Replying to Sudden Onslaught Of Bsods

We were talking about system backup in order to avoid problems from loosing the operating system.
Yes, while your data are in f:\, your program is installed somewhere like c:\program files. The important point is not the program location, but the other settings you don't see concerning this program, for instance the changes to the registry, or the startup of subservers and associated Ethernet ports!
So, it's interesting to have a backup of all this, able to be rapidly restored while the user date are not disturbed in the f:\ partition.

Alright, that sounds good.

Thank you guys for your suggestions.

BSOD regarding, my guess is that a virus may have infact been causing it - I am no longer getting any BSODs since when I nuked my computer with anti virus applications.

And thank you, everyone, for your time and patience given while we tried to sort out this issue.

So, supposing I was going to install a program, would it go in C:\Program Files, or F:\Program files, supposing F was the other partition?

We were talking about system backup in order to avoid problems from loosing the operating system.
Yes, while your data are in f:\, your program is installed somewhere like c:\program files. The important point is not the program location, but the other settings you don't see concerning this program, for instance the changes to the registry, or the startup of subservers and associated Ethernet ports!
So, it's interesting to have a backup of all this, able to be rapidly restored while the user date are not disturbed in the f:\ partition.

If your C disk is 220 GB when it's quite a problem, what do you store there?

Usually the operating system takes only 20-40 GB with the required applications, you don't need to store anything else in a backup, you can hold all your documents, movies, music, pictures in some other partition..

Of course, it's Windows fault, that it uses C disk to store everything, pictures, desktop and etc. But you can overcome this by just using a backup utility windows offers or some 3d party software which can backup your operating system and installed programs into lets say ~20-40 GB backup, where you can choose what to backup.

Usually when you buy a laptop/desktop it comes with a backup partition and some kind of a backup utility already installed.

I think the point is to backup the documents, movies, music, pictures, etc., not necessarily the os. The os can be reinstalled, documents can't.

This means that you need to organize your PC differently. Seems that you have your operating system and your data/movies on the same place! This is absolutely not safe!
Next time you should organize your PC differently.
You should have at least two partitions, one devoted to the operating system (for windows, this is usually the "C" partition) and another partition devoted to your data, games, movies, photos, texts, spreadsheets, etc..
So, in case of problem in your data disk, you still have an operating system for trying to repair the data.
And if you loose your operating system, the data are still there, you simply need to re-install or restore your operating system, you loose no data.
In that case, system disks is very small because it has only microsoft windows and your applications (OpenOffice, Firefox for instance), so your ghost backup is rather small and you can have two copies of this backup (the initial one and the most recent one).

So, supposing I was going to install a program, would it go in C:\Program Files, or F:\Program files, supposing F was the other partition?

Oh, I see. Well, I generally have about ~220 GB stored on my main drive, so... that would be about 600GB of data on my other drive. Ehh, I dunno.

This means that you need to organize your PC differently. Seems that you have your operating system and your data/movies on the same place! This is absolutely not safe!
Next time you should organize your PC differently.
You should have at least two partitions, one devoted to the operating system (for windows, this is usually the "C" partition) and another partition devoted to your data, games, movies, photos, texts, spreadsheets, etc..
So, in case of problem in your data disk, you still have an operating system for trying to repair the data.
And if you loose your operating system, the data are still there, you simply need to re-install or restore your operating system, you loose no data.
In that case, system disks is very small because it has only microsoft windows and your applications (OpenOffice, Firefox for instance), so your ghost backup is rather small and you can have two copies of this backup (the initial one and the most recent one).

If your C disk is 220 GB when it's quite a problem, what do you store there?

Usually the operating system takes only 20-40 GB with the required applications, you don't need to store anything else in a backup, you can hold all your documents, movies, music, pictures in some other partition..

Of course, it's Windows fault, that it uses C disk to store everything, pictures, desktop and etc. But you can overcome this by just using a backup utility windows offers or some 3d party software which can backup your operating system and installed programs into lets say ~20-40 GB backup, where you can choose what to backup.

Usually when you buy a laptop/desktop it comes with a backup partition and some kind of a backup utility already installed.

We are talking about the operating system backum. It's only the c: disk, without any date. It should be someting like no more than 30 gigs.
And you store it on an external disk.
You store the intial backup, and then a rolling backup : the month 1, then the month 2. After the "month 3" you destroy "month2", and after month4 you destroy "mont2". You don't need to pay an online service, a USB disk close to your computer is enough.

Oh, I see. Well, I generally have about ~220 GB stored on my main drive, so... that would be about 600GB of data on my other drive. Ehh, I dunno.

We are talking about the operating system backup. It's only the c: disk, without any date. It should be someting like no more than 30 gigs.
And you store it on an external disk.
You store the intial backup, and then a rolling backup : the month 1, then the month 2. After the "month 3" you destroy "month2", and after month4 you destroy "mont2". You don't need to pay an online service, a USB disk close to your computer is enough.

you make a backup after a fresh Windows install.
The second backup when all your application, spreadsheets, picture management and surfing softwares are installed correctly.
And then a monthly backup.
In case of problem, you go back to the previous month. If the problem is still there, you go back two or three monthes before the s supposed crash.

Keeping that many backups? I think that would total at least 1.6 terabytes of data for me. Much more than I could store, and much more than what I'd want to pay an online service to keep.

you make a backup after a fresh Windows install.
The second backup when all your application, spreadsheets, picture management and surfing softwares are installed correctly.
And then a monthly backup.
In case of problem, you go back to the previous month. If the problem is still there, you go back two or three monthes before the s supposed crash.

You don't really nead ghost to decrease your PC's performance. If you want, you can make your initial backup, and then remove the software from your PC, so you will not see it starting at boot time.
And if you don't want the backup to use too much space on your hard disk, you still can put it on an external disk.
Of course, do not forget the free alternative to Ghost, which is name CloneZilla. You boot it off a CD, so nothing to be installed on your hard disk. The backup can be made on an external file server, maybe you already have on on your home network.

Hmm... I kind of like the one time idea. I guess the only problem is: I wouldn't be able to get into the habit of backing up often enough to make it worthwhile... and then, what if I backup an alreadt infected file?

You're right though, I should be backing up something.

The idea of an application or utility that scans windows file for corruption is very interesting, since I think I'm still infected. (Mysterious outgoing HTTP connections from the system idle process, some of which ESET blocks because they are known attack sites.)