How To Restore Your Computer When Infected By Virus

This is an important thing to know for the average computer user and I suggest many of you copy and print out the steps for recovery and store it in a safe place. For those of you, that like myself, have tired of the required routine maintenance required to keep Windows running and want a maintenance free system that runs your software, look at the completely free OS, Ubuntu. Then, with point and click, install Wine. And if you require more you can spend just sixty dollars more and purchase Crossover and run almost anything, including book-keeping software. Iǘe been running Ubuntu for the past five years without a single viral treat during that time and never have defragged or cleaned a registry since.
 
@th1bill, I used to run YDL (Yellow-Dog-Linux), I modified a version of it to run on older systems. Agreed that Ubuntu is awesome though as well.
 
Ubuntu is good?? Well, maybe, maybe not. I recently loaded Ubuntu 13.04 on a couple of computers and found that it seemed to go AWOL for a while when I opened any of the GP folders....Documents...Music...Videos Don't see why it did this as 12.04 was virtually spotless in this area, but for me, 12.04 would not run E-sword under wine without crashing.

Bill is right though, in fact due to the file structure used and the way it is placed on a HDD, file fragmentation is merely a bad memory from the bad old dos/windoze days. In fact there is no defrag routine for linux based systems, no registry nightmares, no virus threats. Also an ever so much more secure root system.
Currently Linux Mint Maya (V13) is worth a look Even though Ubuntu 13.04 is an LTS distribution, I gravitated to Linux mint because for me at least, it seems to be more hassle free....it opens directories in the same lack of time as I would expect, E-Sword doesn't crash and it works well in all areas I have tried.

There could be a cheaper alternative to 'Crossover' and that is 'Oracle VirtualBox'. I like it because it is free (open source) and if you are using a wireless network, the windoze OS and associated programs are completely isolated from risk of infection unless you purposely open the door to the outside world of viruses and malware . VB needs either a wired network or a separate wireless USB adapter to get outside the box.
My reason for installing VirtualBox is because Canon do not support Linux. I have a Canon multifunction printer and although I can scan or print from Linux, I can not use the direct CD/DVD label print feature unless I do it from windoze.

Food for thought?
 
ooops!! I got the Ubuntu version #s mixed up Ubuntu 13.04 has not been released yet,:oops: so an amended post follows:
Ubuntu is good?? Well, maybe, maybe not. I recently loaded Ubuntu 12.04 on a couple of computers and found that it seemed to go AWOL for a while when I opened any of the GP folders....Documents...Music...Videos Don't see why it did this as 11.04 was virtually spotless in this area, but for me, 11.04 would not run E-sword under wine without crashing.

Bill is right though, in fact due to the file structure used and the way it is placed on a HDD, file fragmentation is merely a bad memory from the bad old dos/windoze days. In fact there is no defrag routine for linux based systems, no registry nightmares, no virus threats. Also an ever so much more secure root system.
Currently Linux Mint Maya (V13) is worth a look Even though Ubuntu 12.04 is an LTS distribution, I gravitated to Linux mint because for me at least, it seems to be more hassle free....it opens directories in the same lack of time as I would expect, E-Sword doesn't crash and it works well in all areas I have tried.

There could be a cheaper alternative to 'Crossover' and that is 'Oracle VirtualBox'. I like it because it is free (open source) and if you are using a wireless network, the windoze OS and associated programs are completely isolated from risk of infection unless you purposely open the door to the outside world of viruses and malware . VB needs either a wired network or a separate wireless USB adapter to get outside the box.
My reason for installing VirtualBox is because Canon do not support Linux. I have a Canon multifunction printer and although I can scan or print from Linux, I can not use the direct CD/DVD label print feature unless I do it from windoze.

Food for thought?​
 
OpenSuse user here. I prefer this a) as I like the KDE destktop and it has the best KDE integration I've seen and b) as I like the Yast control panel management and prefer it for task such as setting up network connections, DNS servers, user management, etc. But of course what suits me best might not be the best for someone else. A good thing with Linux (although it can be a bit of a puzzle at first) is that there are a number of good distributions to try.

Re defragging. I think the situation is that the Linux file systems are far less likely to need this operation rather than they never ever need it. I've (in say 8 years of using Linux as my main OS [I do very rarely use Win on my laptop which is dual boot]) not had reason to use one but there are defrag tools available for some file systems on Linux. I believe e4defrag for ext4 file systems is now included in the ex2fsprogs set of tools.
 
As you say, what suits one might not suit another. Me, personally, am irritated no end by dual boot. I run dual Hdds and on the rare occasion that I need to revisit windoze, I just change the boot sequence in Bios...;. very little more time consuming than rebooting thru a multi bootloader routine.....but that's me
 
I'm usually happy with grub and multi booting but I do prefer to have one OS per hard disk and have a couple of spares I can use when I want to install another OS to play with. I don't think having 2 internal disks was an option on my laptop though.
 
I have used many versions of linux. Ubuntu, open suse...

But now I run ubuntu with a multi boot (grub). it seems to be running fine. I also have few macs.
I am done with windows. Yup.
 
