Unbootable recovery disk makes backups useless

Unbootable recovery disk makes backups useless

A reader discovers that his carefully created backups are totally useless for restoring his PC.

Plus: Why would a PC fail to boot properly in the morning but work fine the rest of the day?

Backup-system test yields an unwelcome surprise

Reader Peter Banks took an extra step with his backups — a step that too few Windows users bother with. He tested his complete backup/restore process to make sure it would work when he really needed it.

It didn’t go well.

• “I just built a new computer and decided to follow your advice about backups.

  “I made an image of the pristine Win10 installation, using its built-in image tool [Control Panel/System and Security/Backup and Restore (Windows 7)]. It went smoothly.

  “I then made a recovery disc when prompted, which also went smoothly. However, when I tested the disc, the system wouldn’t boot from the CD. It said the disc was not bootable media.

  “I’ve tried this twice, but no option comes up asking to create a bootable disc.”

First let me congratulate you for actually testing your recovery discs. That’s rarely done by most Windows users!

It’s a smart practice; proactive testing can help ensure that your backups will work when you really need them. You don’t want to discover that you can’t restore your backups when you’re already neck-deep in a PC disaster.

(For detailed instructions on nondestructively testing and verifying backups and images, see the Nov. 5, 2015, LangaList Plus.)

Of course, if you discover a restore problem, you then have to solve it. Peter’s specific issue was a “No boot media detected” error with the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) rescue disc.

In many PCs, especially those running Win8/10, the security and speed settings in the system’s UEFI/BIOS can prevent or complicate booting from any rescue disc or drive — so that’s the first thing to check. For help, see:

• “How to solve UEFI boot and startup problems” — Dec. 11, 2014, Top Story
• “Emergency access to your PC’s UEFI settings” — Jan. 15, 2015, LangaList Plus
• “Emergency repair disks for Windows: Part 1” — April 10, 2014, Top Story
• “Emergency repair disks for Windows: Part 2” — April 17, 2014, Top Story

If it’s not a UEFI/BIOS issue, then it’s likely to be a problem with the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) applet itself.

That tool was originally designed as a bridge between Win7’s monolithic images/backups and Win8/10’s two-component backup system (File History for user files and Reset for system files).

The app’s intent was to allow access to Win7 backups from within Win8/10; not for making reliable Win8/10 backups via the Win7 process.

Some of the backup/restore issues that can appear when using the Win7 system can be due to partition type (GPT, MBR, FAT, etc.), presence or absence of hidden but essential recovery/system/EFI partitions, BIOS or UEFI firmware capabilities and settings, boot file location and type, general drive format type, and hardware/software bittedness.

There’s also this: Win7 will reach end-of-life in 2020. I have my doubts that it makes sense to start a new backup regime based on the Win7 format, when Win7 itself will soon (in terms of backup longevity) become unsupported.

If the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) applet were somehow exceptional, it might still be worth some hassle. But there are numerous alternatives, both free and paid, that work nicely with Win10. Why struggle with what is at best a balky tool? Here’s some popular, third-party applications:

• Macrium Reflect — free and paid (with free trial)
• Paragon Backup & Recovery — 30-day demo and paid
• Acronis True Image — paid with 30-day free trial
• EaseUS Todo Backup — free and paid

No matter what tool you use, be sure to periodically test your backups as described in the Nov. 5, 2015, LangaList Plus.

Once your backups/images pass the test, you’ll know — conclusively — that your data will be fully restorable when you need it!

Cold starts fail, but warm starts succeed

Ross Caruso’s PC is slow to get to work.

• “Hi Fred, I have a computer that locks up when I first boot up for the day. It typically freezes, reboots, or ends up with the blue screen of death.

  “After stalling a few times, the machine works fine through the rest of the day. But then the same thing happens the next morning when I do a cold startup.

  “At first I thought it was a hardware problem. But if it was, I’d expect to experience this problem all the time. I don’t. What do you think is happening?”

Actually, I think this is a hardware issue!

I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that your PC is a few years old and has a traditional spinning-platter hard drive.

Here’s what I think’s going on. Each day, a mechanical drive starts out cold (at room temperature) but gets quite warm during normal operation. Over time, these heat-up cycles can slowly cook the drive’s lubricants, causing them to thicken and to literally begin gumming up the works.

A drive with lubrication issues can be balky when cold. The viscous lubricants can prevent the drive from reaching operating speed within a suitable time. They might also cause the drive heads to move poorly or sluggishly. Either way, the drive can suffer from timeouts and data errors, causing boot failures.

