My computer crashed recently and was not able to boot. So i tried everything but nothing made my computer to boot. However i re-installed the win07 OEM from the dvd that was given with my laptop. But i lost all my data and software. It was an annoying experience. So i would like to know from you all how you protect your computer to avoid such crashes. What antivirus program or firewall do u all use which one is better. I would prefer a free antivirus because i do not surf heavily. Can anyone give idea about free antivirus program or any system maintenance tool for windows07. Any information would be helpful because i don't have much knowledge. It would also be helpful if anyone would provide me with the information how to recover from such a situation without loosing data.

Im on a Mac PowerBook so I have nothing to offer i the way of advice, sorry abut your misfortune.

You might try mirroring your computer's hard drive to an external hard drive, and back up the mirrored hard drive every other day when you sleep. Its still a drag when you have to do a systems recovery, but at least its a little less painful.

A few steps to avoid this scenario:

1. Stop watching porn online. A good way to watch porn for free is downloading virus free porn movies from torrent trackers.

2. You´ll never win free cash. Emails asking for your data or redirecting you to some obscure wensite in order to send you cash do not exist. They will just give your data to bad people or install crap in your system (or just corrupt your system files, just for the sake of screwing you).

3. Banks/IR don´t ask for you to confirm your data using your email address. Avoid giving your data away (that´s called fishing... they throw the bait... and it´s up to you to bite it or not...)

4. If you don´t know how to crack a software, then don´t do it. Unless you download the cracker from a reliable website, it´s most probable that you will screw your system with embedded viruses.


Two scenarios:

1.How to avoid losing data before having your system crashed:

Backup your data regularly in an external hard disk, so that in case your computer crashes, you have all the important data stored in this second disk (aka backup disk). That way, you can recover the important data from the backup disk after reinstalling your OS.

2. How to avoid losing data AFTER having your system crashed.

If your OS doesn´t boot anymore, it´s probably because the boot files are missing or corrupted. That doesn´t mean your data is lost. They´re still stored in the hard disk. The solution would be removing the hard disk from your computer and connecting it to another computer as a secondary disk. That way you can copy all the important data to an external hard disk (aka backup disk), and therefore, recover it after you reinstall your OS.

In both scenarios you´ll lose your installed softwares, and will have to reinstall all of them manually (unless you create a disk image right after installing all your software, using softwares like Clonezilla or Norton Ghost, being able to recover the full installation of the OS and softwares installed from this image you created). Softwares install system files in the OS folder and registry entries. Even if you had the softwares files stored in the backup, they wouldn´t run after reinstalling the OS because they need the files that were in the system folder, as well as the registry entries.

Ahhh... I just love the apple juice filter...


apple juice
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n

I'm not recommending a Free Antivirus, because it's protection isn't very good.
If you DO prefere to go free, then take something like Security Essentials from Microsoft and use it with Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes is a free scanner that has so far never let me down in my job (I'm doing computer repairs for a living)

Backing-up your system is also a wise thing to do from time to time. I never do a full back-up of my OS, but I backup my documents, images, music and e-mails.
Windows 7 has a fairly good backup-system integrated in where you can select what you want to backup. If you choose for your libraries, you pretty much have all your documents, images, favourites, etc....
An external harddrive is always handy. On there, you can keep your backups, just in case.

Because pre-installed laptops and computers come without software-dvd's, it's best to make a restore-cd. You can do this from the menu 'maintenance'. The restore-cd helps you to repair errors when Windows isn't booting anymore like it should. Those restore-cd's don't always help, but usually they do. If it doesn't work, then you will have to use the Recovery-DVD's that you created or that came with the computer.

The difference between Recovery and Restore, is that a recovery has an exact copy (image) of your operating system pre-installed on your computer.
A restore cd contains drivers and systemfiles to restore your computer when malfunctioning.

In case you don't have a restore-cd and can't boot, take our your harddrive, and buy a Harddrive-cabinet (harddrive Enclosure). This are like empty boxes where you put your harddrive in, and they allow you to use the harddrive external as USB/SATA/Firewire/E-SATA. (or usually just USB)

Preventing viruses just depends on your surfing habits.
A lot of 'free' software comes with toolbars for example. A toolbar is a add-on that runs with your browser. Some of them are pretty harmfull. Therefor it's a good thing that you don't allow them to install.

To come back on Malwarebytes, check out this program. It's free (just deny installing it as a trial when asked) and use it every week.
Make sure that you always do a upgrade before you make a scan. There are about 4 to 5 new defenitions every day. http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

In my opinion, Malwarebytes is still the strongest virusscanner I ever came across.
I compared it to Norton, Mcafee, Viper, Panda, AVG, Avast, Avira, etc...
The only program approaching it is Kaspersky, but it's not free.

Fabio (arcaico) did a good job explaining how to recover from an event like this. Using an adapter, and hooking drive as a secondary drive, is your best bet (providing the 2nd computer has A/V software installed to keep any virus from propagating).

For a good, free, A/V software check out AVG by Grisoft (http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download). Note that "Free" also means "no tech support whatsoever" and that will be the case with most any free A/V or free anti-spyware.

If you're not comfortable with recovery/restoration then you should probably opt for the paid versions so that you get support options.

I once got everything back using Power Data Recovery Pro i have formatted a couple of times try it you will not be disappointed almost instant. I got serial if you need it.

Thanks every one for help.
I have installed malwarebyte and its running fine. I wanna know that wheather i can use microsoft security essential with malwarebyte
..
I also heard that i can use ubuntu to load from my pendrive and take backup after crash .Is it true?
Which ubuntu version is most light weight to run from usb?

Yes, you can. Malwarebytes free edition, is a scanner, not an antivirus. So they wont get in a conflict.

Edit: LONNNNG POST ABOUT HOW THE OP IS A NUMPTY.

pussy...

I can't be mean the guy twice, I mean the other thread was like taking a chainsaw to a puppy...

A slightly talentless puppy who is still learning how to paint in PS, who asks about computer problems in a Photoshop forum when Google search would probably do... >_>

...but a puppy nonetheless.

oh.. new PSC owner have appointed a joker to entairtain us.
Keep it up Marx-Man