(Another) Techie Question

[JackDee]

After a virus attack has left my windows xp (what a fvcking joke of a software btw, somebody inject bill gates with something lethal) was his by a virus, a worm to be exact, it's left a lot of features either disabled of mal functioning, and i am planning to re-install my (pirate of course, i wouldn't pay a cent to microsoft) copy of windows again, do any of you guys know the procedure?

Back in the windows 98 days you could just format the disk from the dos prompt and re install, but what happens nowadays when dos prompt is just another app in windows?

thanks, bol. jack.

 

[TTinCO]

Jack, go to www.trend.com & download "sysclean" and the latest virus pattern file.

In theory, that will undo whatever the virus\worm tore up, but there are no guarantees.

You may be faced with a reload, but there are a lot of things that you can try before facing that abortion.

 

[JackDee]

thanks ttinco, i ve already gotten rid of the worm, in partls with avast antivirus, my own twiking, cleaning and of course messing up of the registry, and with a few system utils and proccess killers, but that's left my system partly crippled, maybe the damage to the registry is much less than i estimate, but i d feel much more safe and sound if just backed up my apps and files and then re installe d the whole thing.

 

[TTinCO]

Jack, that very well may be your only option given the # of things that you have tried.

If sysclean doesn't bring it back to a stable state, you're most likely facing a reload.

 

[sometech]

Depends on what version of windows you wish to install. Some older versions of windows require a Floppy DOS pre-install, others versions have more sophisticated merging abilities but if you plan to go from XP to a previous version you will need to reformat for proper results.

 

[JackDee]

i am planning to go from xp to xp.

 

[JackDee]

ttinco, just downloaded sysclean and got this from my antivirus, a virus was found: vbs:redlof, i of course deleted the file immediately.

 

[sometech]

XP has a great feature called system restore.

Have you tried this?

goto

Start > Help > Pick a Task > Undo changes to your computer with System Restore


When using this to roll your computer back to a safe Restore date you should be prompted for your CD for needed files. Hopefully this may restore your computer without the need of a full format re-install.

 

[TTinCO]

Jack, if sysclean works right, it will fix everything that was changed by the virus.

Just let the baby run...yeah, I know-it will probably take 30 minutes, but it's good.

 

[bigboydan]

run the virous scan then we can troubleshoot it more if that doesn't fix your problem.

as far as the system restore goes yes, it is a nice feature but, i've noticed that it will not restore everything (i found out the hard way before)

 

[JackDee]

"Jack, if sysclean works right, it will fix everything that was changed by the virus.

Just let the baby run...yeah, I know-it will probably take 30 minutes, but it's good."

i wish i could give it a go, but he file i downloaded from trend.com, sysclean.com, is, like i said, infected with a virus, according to my antivirus, so i have to delete it.

 

[bigboydan]

jack, do a search on google for free antivious scans and pick one

 

[JackDee]

"posted January 22, 2004 01:32 AM
XP has a great feature called system restore.
Have you tried this?
goto
Start > Help > Pick a Task > Undo changes to your computer with System Restore
When using this to roll your computer back to a safe Restore date you should be prompted for your CD for needed files. Hopefully this may restore your computer without the need of a full format re-install."

Restore would not work when i got the virus, so not much use when i really needed it, and then i turned it off, because microsoft geniuses haven't realised that a system restore will restore a virus too... This used to come with norton utils as a separate util, and was, as per usual a much more superior piece of software, but now that ms have intergrated it with windows it's as expected limited and buggey.

 

[bigboydan]

Your first option would be to use an online virus scanner like
/http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ or
/http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/


Or what has worked for me. This has removed virus from several machines that had Norton running when they got them.

1. Remove Norton AV and any other AV on the machine. (This is very imoportant because when I tried running 2 avs at the same time once I crashed and lost everything).

2. http://www.free-av.com/ (They also warn not to have another av running).
Go here and d/l their av, install and run it. (The last machine I did this on it found 17 infected files and deleted them. I always delete them figuring even if it affects one of my programs I could just reinstall it later).
When you go there click on 'download' then the icon in the middle of the page (with the logo) that says 'Anti vir'.

 

[JackDee]

thanks dan, i got avast antivirus, it's free, and probably the best out there and is taking care of bussiness, it has a great imaging feature where it continuesly tracks your files and if a virus attacks any of them it can replace them, unfortunately i downloaded it a bit too late.

i ll have re install windows for sure just to be on the same side.