Once the drive warms up a bit and the old lubricants thin out, and the drive operates normally.

There can also be purely mechanical issues with older hard drives. The bearings and other critical parts eventually begin to wear, leading to some mechanical sloppiness. That can eventual cause data errors. Furthermore, different temperatures and situations might yield unpredictable drive behavior.

But you don’t have to guess whether your drives are in good or poor condition. A S.M.A.R.T drive utility (more info) can usually show you how many total hours a drive has been in use, how many bad sectors it has developed over time, how many soft (correctable) and hard (uncorrectable) data errors have occurred, and so on. The better utilities can also help you estimate how much useful life your drive might have.

For some examples of S.M.A.R.T utilities, see “Two tools for checking hard-drive health” (Nov. 14 Best Utilities). Other good, free/paid tools include:

• PassMark DiskCheckup
• HDDScan
• CrystalDiskInfo
• Hard Disk Sentinel (see Nov. 15 Best Utilities)

If, as I suspect, your drive is at, near, or even beyond its reliable service life, your best bet is to replace it or to get a new PC — assuming the rest of your system’s components are also getting long in the tooth.

Either way, consider getting a solid-state drive (SSD). Not only are SSDs much faster than conventional drives, they also have no moving parts, which avoids all the wear-related problems inherent in mechanical devices (though the internal electronics of an SSD can eventually wear out, too, from repeated writes.).

In the unlikely event that it’s not a wear/mechanical problem with your drive — say, several SMART monitors all agree that your drive is functioning within normal parameters — then I suggest launching Windows’ Reliability Monitor app.

The diagnostics tool is in all Windows versions. For information, see the March 1 LangaList Plus “Free diagnostic tools solve weird boot problems”; skip down to the section labeled Built-in diagnostic tools.

If your cold-boot problem is somehow caused by a software issue, Reliability Monitor should help you pin it down. Look for the earliest errors logged during a failed cold-boot sequence. They are likely the root of an avalanche of follow-on errors — falling in sequence like dominoes — that ultimately lead to the failed boot. If you can identify and fix the root error(s), your boot problems will likely be solved.

But I really don’t think you’ll need that level of sleuthing. My bet’s on a much simpler diagnosis: Your hard drive is wearing out and needs replacement.

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Special Thanksgiving edition of Patch Watch

November’s second Patch Watch would normally fall on the 24th. But we assume most Windows Secrets readers in the U.S. will be busy with Thanksgiving.

We know we’ll be feasting with friends and family. So we’re putting out a slightly early edition of Patch Watch.

In my case, I’ll be busy over the Thanksgiving holiday roasting a turkey, starting my Christmas decorating — and installing the November patches I previously recommended holding off on.

3197868

Malwarebytes stumbles on the Win7 rollup

If you have Malwarebytes installed on your Win7 system and you delayed installing the November rollup (KB 3197868), you made a fortuitous decision. As reported by Malwarebytes, Microsoft failed to digitally sign over 500 files in the update. That caused the Malwarebytes app to generate false positives, along with a lengthy reboot process.

It’s currently unclear whether the fault lies with the lack of code signing by Microsoft or the manner in which Malwarebytes set up its detection. In either case, the issue is now fixed via an updated Malwarebytes database. If you were impacted by the conflict, use the above link to return your system to its usual working condition.

Another side effect with both the October and November monthly rollups: problems with the Google toolbar. As noted by numerous sources (such as Woody Leonhard’s site), the solution is to uninstall the Google toolbar. Alternatively, you could roll back the updates, though I think being secure is more important than the convenience of a specific toolbar.

What to do: Install KB 3197868 as soon as possible.

3197874

Secure Boot issues with Win8.1’s rollup

The November rollup for Win8.1 includes MS16-140, which fixes a vulnerability in Secure Boot. But the patch might impact machines that have this security feature disabled in BIOS. As noted in an ASUS forum post, you might need to re-enable Secure Boot to get MS16-140 properly installed.

What to do: Install November rollup KB 3197874 as soon as possible.

3196686, 3197869

November’s preview of December Win7 updates

A reminder that Microsoft is sending out a preview roll-up update for Win7 systems. The title of these previews can be confusing; KB 3197869, for example, is labeled as “November 2016 Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.” But, as described on the Win7 update history page, the patch contains fixes and enhancements released Nov. 8, new fixes, and the monthly roll-up that’ll be released on December’s Patch Tuesday.

Confusing as these updates might be, it’s clear that keeping track of the what and when of updates is getting only more difficult. It’s also obvious that, like it or not, we’re in a cumulative-update world — even for Win7 and Win8.1.

