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

Comment from DuLe on 2010-03-11

2010-03-12T01:41:52Z

There are numerous comments on this question yet I don’t find a definitive answer to the question perhaps the OP -- and I -- have had for years: is it possible for a “safe” file (.jpg, .mp3, .mpg) to contain a virus?

I’ve downloaded quite a number of files from file sharing (P2P) sources. I admit, in the past, I have downloaded a couple of files which have caused me some very minor “trouble” -- but that trouble was caused be me not paying attention to the files I was downloading. I no longer ever, ever download potentially “dangerous” files (i.e. .exe). If fact, I’ve configured my P2P program to not even show them in my search results.

NOTE: know your file extensions and also be familiar with the size a legitimate file *should* be. (Chances are there is something “fishy” with, for example, a .jpg file with a size of 5 KB or an .mpg sized 2000 KB.)

I always, always not only have my real-time virus program running at the time I am downloading but, before I download anything, I manually check for any updates. Then, after the downloads are complete, I scan them again.

Nonetheless, that said, my question remains: is there ANY way a “safe” file type (which has been virus-scanned, scanned, and re-scanned) potentially contain anything harmful?

Yes. For example there have been vulnerabilities in the software that decodes .jpg files, so that a malicious .jpg file could be created that could compromise your system. Similarly, if the anti-malware software isn't up to date, or hasn't yet caught up to the latest threats, it could slip through. The chances are low, but yes - it's possible.

12-Mar-2010

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Comment from Bruce on 2010-02-18

2010-02-19T04:25:23Z

Part of my business is repairing machines with these sorts of problems, and sometimes, when the machine is several years old, and and other things are breaking down, it is worth junking the old machine because it was time anyway. It is less costly for my customer to replace the main machine while things are still working (but poorly) than backing up, and wiping the drive and spending several hours rebuilding just to have a machine with an old OS and less power than one can get today.

With a new machine and good solid security software, one can remove the old infected drive from the machine, hook it to an external USB case, or device that allows USB connections, and scan it before loading files onto the new machine. This even works most of the time when the drive will not boot properly because of non hardware issues.

I try to save my customers money. If it was almost time to get a new machine, the infections made it the tipping point. Its like a car- if the engine is smoking and the brakes squeek and the body is rusty, do you put 4 new tires on it?

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Comment from Heinz Iten on 2010-02-16

2010-02-17T05:47:15Z

When you buy a new computer, you will get all the 'Crapware' that computer manufacturers load on the machines they sell. So you are not getting a 'clean slate'. You have to spend time and effort to clean out all the useless garbage, which can be almost as bad as malware. So, you might as well clean the existing computer.

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Comment from Charles Tilley on 2010-02-16

2010-02-17T01:48:46Z

In the first place, prevention is always less expensive than cure. You don't have to pay big bucks for prevention, in fact, I've never spent a cent in my entire computing life towards it. For a long time, I used Avast, along with SuperAnti Spyware for a second scan. I do these twice weekly. There's also Windows Live Safety Scanner, they have XP & below and a Vista / Windows 7 versions. Then(if you're a legit Windows user), you get a free tool from Microsoft every month, their Malicious Software Removal Tool. This runs automatically, but you can run it manually. In Vista / Windows 7 click Start, type "mrt" w/o the quotes, you can run the scanner how you want. Since I've moved to Windows 7, I've made only one change, I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), as my main anti-virus. You have every tool here to keep your system clean, if only you will USE them along with smart computing practices. No Pirate Bay, P2P sites and so forth. We can talk cure all we want, prevention is the key. And whatever browser you choose (that's your preference), keep it updated to the latest version. By doing these things, you shouldn't need to worry about a malware infected PC, and enjoy your cyber life.

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Comment from Rohn on 2010-02-16

2010-02-16T22:38:55Z

Under the 3rd step of your recovery process, "Nuke It" I would include "recovery from a full image copy backup". Granted many people don't have backups, but articles like this one will encourage them to more backups. I actually suggest at least 3 levels of backups. Last Image copy after Patch Tuesday, Image Copy initial application install after initial OS install/upgrade and Initial OS Image copy. If you have at least the last 2 it will greatly speed up your recovery time. Restoring a backup is faster than re-installing the OS and applications.

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Comment from Gabe on 2010-02-16

2010-02-16T19:03:24Z

We have a local company in Eastern Ohio that will "reset" your computer to "factory default" (provided you have the original discs or a valid recovery partition) for a flat fee of $85.00.

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Comment from Dave Markley on 2010-02-16

2010-02-16T17:14:58Z

First of all, and I don't believe anyone has covered this yet, even if you buy a new pc or spend the time and money to 'clean' this one...the problems will return as soon as you re-install your infected files. That's why I highly recommend ridding your current pc of malware first. What I would do (for myself or a customer) is 1. download and install AVG Free 9.0, PCTools Spyware Doctor, and A-Squared Free.Then update and completely scan your computer, these 3 can scan at the same time. (These are all free programs, and I've had 99.99% success with this combination). Probably 50% of pc repairs I do on customer's computers are caused by malware they didn't think they could have because they pay for 'Norton' or some other security program. 2.when you are sure your pc is clean, (keep in mind no security program will ever 'repair' damage already done from malware), back up all of your music and whatever else you downloaded onto CD's or DVD's. Now they should be safe to transfer to any PC. Although places like piratebay are just loaded with malware (nothing's truly free,right?) they can come from just about anywhere these days. 3. Download and install Comodo Firewall + Defense. Disable Windows (all but worthless) firewall and install Comodo. It's free, easy to use and I've had virtually no software conflicts with it so far. (Some firewalls will interfere with downloads, browsers, download managers, etc.).4. Anytime you download anything,scan it with all 3 programs before opening it. All 3 of these programs give you a context menu, (Right-click on the file you want to scan, then select 'scan with AVG' and so on). Good luck!

