Question For People That Are More Computer Savvy Than I

[Jerome Gibbons]

Hello. I kinda have a question to ask for people who might know about this stuff more than me. I'm not a very computer savvy person, so I ask you to please bear with me and my super long winded post as I try to explain myself here.

So as those who read this thread (http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?t=143443) may recall, I was recently having some problems viewing hidden files in my computer, which started more or less after I put a new wallpaper on it, as I recall. I tried doing a couple of things to fix this, but nothing seemed to work. Whenever I checked the Show hidden files and folders option and closed the box, it just seemed to reset itself to not show hidden files. I also tried modifying the registry, but that didn't work either, as it too kept resetting itself to its original values after being closed.

I also started to notice that a couple of programs weren't quite working properly. Now, it is my understanding that certain viruses can cause problems like this, so I did a full system scan on my computer with Norton, but everything seemed to turn up clean. Eventually, I just decided to reformat the thing, as I didn't have much going on anyway and it wouldn't really take that long. After the reformatting, everything seemed to be working fine.

So then I plugged in my external HD, and the moment I turned it on things started messing up again. So I figured that, if it was some sort of virus, it must have also infected the HD at some point. So I scanned it with Norton, but it too seemed to turn up clean. So not knowing what to do, I just turned it off and did a system restore on my computer to a point shortly after reformatting, and everything seemed to be fine again.

But now I kinda have the fear of death when it comes to my HD. I don't want to plug it in again in case it messes everything up once more. But like I said, I scanned it with Norton, and everything turned up fine, so I figure if it's a virus of some sort, it must be something NA can't detect. Normally I'd just format the HD, but I kinda have a lot of stuff in there that isn't backed up elsewhere, and I don't want to lose it.

I guess my question is, is there any chance this isn't some sort of virus thing on my HD, and some way I can fix it without having to get rid of everything in it? Is it possible to do something akin to a system restore on this sort of thing? I really rather dread the thought of having to get rid of of everything I have in there.

Thanks for your time, it's much appreciated.

[Jason California]

Not all companies know of all virus's

Kaspersky has a good online scanner you wil need to use IE for it though
http://usa.kaspersky.com/products_services/free-virus-scanner.php

Trend micro has another good one
http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/

The kaspersky scan will tell you where problems are located and you can fix them from there

Trend micro will actually heal what it can as well.

Oh yeah, cut back on soem of the porn Pablo.

[Jerome Gibbons]

Not all companies know of all virus's

Kaspersky has a good online scanner you wil need to use IE for it though
http://usa.kaspersky.com/products_services/free-virus-scanner.php

Trend micro has another good one
http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/

The kaspersky scan will tell you where problems are located and you can fix them from there

Trend micro will actually heal what it can as well.
Okay, thanks. I'll look into it (and I suppose if it doesn't work out I would have to do another system restore to a point before I started working on the HD?).


Oh yeah, cut back on soem of the porn Pablo.
I don't have any porn! Holy gosh, I haven't had any for weeks.

[Whip]

Norton's about as good as walking barefoot in a room of old, rusty nails without a tetanus shot.

You are going to have to do some severe cleaning on your computer. I recommend CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com). It cleans out -everything- you don't need including programs that won't delete themselves, cookies, temporary internet files (even the stubborn ones that won't delete if you do it through Windows Control Panel), etc. etc. I also recommend the two programs Johnny Utah suggested, as well as Lavasoft's AdAware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com). Both of these are free.

As with any computer virus/ad-aware/trojan/cleaner, update it everytime you boot it up before you start the process!

[Ryudo]

I don't have any porn! Holy gosh, I haven't had any for weeks.

Your reputation precedes you. :)

I'd try to see if you can't set up the HD in a separate partition and scan it from there.

[Jason California]

Norton's about as good as walking barefoot in a room of old, rusty nails without a tetanus shot.

You are going to have to do some severe cleaning on your computer. I recommend CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com). It cleans out -everything- you don't need including programs that won't delete themselves, cookies, temporary internet files (even the stubborn ones that won't delete if you do it through Windows Control Panel), etc. etc. I also recommend the two programs Johnny Utah suggested, as well as Lavasoft's AdAware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com). Both of these are free.

As with any computer virus/ad-aware/trojan/cleaner, update it everytime you boot it up before you start the process!

Right on. I forgot to mention that

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
that is where you can get crap cleaner

You might be better off getting AVG free virus and anti spy along with zonelabs free firewall. I really don't like Norton either.

[Ryudo]

You can try out Panda for 30 days, and my go-to tech guy recommends it the most highly out of all of them

http://pandasoftware.com

There's also... I can't remember, either SpySubtract or SpyHunter. I'm not on my home computer so I don't know which one's free. But definitely one of those.

[Jerome Gibbons]

Okay, thanks a lot, guys. I'll look into all these things.

[Jerome Gibbons]

Ooh God, I'm using that Kaspersky one Johnny recommended right now. After scanning like 88% of the HD, it's found two viruses and twelve infected files. This is great.

[Blane]

When you run these programs, run them in safe mode. A lot of times virus' and trojans are memory resident and can't be deleted if they're running.

[Jerome Gibbons]

When you run these programs, run them in safe mode. A lot of times virus' and trojans are memory resident and can't be deleted if they're running.

Thanks for the tip.

[Jerome Gibbons]

Okay, so uh, according to Kaspersky, I have two viruses and twelve infected files in my HD. It doesn't seem like it's any of my files, just stuff regarding the HD itself. Kaspersky found the files, but didn't clean them. So um...how do I go about doing that? Should I use any of the other AVs?

[Jason California]

Okay, so uh, according to Kaspersky, I have two viruses and twelve infected files in my HD. It doesn't seem like it's any of my files, just stuff regarding the HD itself. Kaspersky found the files, but didn't clean them. So um...how do I go about doing that? Should I use any of the other AVs?


What files are they saying are infected?

You might want to give the trend scanner a shot since it will actually clean things up.

[Jerome Gibbons]

I'm at school now, but I'll use it when I get home.

[Jerome Gibbons]

Okay, I downloaded Panda from their website (that 30 day trial thing is nifty). Just did a scan on my computer, and it found 39 infected files, and cleaned them too. I'm doing a second scan now to be sure, then I'll move to the HD, I guess.

I tried using the Trend Micro thing, but for some reason it didn't seem to be working properly.

[Jerome Gibbons]

So it's been a long, arduous road, but it would appear that my PC and HD are finally clean, at least for now. Can't tell you how happy that makes me. Every time I do something I get super paranoid and do some sort of scan :) but so far nothing's turned up.

Thanks a lot for the replies and the help, guys. It's really much appreciated. I also figure I'll keep the Kaspersky online scan thing bookmarked. It's really turned out to be a useful tool these last few days.

[Jason California]

So it's been a long, arduous road, but it would appear that my PC and HD are finally clean, at least for now. Can't tell you how happy that makes me. Every time I do something I get super paranoid and do some sort of scan :) but so far nothing's turned up.

Thanks a lot for the replies and the help, guys. It's really much appreciated. I also figure I'll keep the Kaspersky online scan thing bookmarked. It's really turned out to be a useful tool these last few days.

Quick question Pablo, do you scan everything you download before you open it? I download lots of things that come from less than reputable sources so this is a standard procedure for me.

[Jerome Gibbons]

Quick question Pablo, do you scan everything you download before you open it? I download lots of things that come from less than reputable sources so this is a standard procedure for me.

Yeah, I do. It's the most reasonable thing to do.