Mark Jones said:
I've long-since lobbied for OS-on-EEPROM, especially now that we have
such high-density hardware. Anything without specific permissions just
isn't going to get clearance to write to it, simple as that. Maybe a
"key" you need to insert in the front of the PC to upgrade the
OS/service pack, etc. (Say the switch allows the EEPROM to get +12v.)
You can achieve a similar effect as an eprom OS if you use a partition
saving program to backup your C: partition.
Then you can restore the Operating system anytime to exactly the same
state.
If you like you can even restore instead of rebooting, if you want to
reset the operating system every time you start the computer.
If you have a second partition, or a second hard disk you can keep your
data on that and saved partition images which you can restore to C:
partition.
Both data from the second partition and disk images of the C partition
can also be backed up to CD's, of course, to get a second line defence
against loss of data or programs.
Two good partition saving programs: the commercial norton ghost and the
freeware "Partition Saving".
http://www.partition-saving.com/
This software lets you create a compressed copy of the C: partition, and
store it on another partition/harddisk or on a CD burner.
When something goes wrong, viruses, technical problems, whatever, you
simply restore the C: drive. It takes 2 minutes, a lot faster than
resinstalling windows and all your favorite programs, and faster than the
reboot procedure on many computers filled with ad and spyware routines to
be loaded.
I save the windows installation after I have installed windows and a few
programs I need. Later I install more programs, and make a new backup
with partition saving.
When something goes wrong (or I have installed and tried a load of
useless programs) I can choose which disk image I want to restore, a
really clean and fresh installation, or a more advanced one with several
extra programs and settings. I have 3 saved images to choose from right
now, from a very barebone windows installation, to a copy of my current
system as it was two weeks ago.
I make sure to store my important data on another hard disk, and on
another partition on the first hard disk, and I back up both the data and
the partition images on CD.
If my first hard disk breaks down I simply buy a new one and restore a
partition image to the C partition. If my second hard disk goes down I
copy my data from C and all is well again. If both break down
simultaneously, which is highly unlikely but possible, I buy two new
hard disks and restore the backups from CD.
Both norton ghost and partitionsaving are small programs you run from a
DOS floppy, or live-CD. Ghost has the added advantage of a windows
program which is used to open ghost disk images in a manner like we open
zip files, look inside, copy files out from the archive/image, copy files
into it, so you can change it. This is sometimes useful, for example if
you have a file or a program which cannot be deleted. You make an image
of the partition, go into it like a zip file, and erase the un-erasable
file or program, and restore the image to the C partition.
If you are hit by a virus which makes windows un-usable you can run the
partition saving program from a floppy, make a copy of the current state
of the C partition, restore the latest good partition image, and reboot. Then
you can explore the image which doesn't work from your normal windows
environment, change things, copy files you would have lost otherwise,
etc..
A new way to backup your data files is to store them on internet, so you
can access them from any connection and any computer. Just get an account
where you are allowed to store files.