I'm worried that my computer has been affected by a virus; what's the best way to 'clean up' my hard drive?

Question

I was emailed a malicious link from someone claiming to be the administrator of a forum I'm a member of. My homepage is now listed as 'http://fwooshnet.com', formerly a toy site which has been ravaged by hackers (DON'T GO THERE, FOR PETE'S SAKE) and I can't alter the homepage through the 'internet properties' of My Computer. Nor can I bar the site; the address magically alters in my 'restricted sites' list. The page I am led to on booting Internet Explorer is a fake Google page which directs me to download some software which it claims will help the page run better. I haven't clicked on it; I am told that a Trojan virus awaits on the other side. However, damage may be done, my laptop has been behaving oddly since. I've scanned the system with AVG. But can I completely clean the hard drive, and what precautions should I take? I have Photoshop CS3 (already registered) and iTunes installed and obviously don't want to mess anything up. Thanks.

Answer 1

A lot of viruses sit in RAM, the registry and System Restore so deleting these can be quite time consuming but thankfully not impossible.



First of all turn off System Restore by right clicking on ‘My Computer’ > Properties > System Restore. Now enable “Turn off system restore on all drives” > click apply > click ok.



Re-boot your computer in Safe Mode – (achieved by pressing F8 continually during boot up) this should clear out the viruses in RAM and the registry. Now run your anti virus software and delete or quarantine any viruses found.



Re-boot your computer in normal mode and complete another virus check. If all comes back clean turn on System Restore.



Free downloads for keeping your system clean:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0



Also free Zone Alarm Firewall:

http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10039884.html





WDW

Answer 2

You say you've scanned the system with your AVG. What did it detect? Are your definitions up-to-date? Yes, you can clean your hard drive, but it may be a little bit painful for you. Sorry. Try quarantining the affected files, then delete them from your hard drive...and make sure you also empty your recycle bin, too. If that does not work, you have a couple of options. One, you can take it in to a computer repair shot and hope that they can fix it for you. Two, you can upgrade your antivirus, or buy a commercial one...I prefer Norton myself. Three, you can wipe your hard drive and reinstall everything. The problem with this is, you do not want to save anything first, since the virus may have gotten into some of your other files. So, hopefully you have a recent backup of your hard drive. If you wipe your hard drive clean and the do a clean reinstall of your O/S and software, you should be okay. And like I said, if you have a recent backup of your data, something from before this issue started, you should be able to recover that. I would try the other options first, though, since most people do not back up their hard drives anywhere nearly often enough.



There is one more option, depending on what O/S you are using. If you are using XP, and you have not turned off the Restore feature, you can try going back and restoring your computer to a date and time before this issue began. As long as the virus is not buried in the BIOS, you should be okay.



Good luck to you. I know how painful a virus can be.

Answer 3

Interest in adult content is genetically natural, in fact if you wouldn't be even slightly interested that could mean something is wrong with you. So don't worry, we all been there. The problem is that one thing is being interested in it, another thing is actually watching it at young age. And internet makes it very easy, sadly enough. Yes, virus is quite a serious thing. I'm pretty sure it will appear again not to mention Windows XP is the easiest operating system to infect. You'll need to try using a Anti-Virus find and delete a virus. If that won't help, then re-installing operating system. If you are afraid to tell you mom that you visited the sites you could cover yourself under excuse that you were using the internet and then pop-ups with adult content started appearing. You tried to close them but they kept opening. That's first signs of a virus.

Answer 4

That last guy was wrong, a virus will not sit in RAM,



Ram will clear the moment your computer has been fully powered down. May need to unplug in more modern pc's





anyways. The only sure way to kill all of them is a reformat which you don't want to do, so first uninstall what ever AV you have, and install a different one...I like antivir...........clean up all you can, do a system restore from a time you remember there was nothing, then reinstall antivir again...........if that dosen't work your probably fubar. and beyond the very time consuming method of cleaning file by file......your better off just reformating.

