D or Adaware or better yet - run both.

When you reinstall your OS, set up a 15 to 20 gig partition just for your OS and programs and set up a partition for the rest of your user files (docs, pics, vids, etc). This will make it simple for the next time you have to do this as you won't have to move files.

 

even if there is somehow malware in one of your documents, as long as you don't open them they can't infect your system. this gives you an opportunity to run more scans on the external HD once your system is back up to snuff.

I would say that most malware these days is more focused on infecting system files and hiding out in /windows/system32 than ruining your documents.

 

or better yet, have 2 hard drives

 

I already have a two partioned HD very similar to what you suggested....could I install the the OS and programs on there and just reformat the other partition or should I just reformat the whole HD and start from scratch?

 

It's best to separate your data from your applications if you haven't already. I never keep data in the "C" partition.
Scan your data files and they should be good to go.

Reformatting never hurts but if there's nothing there then it's not necessary.

 

well, To do so I will more than likely have to reformat...Once that's done I will as you suggested separatemy data from my applications.
Question:
If I have anapplication for example a game program....will having the program on one partition and having the save files on the other partition be possible?

 

in rare cases, you could have really really evil malware which can infect any drive you plug into your computer. i lost a ton of data on my flash drive this way last year.

 

So I guess it all boils down to a varient to my original question....What do I need to do to safely transfer files to my external harddrive so that I can reformat my my harddrive reinstall windows and hopefully get rid of what ever is causing these anomolies?

 

Scan your data files, copy them to the external drive, Start the os install and do a thorogh format on the C partition. Format your other partitions on the same physical drive (if they exist). Copy the data from the external drive back to your internal drive.

 

Basically, just pick your files with care.
back up data, not programs.
.exe files or .dll's may be infected with viruses.

Data such as .doc, .jpg, savegames or... well, anything else is mostly safe. (There are occasionally security holes related to some of these filetypes, but I wouldn't worry about this. You can always run a spyware/antivirus scan on the files you back up.

Anyway, viruses and other malware can only spread if the code it resides in is actually executed. You can take a virus-infected .exe and copy it to your usb memory stick and plug it into as many computers as you like, and it won't make a difference. Only when someone runs the file, will the virus get a chance to do its thing. (Which is why they usually prefer to disguise themselves as important windows files, because those are executed all the time)

What I usually do is simply dig through the following folders:
Documents & Settings\Adminstrator and \<Username>. Then go through the documents folders, desktop and application data, and copy anything you want to keep.

There's usually nothing in Program Files worth backing up, but look through it anyway. A few applications do store important data there. (Trillian puts chat logs there by default, Winamp keeps playlists there, I believe)

Then any installed games. Go through them and copy savegames if you want to keep them.

And of course any other data folders you might have. (For photos albums, documents, work, music, whatever).

Move anything you find to your external HD (or a backup folder somewhere else), and when you're done, you can format and reinstall.

 

One last question.....Are avi, mov, mpeg, and mp4 files safe for backing up as well or should I just forget about them.

 

a simple yes or no would do.....but if you're busy helping someone else take you time I can wait....I probably won't start the reformating process and so forth until next weekend maybe the week after depending on what my schedule is like.

 

as far as I know they should be safe.

actually, you gotta watch out more for Office-format files coming your way from unexpected sources

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/929433.mspx

 

Thanks BigV