Or, you could just go to www.bleepingcomputer.com and have their trained volunteer malware team help you remove the virus manually, if you dont want to reformat and a system restore doesnt work. There are other sites that help as well, but BC is one of the best sites on the web when it comes to malware removal.
 
As you say, what suits one might not suit another. Me, personally, am irritated no end by dual boot. I run dual Hdds and on the rare occasion that I need to revisit windoze, I just change the boot sequence in Bios...;. very little more time consuming than rebooting thru a multi bootloader routine.....but that's me
Terminology, terminology, terminology! By Dual Boot I guess I meant multiple OS on the one HDD under the supervision of a grubby boot menu thingy.
What I run is a box with 2 HDDs and an SSD. The SSD has UNIX installed, one of the HDDs has LINUX MINT MAYA and the other HDD has windoze xp.
Either way, if I want to change the OS I need to go back to the boot process. My way though, I only have to concern myself with boot options if I want to change OS..not very often.
 
A few years back my sister bought a laptop with Windoze 7. It was one of those ridiculous toys with a recovery partition instead of a ghosted OS CD. Lucky for her I loaded Ubuntu onto the HDD as well, so she can at least happily continue downloading malwear. But try as I might to dissuade her from windozing, she kept on risking all her data as well as the OS and programs. Well she finally got a doozy of a malware infection. I tried to recover with Bitdefender recovery. No soap. Last resort I tried to recover the OS using the supplied recovery software on the recovery partition....no soap, it has been crashed as well I maybe could just load Windoze from an installation disk, but then I'll have to get hold of a set of Bios drivers for the Motherboard too.......and I don't get paid for my time:mad::) I have yet to see what the Laptop manufacturer can offer. probably a new HDD, but I'd rather a ghosted recovery cd to recreate a clean recovery partition...not sure, but I guess the MB Bios will want that...not sure.
It seams the Malware has been designed to jump partitions to work its evil wonders where it can So, this post is to warn windozers to really be careful and employ the best protection available even if it is a bit expensive. It will still be cheaper than a totaled HDD.
 
Ive never seen malware that can destroy a HD. Ive seen it jump partitions, put typically, a clean reformat will always fix the problem with a hard drive. As far as the BIOS is concerned, there are a few that will affect the BIOS, but theyre rare and far inbetween, I would be surprised if you did get one that affected the computer BIOS, so chances are its fine. You should be able to use ubuntu to format and then do a clean install-you will no longer have windows on it at all, but it will work. Furthermore, if you contact the manufacturer of your laptop, they will often send you recovery discs, for a minimal fee, usually for around $10. theres no reason to junk your hard drive. I have done countless malware recoveries, and never had to junk a hard drive because of malware, if the hard drive failed, it was purely mechanical failure.

With that being said, if you have a windows 7 computer, it is always, always wise to create your own recovery discs before you need them. You can create them with any windows 7 computer yourself.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/create-a-system-repair-disc
 
Yes/no. I did not say that the Bios was affected, just meaning that if I reformat the HDD, I will need to load the relevant Bios Drivers for that particular Mother Board as well. These drivers would have been included in the now destroyed recovery partition. And it is not that the HDD was destroyed, just windoze, both the main working partition and the windoze recovery software resident on the recovery partition. Ubuntu, while no doubt its partition was invaded, is of course immune to that sort of thing, so that OS works fine.
 
Last I checked, you dont need drivers for the BIOS, the only thing that you need drivers for is the chipset, and graphics, all of which can be found off the manufacturers website. So Im going to assume by bios drivers you mean chipset drivers. The BIOS is basically, a OS on its own, made to run the basics of a computer, it does not affect windows, nor does windows, operate off of it. It can be a pain sometimes finding the chipset drivers, but like I said, its all easily remedied by creating your own system recovery disc, directions of which are in the link I provided. And, they can usually be purchased from the computer manufacturer for $10 or less. There is no need to replace the HDD.
 
No, chipset drivers is what I meant..sorry for the confusion :confused: . I realize there is no need to replace the HDD, I only mentioned that in considering the possibility that the manufacturer might not supply a recovery image, but only a new HDD. I have not yet had an opportunity to contact the maker, or check his website etc. So I'm not sure what all my options are going to be at this stage.

My point in posting the warning was to highlight the fact that there is malware out there that can jump the fence from one partition to another, and as you say, the smart thing would be to create your own independent recovery image onto a dvd. or cd if it will fit.
BTW there are some sub routines in bios that the OS will call, but that is beside the point:)
 
Yes there are and there is malware that will affect the bios but they're rare. I'm just saying the manufacturer won't send a new HDD for malware-not cost effective. They will either give you the option of purchasing recovery discs or have you send it in and they fix it for an exorbitant fee. I would ask for the recovery discs which they most likely will provide.
 
I agree with Patriot, the best way to deal with a virus that HAS infected your computer, is to nuke it (hard format)and re-install everything. I used to do that as a matter of course years ago but my current setup with Windows 7 is almost 4 years old. However I have a great security program provided by my ISP so I don't have to worry about ANY viruses or malware.
 
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