Replacing hard drive.

[IGOTDIRT4U]

For over a year no I have had a virus (suspected) in my home system that cannot be detected or is not being detected by various programs designed to detect and eliminate.

Talking to a friend down the street and he says short of paying someone to run through the registry, best bet is to get a new HD. So, I bought a new HD last weekend, and another HD external back up. (I don't want to use my other one as the virus may have transferred onto that one, as well)

My question is; If I back up my HD to the new external drive, how do I prevent the possible virus from going with all the data to the external drive, and subsequently to the new HD, too?

Easy on me, too. I have little to no computer skills.

[bak]

you don't need to replace the internal drive. What files do you want to back up off the old hard drive. Move them to external. Use software disk that came with computer and do a clean install of windows and programs. pull your data off external drive. install microsoft security essentials and firewall.

which of the free anti-spyware/anti virus software did you run computer already?

[ocabj]

If it's a mebroot variant, you'll NEED to wipe the mbr.

I notify people at work when they get compromised by mebroot and then I get a call back saying the cleaned it when all they did was run antivirus/antispyware. The next day I end up shutting off their network access again because they're still infected.

It's gotten to the point where we just tell those users to wipe the mbr and completely reformat the drive.

[IGOTDIRT4U]

Thanks for replying.

a)I have so much stuff on the HD I am not sure I can pick and choose what I want to back up versus what I need, plus the time it would take to go through that much data.

b)Besides Symantec (with regular subscription updates) and McAfee, I use Spybot.

[paul0660]

Why do you suspect a virus?

[POLICESTATE]

Yeah if it's in the boot sector you will need to Low Level Format

I would get your data onto CD/DVD ROMs, scan those on a separate computer, and then beat your infected hard drive with hammer until it's totally wrecked. Get new hard drive.

Unless you know how to do low level formats.

[IGOTDIRT4U]

Yeah if it's in the boot sector you will need to Low Level Format

I would get your data onto CD/DVD ROMs, scan those on a separate computer, and then beat your infected hard drive with hammer until it's totally wrecked. Get new hard drive.

Unless you know how to do low level formats.

That's why I bought a new HD last weekend. Everytign I threw at it could not either detect it, nor remove it.

I am not sure it is a virus, but in certain internet sites (put away the dirty minds) the problem comes back, locking up my computer. I then clean it with my tools, and sometimes it goes away, sometimes not.

I fgured a fresh start with a new HD would isolate is, until I realized I may be just putting the old problems back on fromt eh external drive.

I like the idea of putting the saved data from teh ext drive onto an old computer (I just happen to have one) and putting only new data on the new HD.

[POLICESTATE]

Send drive into manufacturer for repair, should be under warranty? It could be a different problem and it's coincidence.

A few more pointers:
Don't use Internet Explorer (unless you have to)
Keep Firefox updated and run the noscript add-on, yeah it can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but it's saved my bacon a few times.

[paul0660]

my experience with boot record viruses is that they kill the computer. I think you have something less serious.

Try http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

make sure it is updated, and run it. It may be necessary to run from safe mode to eliminate what it finds.

[IGOTDIRT4U]

my experience with boot record viruses is that they kill the computer. I think you have something less serious.

Try http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

make sure it is updated, and run it. It may be necessary to run from safe mode to eliminate what it finds.

Yep, that's worth a try. If it works, then I will take Policestate's advice for going forward. (except send in for warranty, it's out by about a year)

If not, **** can the old HD and put in new one, and sort the old data on the old Pentium III

[lazyworm]

Thanks for replying.

a)I have so much stuff on the HD I am not sure I can pick and choose what I want to back up versus what I need, plus the time it would take to go through that much data.

b)Besides Symantec (with regular subscription updates) and McAfee, I use Spybot.

Go by file type...

* images and movies, just backup, normally safe from virus
* pdf, doc, xls, ppt, and pst: backup, quarantine, scan on known
clean computer before putting back to your new machine
* bookmarks, backup, manually verify before putting back to your new machine
* treat the rest of the files on a case-by-case basis, you most likely
don't want to transfer them to the new machine.


Suggest you check out Kaspersky. I have pretty good experience with it.

[paul0660]

And, if it comes to that, google how to save address book and email messages, and make sure you have a written list of your passwords.

You will have to reinstall your programs, so make a list of those and either find the discs for them, or expect to find them online (in a probably newer version than what would be on a disc.)