The listed changes to Win7 include IP-address logging for Remote Desktop Protocol, support for SHA1 deprecation, and language updates, plus fixes for shutdown-failure issues and security-certificate problems with ADFS proxies.

A second, separate preview rollup, KB 3196686, is for .NET Framework 3.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, and 4.6.1.

Note that these previews rollups are posted in the Optional section of Windows Update, and they should be unchecked.

What to do: Preview rollups KB 3196686 and KB 3197869 are intended to let IT pros test coming updates. But individual Win7 users can also install them to get a jumpstart on their patching. Again, the updates are optional, but I recommend passing on them. We’ll address them in December.

Patching and securing our many IoT gadgets

I recently attended Penton’s IT/Dev Connections conference, where I spoke about patching the Internet of Things (IoT). If you’re a tech geek like me, you’re probably introducing lots Internet-connected gadgets onto your home network. And you’ve probably discovered that there’s no easy way to update/patch many of these devices.

For example, I have an Amazon Echo speaker that ties into Belkin WeMo (more info) devices. With this link, I can walk into my house and say, “Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree”; she’ll acknowledge my command and light the tree in my living room. That’s fun, but as I’ve added more of these connected devices, I’ve discovered that any updates they get are often installed in unusual ways. The Belkin WeMo, for instance, receives firmware updates only through it smartphone app.

From my experience, choosing between Google Home or Amazon Alexa devices basically comes down to reviewing other IoT devices in your home and researching which system will connect with the devices you already have (or plan to purchase). But either way, it’s important to keep in mind that all IoT devices have vulnerabilities. So when setting them up, take a minute to consider what you’re saying “Yes” to. And if you’re offered firmware updates, take the time to install them.

What to do: As demonstrated by the recent denial-of-service attack against Brian Krebs’ website (more info), the infected devices used in the attack were set to their default usernames and passwords. Be sure to look for any usernames/passwords settings in IoT devices and change them!

Compress, don’t delete, installer files

With Windows, you often learn the hard way that something wasn’t a good idea. I was reminded of this by a recent email from a friend. Looking for a way to recover space on a small SSD, he found that his Windows installer folder was quite large — and assumed that cleaning out the folder’s contents wouldn’t be a problem.

But it turns out that this folder is more important than you might think. For example, it can hold the icon files for Windows shortcuts. My friend discovered that many of the icons on his desktop were suddenly broken. He also couldn’t uninstall some applications such as Microsoft’s Silverlight. A recent Silverlight update kept failing, and he was unable to either remove the media app or fix the patching issue.

Fortunately, he was able to restore the installer folder from a backup. The two lessons: Always make sure you have a full backup before cleaning out system files and don’t delete the installer folder, as noted in an MS TechNet blog. (If my friend had not had a backup, he’d have had to reinstall his operating system.)

This story also reminds me of a recent question from a Windows Secrets subscriber. He had a Windows XP computer that was needed for a key line-of-business application. He successfully replaced a failed hard drive, reinstalled the OS, and then installed all available patches.

In his email, he asked whether there was a way to download all XP updates in advance, in case Microsoft removed them from its servers. I don’t think Microsoft will do that anytime soon; XP Embedded is still used in many point-of-sale systems. But more important, it’s far better and safer to ensure that you make regular and full backups of the entire system — no matter what operating system you’re using. Restoring a recent image will, naturally, also restore all previously installed patches.

What to do: There are dozens of free backup applications; many such as Veeam are offered free. So there’s no excuse to not make regular backups and images of any PC.

November’s batch of nonsecurity Office patching

Note that these Office updates were released on Nov. 1, per Microsoft’s new patch-release schedule. For the full list of nonsecurity Office updates, including SharePoint fixes, see MS Support article 3200802

Office 2010

• 3118393 – Project; freezing with multi-month tasks

Office 2013

• 3039719 – Word; crash after adding TableBinding Object
• 3039750 – Office; Access-to-Excel export errors
• 3118343 – PowerPoint; adds Mixed DPI Mode
• 3118346 – PowerPoint; mixed DPI and other fixes
• 3118350 – OneDrive for Business (no description)
• 3118353 – PowerPoint; adds Mixed DPI Mode
• 3127915 – Office; multi-monitor support
• 3127916 – Office (no description)
• 3127919 – Outlook; various fixes
• 3127934 – Skype for Business; numerous fixes
• 3127959 – Project; various fixes

Office 2016

• 3115280 – Office; error on data import, language fixes
• 3118336 – Office; AutoDetect/proxy issues
• 3118338 – Office; AutoDetect/proxy issues
• 3118340 – Office; crashes when using Send as Attachment
• 3118341 – OneDrive for Business (no description)
• 3127902 – PowerPoint; failed network calls to older SharePoint servers
• 3127905 – Office; stability fixes
• 3127906 – Office; crash on file save, synching issues
• 3127909 – Office; MySite docs locked as read-only
• 3127912 – Outlook; various fixes and enhancements
• 3127939 – Skype for Business; numerous fixes
• 3127941 – Word; various fixes
• 3127960 – Project; various fixes

What to do: Any and all of the above updates should be safe to install.

