mounting an image

It may be easiest if you post some screen shots of what you are seeing so that we can help you decide if what you are seeing is correct or not.

When a disks or partition image is mounted, it is allocated one or more drive letters depending on how many partitions are included.  Each new mounted drive letter will be shown in Windows Explorer as you should expect to see it if you looked at the original partitions, and therefore you Windows Explorer File & Folders settings will apply as normal, i.e. if you do not show hidden files and folders, then these will also be hidden in the mounted drives.

Wow! thank you for your quick reply.

This is what I am looking at.

I think that I just learned how to post a screen shot. Here it is.

Thanks for the screen shot, I can see that the drive name shows as OS (J) but without seeing how your OS (C) content looks, it would appear that the mounted drive is not a Windows OS drive, looks more like the contents of a data drive?

If you open the same image file within ATIH 2016 and take the option to Recover Files, do you see the same listing of contents, or do you see something different?

Thanks Steve,

I had closed everything out. I will reopen it now and send you some more screen shots.

pastafazoul

It would also depend on the backup type selected and what files are being backed up as a result.  If using "entire pc" or "disks and paritoins" it will include all files on the computer (with the exception of anyting listed in the exclusions tab).  If usng a file/folder backup, only the items selected there will be specificlaly backed up.  A file/folder backup should not be used to backup an entire OS drive - it will not have access privileges to locked Windows files and/or hidden paritions (boot, recovery, etc).

Another note on mounting and navigating backups is that you won't see hidden or system files folder unless you have these types of folders viewable within Windows already as well. 

Sorry this is taking so long. Door bells, phones everything seems to go off while I am trying to get this done. Please bare with me.

Thank you Steve and Bob,

It looks like I did save, or tried to save the OS on a file and folder drive. So I guess this means that the thought of using this image file to restore my system is nil. Below is the photo.

The reason that I am doing all of this is that one of the techs at Acronis suggested that I might have a virus. He is speculating on this because of an icon on my desk top that looks like this,see photo below. I just found out that I can not send more than one image. I will finish this note on a note that I will send after this.

 Hi guys,

The reason that I am doing all of this is that one of the techs at Acronis suggested that I might have a virus. He is speculating on this because of an icon on my desk top that looks like this, see photo below. (I should also add that I don't wish to speak ill of the tech people because they have been helpful but I do have this concern now. ) The icon that is showing in the photo for my C drive is the generic sort of icon and it is not a cartoon of a hard drive. I ran my anti virus and malware software in safe mode and I haven't been able to find anything hence the search for a healthy image file which it appears that I do not have.

I suspect that the image file that I created of my OS is useless. I should add that I also save a very large partition in MyBackup folder. I am thinking that this could still be useful.

Any ideas on the virus or what else I could run to find it? It seems like restoring my OS because I did save it on the file and folders is a lost cause.

So what do you think.

And thank you.

Pasta...

What does your console look like - does it show File / folder as the backup type (see capture.png)?  If so, then yes, a full OS recovery is probably not in the cards.  However, if you have it as "entire pc" or "Disks and Partitions" you're probably in the clear.  If you took one of those, you can select an option to recover as 

"Recover Disks" or "Recover Files".  You'd want to "recover disks" to restore from a prevoius backup 

Not really sure about a virus - could be the case.  Hard to verify just going of the icons.  You can download a free trial version of MalwareBytes AntiMalware if you're not using anything.  The free version is good for life but doesnt do realtime protection.  However you get 14 days of the full application so I'd run it on your system and see if it comes up with anything nasty or not.  

You can try this fix from youtube as well for your hard drive icon... - might want to make sure to start a new backup just in case ....  The music is terrible, but the video itself is pretty informative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ws2KZZijrU

I think that I might be in luck! Acronis is smarter than I am or at least prepared for the kind of errors that I make. From what I can make out it will recover. Take a look and see what you think.

I should also add that I ran Hitman pro Super Anti Spyware Malware anti Malwarebytes and Norton in safe mode and I found nothing. Thank you for the Youtube. I will look at it shortly, and thanks again.

I think that you are right. I should wait until I have a proper image file before I go messing with the icon solution but it maybe that it is not a virus. I guess there isn't a way to find out other than the malware software if one's pc is infected.

Pasta - I would say your OK - it looks good with the options for "recover disks".  If there's any doubt though, you can still create a brand new backup task, make sure ou really have "disks and paritions" selected as the option and that you select the entire drive and all paritions on it.  referably, you could do this with the offline bootable recovery media as well in case there is malware that might prevent the backup from grabbing all of the OS files.  Probably not necessary, but I always feel confident with my full offline backups as they have been 100% rock solid.  Within Windows backups are reliable too, but I like having that extra bit of security that nothing in Windows can muck with the backup process.