Answer 5

Firstly update and run your anti-virus product. You can also run a free online scan as well as some malware can actually corrupt or disable your resident security products. Here are a few online scans you can run:

Trend - http://housecall.trendmicro.com/...

Panda - http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/ac...

Norton - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/defau...



Second download, update and run scans using the following products:

SuperAntispyware

http://superantispyware.com/

Spybot S&D (free version requires manual updating)

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/downl...

AVG AntiSpyware

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/lng/us/tp...

Adaware from Lavasoft (free version requires automatic updating)

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-a...



(These programs can be run in Safe Mode after downloading and updating)



Third, after cleaning your system, disable System Restore, reboot and re-enable System Restore when you log back on. This will clear the malware that may still be lurking in System Restore, which could be reinstalled should you need to rollback at some point. Additionally, a reboot may be required to complete the malware removal process.



Lastly, you may also want to install the following tool. It is free and requires you to check for and enable updates manually once a week or so. It uses no system resources.

SpywareBlaster (inoculates, not a spyware removal tool)

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareb...

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If you cannot get it removed after the above, you may want to join a tech group that specializes in providing manual instructions on malware eradication.



Free technical help forums



AumHa Forums

http://aumha.net/index.php

Bleeping Computers

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/...

Spybot S&D Forums

http://forums.spybot.info/

Lavasoft Forums

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/...

Spyware Info Forums

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?...

GeekstoGo

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.ht...

Answer 6

Hi



Here are some tools that will help you determine if a website your visit is legitimate or not:



Calling ID:

http://www.callingid.com/Default.aspx



Here are some anti-virus and anti-spyware programs you can use, and they are free:



AVG Anti-Virus:

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/crp/0



Spyware Terminator:

http://www.spywareterminator.com/



Super Anti-Spyware:

http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html



Ad-Aware 2007 Free:

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php?PHPSESSID=4f05e3e8395b47d9b000cea8632d8f39



Avast:

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html



Avast Virus Cleaner (Used to clean viruses, not as an everyday scanner):

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html



Here are some free rootkit programs in case you don't have any anti-rootkit protection:



Sophos Anti-Rootkit

http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html



AVG Anti-Rootkit

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-rootkit/us/crp/0



If you are interested in more programs for your computer, go to http://www.download.com/



If you download more than one anti-virus program, make sure you only have one running at startup. It is not a good idea to have more than one anti-virus program running in the background, because they could use too much memory or could interfere with each other. If more than one is running at startup, you can disable the one you don't want running by using the msconfig function.



You can use msconfig by doing this:



1. Press the Start button on your desktop.

2. Press Run

3. Type in msconfig

4. Go to the Startup tab and uncheck the startup items you do not want to start.



If you are unsure about what to shut down, research the name of the startup item before you shut it down. If you shut down programs using msconfig, you will need to restart your computer so the changes will take effect.



If you don't have a firewall installed try one of these:

Comodo:

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html?currency=USD®ion=North%20America&country=US



Zone Alarm:

http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en



You should probably run your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs by running your computer in safe mode. Safe mode will only load programs that are vital. If you scan in safe mode, and you don't find anything, then restart your computer in normal mode, and you most likely will find the malicious software.



If my suggestions and the other users' suggestions to not work, you will have to back up your important data, such as music, videos, pictures, etc. onto a CD, DVD or large USB flash drive. You will then have to reformat and reinstall your operating system.

Answer 7

You may already have a Trojan- Not all AVS can detect all. What AVS are you using? You may want to try another AVS- back up everything from your hard drive- have your lab top check out by a professional techie.

Answer 8

the only way to be sure is to completely wipe the hard drive clean and re-install the software...



you local friendly IT tech can do this..look for a private individual...do not go to geek swad..they cost too much..

Answer 9

Semantic Anti Virus Software or Norton Anti virus software.....