Regularly updated problem-patch chart

This table provides the status of recent Windows and Microsoft application security updates. Patches listed below as safe to install will typically be removed from the table about two months after they appear. Status changes are highlighted in bold.

Note: With the change to rollups for Win7 and Win8.1, the chart now gives the status only for rollup and cumulative updates, unless the update is released separately (e.g., Office and some Adobe Flash Player fixes).

For Microsoft’s list of recently released patches, go to the MS Security TechCenter page.

Patch	Released	Description	Status
3185330	10-11	Win7 rollup update	Install
3185331	10-11	Win8.1 rollup update	Install
3192440	10-11	Win10 RTM cumulative update	Install
3192441	10-11	Win10 1511 cumulative update	Install
3192884	10-11	MS Graphics Component
3192887	10-11	IE cumulative update; see MS16-118 for full list
3192890	10-11	Edge cumulative update
3192892	10-11	Kernel-Mode Driver
3193227	10-11	Windows Registry
3193229	10-11	Diagnostic Hub; Win10 editions
3194063	10-11	MS Office, use link for full list	Install
3194343	10-11	Adobe Flash Player	Install
3194798	10-11	Win10 1607 cumulative update	Install
3195360	10-11	MS Video Control
3196067	10-11	MS Internet Messaging API
3193479	11-10	Boot Manager
3193706	11-10	Common Log File system driver
3197868	11-10	Win7 rollup	Install
3197874	11-10	Win8.1 rollup	Install
3198467	11-10	IE cumulative update
3198585	11-10	Win10 RTM cumulative update	Install
3198586	11-10	Win10 1511 cumulative update	Install
3199057	11-10	Cumulative Edge update
3199120	11-10	Microsoft Graphics Component
3199135	11-10	Windows kernel-mode driver
3199151	11-10	Microsoft Video Control
3199168	11-10	Office	Install
3199172	11-10	Windows
3199173	11-10	Windows Authentication Method
3199641	11-10	SQL Server; wait to install on workstations	Install
3199647	11-10	Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk driver
3199720	11-10	Windows Kernel
3200970	11-10	Win10 1607 cumulative update	Install
3202790	11-10	Adobe Flash Player	Install

Status recommendations: Skip — patch not needed; Hold — do not install until its problems are resolved; Wait — hold off temporarily while the patch is tested; Optional — not critical, use if wanted; Install — OK to apply.

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When someone else steals your email identity

There a many ways that our email can be compromised. Malicious messages and attachments are a continuing and serious threat.

But as discussed in the Security & Scams forum, there’s confusion about spoofed email addresses and whether it’s a problem. What does it mean when you receive mail that was seemingly send by you? One forum member gives a good description.

The following links are this week’s most interesting Lounge threads, including several other new questions for which you might have answers:

Office Applications
Word Processing	Photos in Word 2016 larger than in Word 2010
	Get text field on a cover to auto update on another page
Spreadsheets	Help needed: Macro to send reminders
Databases	Populating fields based on another field’s content
Visual Basic for Apps	Word: Quick style gallery
Microsoft Outlook	Outlook error: Red X
Other MS Apps	Problems installing Visual Studio 2015
Windows
General Windows	Help needed for using AutoHotKey
Windows 10	Is “Start is back” harmful?
	Scheduled restore points
Windows 7	The quest for Win7 (a full, legitimate copy)
Windows Servers	Help setting up iLO2 on HP DL380 G5
Internet/Connectivity
Networking	Private networking on the road
Non-Microsoft OSes	Ongoing: My Journey into the World of Linux
Security & Scams	Is spoofed email address a problem?
Maintenance	Windows Update will not do anything

Starred posts are particularly useful

If you’re not already a Lounge member, use the quick registration form to sign up for free. The ability to post comments and take advantage of other Lounge features is available only to registered members.

If you’re already registered, you can jump right into today’s discussions in the Lounge.