Also, if it's in the cards, I would then restore to a different drive - a replacement drive, and old one, somethign other than the original.  That way, you can confirm the recovery works without wiping out the original drive.  In the grand scheme of things, a 3TB spinner (if you need that much space is barely $100).  If your data and working OS have any value at all, pickign up a spare drive for testing should be well worth the cost to restore your image to and then you'll have a drive you can use and test with down the road too. 

Thank you Bob for your help.

In the past I only used TI and DD with a bootable recovery media. It made more sense to me. I will do so now as well. Great tip! I like the idea of restoring to a different drive as well but I am not well versed in all of this. Perhaps you could point me to some files that might explain "creating a brand new backup task" and "how to restore to a different drive". I was so surprised to find that DD12 did not come with a operating system selector. How does one now select operating systems for a dual boot?

Thank you again for your time

Pasta,

If backing up with Acronis in Windows, I merely meant to create a new backup job and be sure to select "disks and partitions" as the source, then select the entire drive and all paritions (see sreenshot).  Do this as a new task instead of modifying one of your existing ones.  The point would be to make sure you truly do have a full disk/OS backup - just in case.

As for restoring to a new disk, the safest way would be to remove the primary one and replace it with a new/blank one and then restore to it.  It's a little more work to take the primary drive out, put in a new blank drive and then restore to it, but going this route, there is absolutely no way Acronis can wipe out the contents of your main drive since it won't be in the system and you could never accidentally overrite it with a bad or nonbootable image.  After the restore, if it boots up, you could either leave that drive in and use it like normal, or then go back and insert yoru original drive an then restore the same image to it.  It's just an extra layer of protection / safety so that you dont' accidentally resotre a non-bootable image, or a corrupted image to the only drive that is/was working prior to recovery.

This is basically what you're looking for... .however at 31 seconds the video shows "files and folders" being selected. In your case, you would select "disks and paritions instead" then select your main drive, and verify that all paritions on that drive are also selected.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFHHRvZF16s

Pasta, if the original problem you were trying to fix is with a corrupted desktop icon, you may want to take a look at the following web articles about rebuilding the Icon Cache information - I have used this lots of times for when my icons go missing or change to a default icon.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-icon-clear-thumbnail-cache-windows-10

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/icon-cache-rebuilder-for-windows-10

The same techniques work for Windows 7 if you are not on Windows 10.

Thank you Steve.

I am amazed by all the help that I have been receiving on this forum.

One of the techs that I communicated with suggested that I had a virus because the icon appeared generic rather than an icon with a specific symbol. Please see attachment. I ran Hitman pro, SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes Anti Malware, and Norton in safe mode and could not find anything. No other issues have shown up on my pc that would indicate a virus to me but then I am not a pc tech. I was also told that I should only have one anti malware software installed on my pc, so I uninstalled Hitman pro, SuperAntiSpyware. I haven’t notice any change in the way my pc opperates.

From the response that I have had on the forum it seems that the loss of an icon isn’t necessarily an indication that I have a virus.

What is your opinion?

Thanks.

I'm guessing not if all scans come up clean.

Having multiple AV applicaitons can cause problems if they interfere with each other - they may be competing for files and/or trying to lock files for scans at the same time.  I generally leave Windows Defender enabled and use one other active product at a time to help reduce conflicts between AV applications.  

I think that your icons cache is probably the more likely issue and would look into one of Steve's rcommended links (although, still recommend taking a backup, full, incremental, differential) first... just in case.

I also doubt that you have a virus that changed your icon to the default image - this is a common problem from Windows Vista upwards with the icon cache being damaged or corrupted and needing to be rebuilt.

I agree about multiple antivirus / antimalware solutions - I personally only have one active antivirus solution installed, and disable even Windows Defender / Firewall when my solution includes full functionality.  Having said that, I see no issue with using standalone antimalware scan tools such as Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware etc so long as these are not attempting to do realtime scans which can conflict with the other installed security solution.

If you want to be even more sure about your virus state then download a copy of the AVG Rescue CD which is available as an ISO image for CD or as a USB installable file.  I tend to go with the USB version as it allows you to update and keep the latest virus definitions.  Either version will perform a totally standalone virus scan of the entire system without any interference from any installed OS, Security or virus / malware programs.  This is usually my first check point when someone brings me a suspected virus infected system - if AVG Rescue says it is clean, I will then boot it into the OS and run other tools to find what the problem is.

Thank you Steve,

I will give AVG rescue cd a shot.

