I have a massive malware infection, should I just get a new machine?

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Saving data from a heavily infected computer is a bit of risky work. You don't want to carry the infected part of the data to the new machine. I have used the following steps several times to save friends' data.

1. Boot from a live CD - preferably a linux cd.

2. Transfer the data and only the data to an empty external drive.

3. Do not transfer any programs and its associated files. eg. do not copy EXE, DLL etc. You can reinstall them from clean source.

4. Take the external drive to a clean PS and scan it thoroughly with all your security software updated with latest definitions. Make sure that it is clean.

5. If clean, then you can take it to the new machine. If infection found in any of the files, let the security program delete it. Or delete it yourself. Take only clean files to the new machines.

Key here is to keep the data from the older infected machine isolated before confirming that it is clean.

- then Nuke the old machine -

In the point # 4 above please read "clean PC".

get a good antivirus such as avast home. it doesn't cost anythiing and it updates itself. if you try to download anything with a virus or ago to a site that contains malware it will warn you of this. i use avast and i will not use anything else

I apparently caught a virus - when booting I got a strange pop-up saying something about registering. I restored the drive from a ghost image and the pop-up went away.
Seems to be an excellent way to backup for a no-hassle restore.

"I have downloaded much of my music from the piratebay and torrentspy using bittorrent."

Guess what, you are downloading things from dishonest people. They aren't honest in everything but stealing music or software.

Expect to get massive virus infections regardless of how often you clean your computer or run antivirus programs. You are inviting the most dangerous of the bad into your computer.

Hey Bill, that is not true. I've downloaded from those sites and others and have never gotten infected. If you keep your anti-virus software up to date and keep your downloads in a secure spot away from system files and have your anti-virus set to scan all downloaded files BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING...you should be OK. Most viruses and other crap come from websites that download payload junk to your computer and by answering Yes to every pop-up that wants to scan your computer after it tells you your computer maybe infected. Oh yeah...toolbars are another gateway to infection hell...stay away!

My PC Checks out "Clean", but it is slowing down noticeably, I didn't get a installation disk with the machine. Any tips from anyone about a complete reinstall using the windows set up data from the hard drive? I use Windows XP SP 2 home.My main worry is getting all current updates and protections without any protection. Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Ray, I wouldn't worry about it too much. As long as you use the Windows Update in the Start menu you shouldn't have any problems. Just don't wander off anywhere else on the web without protection. Also make sure your Windows firewall is activated and working. Unless you're connecting through a router which has a hard firewall built in. Just make sure it's on.

If you (anyone) made a backup of data on an external disk before nuking the contents of the hard disk, make sure you disable autorun (see Leo's recent piece) before restoring the backed up files, in case the malware copied itself onto the backup.

(It would be annoying to go to the trouble of backing up and nuking, only to let the malware back on five minutes after you have a nice clean computer.)

For best results, boot up into Knoppix (or a similar OS-on-a-CD) to perform the backup, so the malware doesn't get a chance to run while you backup.

Downloaded ErrorFix 2wks ago. As of today I have 368 prob. If I don't subscribe will my p.c. eventually crash? Also have AVG8.0 free & Spybot. Registry Cleaner show over 600 prob. which I unistalled. P.C is 3 yrs. old.

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