Tips on Hard Drives, Backups, and Cyber Security
by Peter Myers, October 21, 2019
Those of us who remember the 1980s know that computers were not always 'user friendly'.
Those were the days of DOS. You had to know your hardware.
Now things have gone to the other extreme. Your hard drives are usually hidden. All you see is 'my computer'.
But you can make it a little less virtual.
Instead of 'my computer', tell it to show you your hard drives, SSDs and external devices. These are important, because that's where your data is.
Everyone now touts SSDs for their speed, but there is a downside: they don't last as long as hard drives. Secure Empty Trash is no longer offered, because SSDs wear out if constantly overwritten. Therefore, I stick with hard drives. Security before speed.
Now that hard drives come as 500 GB, 1 TB or bigger, they can be easily partitioned into 5 or more partitions.
When mounted, each partition shows up as a 'volume' - it looks like a hard drive, on your desktop.
Keep your data in one partition. If you have special needs, eg a lot of photos or movies, there can be special partitions for them as well. This makes backing up easy.
Apart from your data, your computer has software - system software, applications software and utilities. These various kinds of software go together, so they can be kept in one partition.
Computer software is updated from time to time. But rather than update your existing, stable partition, update another one instead.
This means that you need at least two partitions for software.
On my iMac, I have three: one for Yosemite (which I call X10), one for Sierra (X12) and one for High Sierra (X13). Each is bootable; I back up each separately.
Let's suppose that your software is all in one partition (eg Windows 8 or Windows 10). Here's what you can do:
Repartition your hard drive, or another one, into a data partition and at least two (bootable) software partitions. These could be for Windows 7, 8, and 10 - you can run 2 of these, or all 3, but only one at a time.
You could have two Windows 10 partitions - one for your existing stable software (with Software Update turned OFF), and one to be updated periodically.
Only Update the latter one. In the event of problems, you can fall back on the stable one.
When creating the partitions, work out the size you need, and allow 20% extra, or more.
After you have created, let's say, an additional software partition, you need to set up the software for it. There's a long, slow, way to do it - downloading and reinstalling it all - and a fast, easy way.
Here's how I do it on a Mac: Suppose I have a computer running Yosemite (X10), and I also want to run Sierra (X12).
I run Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the X10 software into the X12 partition. In Windows this is called a "System Image Backup".
It's NOT an incremental backup as Time Machine does. I have Safety Net off, which means that the cloned partition is exactly the same as the original partition.
And it's bootable.
Now, boot into the new partition - call it X12, but at this stage it's actually running X10 Yosemite. Go into Software Update, and update the system to Sierra X12 (or another - it's up to you).
Your user account, utilities & application software are all present; you do not need to reinstall them. But some may need to be updated to later versions.
Just as my internal drive is divided into say 5 partitions, my backup drive is partitioned into the same 5 partitions.
Thus if my internal drive is named Perth, its partitions are Perth X10, Perth X12, Perth X13, Perth Data and Perth Spare.
And if my backup drive is called Sydney, its partitions are Sydney X10,
Sydney X12, Sydney X13, Sydney Data, and Sydney Spare.
If I'm running X10, when I backup, I backup (with Carbon Copy Cloner, safety net off) Perth X10 to Sydney X10 and Perth Data to Sydney Data.
But when I backup, I backup to 3 backup drives, one after the other.
Let's call the others Brisbane and Darwin.
I would backup Perth X10 to Brisbane X10 and Perth Data to Brisbane Data. Then backup Perth X10 to Darwin X10 and Perth Data to Darwin Data.
I might do such a backup once every 3 or 4 weeks.
Strictly, such a backup is called an 'Archive'. Apart from that, you need to do daily backups.
You can automate the daily backup process with Time Machine or similar software; but I do it manually.
I backup every file I'm working on, to a USB stick or an internal drive.
I've just backed up this file I'm working on, and I do it every 5 or 10 minutes, manually.
If you repeatedly run Carbon Copy Cloner in Mac OS X, or Retrospect in OS 9, it runs much more quickly on subsequent occasions, because it only copies files that have changed.
As for security: you need an anti-malware program that runs in all your software partitions. This could be different versions of the same product; with luck you will only need to pay for one.
Not all anti-virus software is reliable. Some of it is downright dangerous - because it's produced by hackers. I would avoid any such software made in a certain Middle Eastern country.
What better way to keep surveillance on someone's computer, than to run the anti-virus sofware that has full admin access?
For Mac cleaning software, beware any site which recommends or downloads Mackeeper or Clean My Mac; only use Onyx - it is safe. I don't know the Windows equivalents, but shonky "cleaning" software is commonly used to install malware. Anti-virus software can compromise your computer.
I recommend Eset and Malwarebytes.
Apart from them, Kaspersky is certainly not in league with Big Brother, because it revealed NSA secrets, and got into trouble over it. Kaspersky exposed NSA spy software deep within the Firmware of hard drives:
Russian researchers expose breakthrough U.S. spying program
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/16/us-usa-cyberspying-idUSKBN0LK1QV20150216
"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.
"That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations."
In retaliation, NSA & GCHQ have been targeting Kaspersky:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/snowden-documents-reveal-nsa-targeted-Kaspersky-and-other-antivirus-companies-2015-6
New Snowden documents reveal the NSA targeted one of the world's biggest security companies
"Newly unearthed documents obtained by The Intercept indicate that the National Security Agency (NSA) as well as the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have been targeting the largest antivirus companies using various hacking techniques. ...
"Both the NSA and the GCHQ heavily targeted the Russia-based antivirus company Kaspersky Lab, The Intercept reports, citing documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden."
The prominent brands may be co-operating with the NSA, may incorporate NSA code. You would not expect so, but Snowden and Assange are not holed up for nothing. Our Governments have become Rogue States.
That's why I suggest you use Eset or Malwarebytes, or Kaspersky.
