{"id":25992,"date":"2011-11-30T10:47:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T15:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=25992"},"modified":"2011-11-30T10:47:03","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T15:47:03","slug":"ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Leo: How do I safely backup an infected drive?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/20090929leonotenboomwp.jpg\" alt=\"askleo\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"attachment wp-att-7652 alignleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p>By Leo Notenboom<\/p>\n<p><font SIZE=\"1\">My hard disk got infected with virus. I am planning to format it. So is there a way to backup all of the data without carrying the virus?<\/font><\/p>\n<p>The short answer is no, there&#8217;s no practical way to backup the entire hard disk without also including the infection in the backup.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing that, however, I can make some strong recommendations on how to proceed.<\/p>\n<h3>Backup tools are not anti-virus tools<\/h3>\n<p>To be able to backup an infected system while carefully excluding malware from the backup means that your backup software has to be able to somehow identify what is and is not malware.<\/p>\n<p>It can&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, you don&#8217;t want it to. Imagine a false positive causing some incredibly important file to not get backed up &#8211; that could cause you some serious problems.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, identifying malware is what your anti-malware tools are for.<\/p>\n<h3>Option 1: Backup and know that it&#8217;s infected<\/h3>\n<p>My recommendation is that you backup everything &#8211; infection and all &#8211; and make careful note that the backup is, itself, infected.<\/p>\n<p>Then never, ever restore that entire backup.<\/p>\n<p>As you&#8217;re probably already aware, restoring that entire backup would restore the malware, and thus leave you no better off.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/ask-leo.com\/how_do_i_safely_backup_an_infected_drive.html\" target=\"_blank\">Article Continued Here:<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>This post is excerpted with Leo&#8217;s permission from his blog.<\/p>\n<p>FaceBook URL:   <a href=\"http:\/\/ask-leo.com\/fb\" target=\"_blank\">Leo&#8217;s Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Twitter URL:     <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/askleo\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/twitter.com\/askleo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/techtalk.pcpitstop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20090929leonotenboomwp.jpg\" alt=\"askleo\" class=\"attachment wp-att-7167 alignleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once your machine is infected, system backups are likely to include the infection as well. I&#8217;ll look at what steps to take when that happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":66012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[46,4875],"class_list":["post-25992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leo-notenboom","tag-ask-leo","tag-leo-notenboom"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ask Leo: How do I safely backup an infected drive?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Once your machine is infected, system backups are likely to include the infection as well. I&#039;ll look at what steps to take when that happens.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ask Leo: How do I safely backup an infected drive?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once your machine is infected, system backups are likely to include the infection as well. I&#039;ll look at what steps to take when that happens.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PC Matic Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-30T15:47:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leo Notenboom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leo Notenboom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Leo Notenboom\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed90798b38aa4ab74e12591da7ab21d5\"},\"headline\":\"Ask Leo: How do I safely backup an infected drive?\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-30T15:47:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":243,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"keywords\":[\"ask leo\",\"leo notenboom\"],\"articleSection\":[\"leo notenboom\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ask Leo: How do I safely backup an infected drive?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-how-do-i-safely-backup-an-infected-drive\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-30T15:47:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"Once your machine is infected, system backups are likely to include the infection as well. 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