Summary: 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.
Related:
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Internet Safety: How do I keep my computer safe on the internet? Internet Safety is difficult and yet critical. Here are the seven key steps to internet safety - steps to keep your computer safe on the internet.
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My anti-virus performed a virus removal but I still have a symptom, how do I get rid of it? Your anti-virus program may claim successful virus removal, but if symptoms remain then clearly the job's not really done.
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How did you clean up your friend's infected machine? A friend brought me his machine infected with several viruses. I'll review the steps I took to clean it up.
Article C3654 - February 19, 2009
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.
Posted by: George at February 24, 2009 9:42 AMSeems 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.
Posted by: bill at February 24, 2009 10:48 AMHey 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!
Posted by: Dave at February 24, 2009 12:21 PMMy 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.
Posted by: Ray at February 24, 2009 2:50 PMRay, 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.
Posted by: Dave at February 24, 2009 5:19 PMIf 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.
Posted by: Bill P. Godfrey at February 25, 2009 5:02 AMDownloaded 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.
Posted by: Eric at February 27, 2009 11:18 AMMy 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!
Posted by: vincent at March 5, 2009 7:50 AMWhile 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.
16-Mar-2009
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.
Posted by: Wanda Dunn at April 1, 2009 1:02 AM