I did keep Malwarebytes on  but I did turn SuperAntiSpyware off unless I was doing a scan in safe mode. Hitman was on all the time. So perhaps it is just as well that I unistalled Hitman pro because it may have conflicted with Malwarebytes. I could not locate any way to turn off Hitman pro and would have liked to keep it because I paid for it but if it could potentially cause conflict I will keep it off.

What other tools do you use to find problems on pc's that you are testing.

thanks again

Steve,

I forgot to mention that I only have one antivirus on my pc and it is Norton

Hello Pasta, I am sure that you can still keep Hitman Pro to use as and when it might be needed, it is always good to have more than one choice for dealing with any malware problems.

In terms of tools, it really depends on what problems I am dealing with, sometimes it is about data recovery, other times rebuilding a failed system, along with challenges with virus infections etc.

I have a local system setup as a PXE Server that I can use to boot other computers from a variety of different tools or utility programs for diagnosing problems.  It is a good way to prove that there are no hardware specific issues if I can boot into an alternative OS such as a Live Linux distribution, or run an indepth memory scan & test, or diagnose bad sectors on a HDD etc.

Thank you Steve,

Between you and Bob the two of you have been a blessing.

I will go ahead and reinstall Hitman pro and leave SuperAntiSpyware turned off. I have yet to try the AVD rescue cd but that is next on my list.

Thanks again,

Pasta

Hello Bob and Steve,

Would one of you please suggest software that I can use to create a bootable ISO file. I need it to create the AVD Rescue CD.

thanks,

Pasta

Pasta,

I usually use Rufus.  Steve uses IsotoUSB.  Enchantech just posted another one called win32diskimager that he prefers.  Hopefully one of these work for you.

Thank you Bob,

I should have mentioned that I wanted to create the bootable ISO file on a CD. When I looked at these different soft wares they seemed to be orientated for a USB drive.

May I trouble you for another suggestion?

thanks,

Pasta

If you have an iso that you want to burn to disk, Windows 7.8/10 can do this automatically.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/burn-a-cd-or-dvd-from-an-is…

Alternativley, I've used imgburn, but sometimes it flags as a virus because of add-ons (that don't have to be installed).  There is a portable (non-installer version as well), but if Windows can do this, it's not really needed unless you're having trouble in Windows.

http://www.pendriveapps.com/portable-imgburn/

thank you Bob,

I do have w7 and I did try a blank disc but nothing opened in regards to an ISO image. I just assumed that I didn't have it. I will follow the link you supplied.

thanks,

Pasta

Another utility that I have used is the free CDburnerXP which works fine with Windows 7 and above (the XP in the name has nothing to do with Windows XP).

Good morning,

I did find the Windows Disc Burner when I right clicked the ISO file clicked on "open with". I also ran the AVR rescue disk with the results below. When I first ran the AVR rescue CD I found two virus. I went through the process whereby the found virus were “healed” but I wanted to get rid of them so I made note of the virus location, they were in data files. Some forgotten research that I no longer need. (I also found two pups and AVR deleted them.) I found the files that contained the virus and deleted them but I did not empty my trash and I encountered them when I did my second scan with the AVR rescue CD.

During the second scan as well as the first I clicked “enter” pretty much all the way through. Under “Scan Type Menu” the default highlight was on “Volumes” so I assumed the other headings indicted would be included under “Volumes”. Under “Scan Volumes” all the headings had an asterisk so I assumed all volumes would be selected. Under “Scan Options” four headings had asterisk. I did not know how to ascribe an asterisk to any of the headings so I clicked on “enter” hoping that the software was set up for the uninitiated. At the end of the scan AVR found the two files that I did not delete and it found one error. See photo. I “healed” two files. I don’t know why the option doesn’t exist to simply delete them? The one error that was indicated went away. After I rebooted CHKDSK started and it indicated that there were two pup files name errors that were corrected.

After this effort I assume I ran the AVR Scan properly and all is well on my PC? Time to make an image file and be done with this? What do you think? I should also ask if you are familiar with any further instructions that might further explain the options in the AVR Scan? That would be helpful. Thanks, Pasta

Pasta, glad to hear that the AVG Rescue CD was able to help and remove the two viruses that it found.

The user interface for AVG is fairly basic, but you can just press the spacebar when you want to select or deselect any items.  The default scan options to scan all volumes is fine to take and the business of 'healing' versus deleting or quarantining is all a matter of terminology - the key point is that AVG will remove any infected files and put them into a quarantine folder on an accessible drive.

You should be good to go ahead and create your fresh backup image.

Thanks to the both of you Steve and Bob. More than likely I will come back again now that I know the two of you have been so responsive.

Pasta