Computer geeks check in! Just got an update from Microsoft on my son's WIN-10 machine.

[abqtommy]

It's been awhile since I've seen this type of thread but tonight Microsoft gave an update titled
"2020-04 Cumulative Update for WIN-10 Version 1909". Looks like we can expect a monthly update
of this kind from now on out since we've been getting them regularly. The update took about an hour to download/install/restart so all is well. We get updates to WIN Defender almost daily but they're short and don't require a restart so no prob.

I'm still getting updates for my WIN-7 machine and that's interesting since Microsoft was supposed to
end support back in January. Maybe they decided to keep on due to our vocal appreciation for WIN-7
but whatever it is it's welcome. I've gotten updates regularly for each month this year so far.

How's everyone doing? So far so good here...

[applegrove]

1. I got notified that my win 7 would not be getting any more updates a week ago. nt

[BootinUp]

2. Doing ok but have to tune out the news

I’ve been like rebuilding a win 10 laptop, I mean manually optimizing it cause it was a win 7, upgraded, and some things didn’t always work well. Short story is it took awhile but done, runs beautifully now. Yeah the cumulative updates are as you say. Same.

[Initech]

3. My desktop crapped out on me yesterday.

Literally spent nearly the whole day restoring Windows, drivers, backup data, and programs. Ugh, what a nightmare.

[Disaffected]

4. Download an imaging software

such as Macrium Reflect (free version). Create a disk image(s) every so often on an external storage device and you can do a complete hard drive restore as required. Much easier and faster than a rebuild.

[MurrayDelph]

6. I'm so paranoid

that after i migrated my C partition to an SSD, I still keep the C partition on the drive, but hidden. Once every few months, I unhide it, do an image of the SSD, and rehide it.

[Initech]

8. It's kind of late now.

But I will look into that for next time. I've got several hard drives and my primary SSD is only 250GB so I should be easily able to find something that will work.

[Disaffected]

9. Highly recommended...

Myself, I began getting BSODs a couple of weeks ago (Device Power Status Errors) and was unable to find a fix so reimaged the disk and so far so good. I use a 1TB USB hard drive and rotate four disk images to backup a 128 GB SSD. It takes about an hour to create or regen an image but you can run it in the background or simply let it go on its own.

It's also a good idea to run CHKDSK (Check Disk) and SFC (System File Check) using Command Prompt (run as administrator).

As you point out, regening & configuring Windows and all your apps is a crappy day-long process - this makes it much easier.

And, don't forget to create the boot CD, or USB stick, in case Windows won't boot at all. You may also have to configure the boot sequence in your BIOS to set the CD or USB to the first boot device.

[Initech]

10. Oh yeah I know all the precautions to take.

Just sometimes you can't plan for something like this.

[BootinUp]

5. I second the above suggestion, and

its easy to use, macrium reflect.

[degage]

7. Macrium is good there is also Veeam

I do IT support for a living. We use Veeam to do backups at our customer sites. Veeam has a free Windows backup version that allows you to create an ISO to restore the computer if it crashes. It also lets you make backups to a local storage device. Like a USB attached drive. The free version won't allow you to backup to the cloud. With those backups you can have it do incrementals and you can restore just a file or folder from the backup if you need to.

I like it because I can create the restore ISO and upload it to the cloud. With that, I can rebuild my machine with all the drivers etc. on it. Then I can set up the automated job that runs in the background to make a full and incremental backups to a local USB and basically forget about it. If I have to do a full restore it is a two-step process. Rebuild with the ISO, then restore. I think the ability to have it do the backups automatically makes it worth it.