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Comment from Wayne on 2010-02-09

2010-02-09T20:29:42Z

While an infection should never be THE reason to replace your computer, there are times when it makes sense for it to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. And I saw one this week.

A friend of mine had an old machine running an old operating system for which she didn't have the installation media. It had been poorly monitored for malware for years and this week finally caught a bad one that forced her to address the issue. Unfortunately, she addressed it by calling me. (Why am I always the IT guy for friends & family?)

Anyway... I ran a recent scanning software from a boot CD and it found and removed lots of Bad Stuff. Then I installed the free trial of Kasperksy which found and removed more stuff, but still didn't fix the Big Bad that triggered the panicked phone call to me.

I spent many hours trying to remove it using lots of different software and procedures, but it had just done too much damage and was amazingly stubborn.

I finally gave up and told her we'd need to format the drive and reinstall the OS and apps. She had no backups, so I told her we could move a lot of her data files to USB sticks and then restore them on the fresh OS.

She didn't have the install media. (I suspect it wasn't a legal copy to begin with, but that's not really relevant - the point is she had nothign from which to install from scratch.)

So she'd have to buy Windows. But the computer wasn't up to the task of running even XP, much less Vista or Windows 7. She could have probably found an old copy of 2000 available on eBay or somesuch, but it was going to be a major pain.

Or, she could buy a nice new system for less than $700 that comes with Windows 7 preinstalled and she'd have a much, much, much better system and could still recover the data files via USB sticks.

She didn't really -NEED- a new system, and wouldn't have bought one if she had the original install media for her OS, but it made for a much faster and simpler solution than trying to resurrect the old beast.

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Comment from Marlene Sardoff on 2009-12-04

2009-12-04T18:57:43Z

Had a major major breakdown...all kinds of notices about viruses, trojan horses et al and my dell pc didn't move...couldn't get on to the internet, nada...called Verizon Tech...it took them 3 hours to clear up eveything...lots of junk was also on my toolbar..$14.99...of course I had to sign a contract at $14.99 per month for the next 10 months, but I figure it's worth the protection since I'm just a novice at anything technical...my computer now works like a charm but I notified all my cronies I will not open any attachments with tons of names

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Comment from Wanda Dunn on 2009-04-01

2009-04-01T08:02:44Z

I have a 2002 dell. I have had a lot of problems with freezes the last two months. It runs really slow, when it's been working anyway lately. I downloaded from service pack 1 to service pack 3, because Norton Antivirus 2009 required this, it wouldn't work otherwise. Tech for Norton gave me a website. It took 8 hrs to download pk.3 Also downloaded music on a walmart prepaid music card. Have a massive problem now. Computer read to run in safe mode and crashed. Now the screen is blue.

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Comment from Dash on 2009-03-16

2009-03-16T14:50:49Z

While I agree that buying a new machine just to get away from the bugs(viruii, etc) in your machine is not appropriate, there is something else you have to consider.

Who will be doing the service on this machine? If you, the owner are, or a friend who will not be charging you a fee, then fine, spend as much time as is required to resolve this issue.

But, if you are like 80% of America who are affraid of their computer and will be forced to seek profession, fee based support, then purchasing a new computer might be less expensive than paying a company say $400+ to spend 30+ hours trying to remove the really bad nasties that are out there.

I'm posting this simply as a counter point.

Personally, I find it sad that so many people are afraid of their computer. (80% seems high, but I agree that it's certainly greater than 0).

- Leo
16-Mar-2009

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Comment from vincent on 2009-03-05

2009-03-05T15:50:49Z

My 2 cents:

It is my professional experience that NO one program will rid you of massive malware/virus infections.

You're scanning tools themselves may be compromised. So even better is using startup scanning tools burned onto a cd or dvd.

Booting up in safe mode and then running your antimalware tools will often yield best results.

Registry cleaners don't fix any problems.

Don't restore backups you made after the first infection occurred without scanning the disks the backups are on.

Restore points can get infected too.

For me there is only 1 procedure that has always worked and that is the Majorgeeks malware removal guideline.
I keep recommending it because I use it all the time.

If you have a problem
If no one else can help you
And if you can find them
Maybe you can hire
Majorgeeks

Good luck!

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Comment from Eric on 2009-02-27

2009-02-27T19:18:34Z

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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Comment from Bill P. Godfrey on 2009-02-25

2009-02-25T13:02:31Z

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.

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Comment from Dave on 2009-02-24

2009-02-25T01:19:17Z

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.

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Comment from Ray on 2009-02-24

2009-02-24T22:50:22Z

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.

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Comment from Dave on 2009-02-24

2009-02-24T20:21:45Z

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!

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Comment from bill on 2009-02-24

2009-02-24T18:48:09Z

"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.

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Comment from George on 2009-02-24

2009-02-24T17:42:39Z

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.

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Comment from thomas christopher on 2009-02-24

2009-02-24T16:29:26Z

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

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Comment from Rahul Mehta on 2009-02-20

2009-02-20T23:06:16Z

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

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Comment from Rahul Mehta on 2009-02-20

2009-02-20T09:43:56Z

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 -

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