Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
For some reason many people's gut reaction to a malware infestation is to consider a new machine. That's just ... wrong.
I have downloaded much of my music from the piratebay and torrentspy using bittorrent. I recently bought a new computer because my old computer had too many viruses to be repaired and now I want to transfer the music to the new computer. I was wondering if because my old computer was extremely infected with viruses and because my music has come from an untrustworthy source is it safe to put that music on the new computer so that the new computer will not be infected with viruses?
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Clearly downloading files from untrustworthy sources is bad. Transferring those files to another computer doesn't magically make them safe.
But that's not why I'm addressing this question.
You should never have to buy a new computer because of virus infections.
Never.
I hear this often enough that I want to address it and clear up the confusion.
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The fundamental concept that seems to get lost is the difference between hardware and software.
Your computer, the box, the power supply, the hard disks, the monitor, the CD-ROM drive ... these are all hardware. They're physical things that you can see, touch and feel.
Windows, your applications, your data, your pictures and anything else stored on your computer are software. They're simply data - nothing more than a large collection of ones and zeros - stored on magnetic, electronic or optical media.
Viruses are software. They are nothing more than data. Data that's crafted to cause your computer to misbehave, but data nonetheless.
And data can be erased.
Without replacing the hardware.
I'll put it this way: replacing your computer because of a virus is like discarding your toaster because the bread was moldy. You can clean the toaster and get fresh bread. You can clean your computer and reinstall all your software.
Yes, it could be a bit of work, but it's cheaper than replacing your entire computer. If you have all your installation CDs, it could even be free.
And it's all that's required, even after the worst malware infestation.
So what are your options?
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Prevention - there is no substitute for prevention. Put another way, if you're following " the rules" there's never a reason to have an virus infection in the first place. There's never a reason to have to say "my old computer had too many viruses". One is too many, and you should never get there. And yes, that means be smart - don't download software from places you know are havens for malware such as illegal file sharing sites.
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Cleaning Attempts - if for some reason you do become infected, well all bets are off, but cleaning is always worth a try. I've even described the steps I took cleaning an infected machine, with apparently acceptable results. The bottom line: scan, scan again, scan with other tools, scan again, and keep scanning until all turns up clean, and always scan with updated scanning tools and databases for those tools.
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Nuke it - this is the only way to be absolutely positive that all traces of all infections have been removed. This involves: backing up everything, erasing the hard disk, reinstalling Windows from scratch, reinstalling all of your applications from scratch, and selectively restoring your data files from your backup. Yes, that's a lot of work. That's why prevention is so much preferable.
Note that none of those approaches involved getting a new machine.
None of them.
There are many reasons to get a new machine. Recovering from a malware infection is not one of them.
Article C3654 - February 19, 2009
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
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.
Posted by: Charles Tilley at February 16, 2010 5:48 PMWhen 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.
Posted by: Heinz Iten at February 16, 2010 9:47 PMPart 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?
Posted by: Bruce at February 18, 2010 8:25 PMThere 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?
12-Mar-2010
Posted by: DuLe at March 11, 2010 5:41 PM
I only buy new machines to be thrilled with the new found speed and power. Yahoo!! I keep my machines as safe as I possibly can. If, however, I had a problem, I would first look for viruses, then malware. If all else fails - Nuke It! I have yet to find a virus that can survive a low level format. And, after going through that process, one takes tends to reflect heavily on why it happened and then take additional protective measures or discipline myself not to be tempted to click - no matter how arousing. Easy way to get your nose clean. Actually, I don't believe I have ever had a virus at least one that jumped over my security software. But if I hadn't had protection, yikes!!! I would never take my computer in. I'm too cheap.
Posted by: Thomas Messimer at December 7, 2011 10:29 AM