How to Remove Virus From My Laptop and External Harddisk

Do i need linux CD? u r asking me to install Linux(ubuntu??). can i download the ubuntu and install??

If you want to rescue your old data, using an OS immune to your virus is the easy and safe way. S.M.

ok so,

i will install ubuntu and backup my harddisk to external harddisk.

then i will install windows again from recovery CD.

so my PC will be with dual OS i can choose any one from booting time, am i right??

but my one more issue is how to quarantine the viruses from my exter. HD??

You don't need to install ubuntu to boot it. Just onfigure laptop to boot from live CD.

i couldnt understand how to do this. can u explain the steps?

GA

The best method to recover any useful/needed data if needed is the bootable Linux disk as you say.

Otherwise I would simply reformat and reinstall.....

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The OP needs to pay more attention to the following for the future:-

1) Software Firewall

2) Hardware Firewall

3) Good antivirus Software - kept automatically updated. I recommend Kaspersky, you can buy serials on ebay, I buy 3 at a time (3 computers) for around $20 per year.....fully legally.....it is both cheap and very effective, as well as not slowing up the PC as much as some other good software does (Norton and Symantec for example).

4) Frequent virus scans of the complete hard disk. At least once a week.

microsoft security essentials is pretty good for security

Before going to all of this trouble, try this first (assuming you can access the internet via another method). Google "Vipre Rescue" (free from Sunbelt Software) and download to a flash drive. Run the app (you may have to change your bootup options to boot from the flash drive), and it will attempt to remove all malware. It worked for my daughter's computer, it's worth a try.

The tips here assume that the OP can set his PC to boot from a CD or a USB stick, most can but not all (I am speaking of both the user and the PC.....!!)

Reformat.

By the time you mess around with it you will have wasted hours of time, maybe not even fixed the problem.

Just reformat. Load your backed up information on a fresh copy.

And take precautions next time.

Malwarebytes.org

Avast.com

Yeah...those worked okay for me. Its the "wild ones" (the ones that are unknown to the anti-virus systems) which can still get ya. I liked "Hijack This". It uses a different method in that it spots changes and highlights those changes and helps you delete them before they can become hazardous.

But I found that I was spending too much time repairing stuff, some of which (like that little cursor virus thing) was just too time consuming to be worth killing, so I got into the habit of just wiping the hard drive and re-installing rather than deal with the ones who got through my Norton and firewall. I used to find them tucked away, ready to come back on the first (or fifth) reboot, out of sight and just waiting....grin!

Sure I would lose some work, but hey...it usually takes a lot less time to redo the work than it does to track down a clever little line of code in the registry! But then, I do a LOT of backups. Keys are cheap. My time is NOT.

Your mileage may differ.

Boot-n-Nuke

Reformat

Reload

Hi castkarthick,

There are two solutions, I will mention one here, you can try it. I am sure it will work for you too.

1 . Take infected hard drive out, and connect it as slave to computer which has updated antivirus on it. ( May be your friend's computer).

2. Scan all partitions of hard drive, with auto remove (delete) option "ON" from antivirus.

Thats all.

Have fun !

If set up as you suggest, the software will delete any system files/programs that have also been infected, so the Operating System simply will not run when replaced back in the PC.

A disaster....

A slightly better method is to allow the software to "clean" all files infected and ask what to do when it cannot clean a file........but even then, a system file may be still affected....

Its usually better to save all important data (Pictures etc.) via a bootable Linux disk (there are many around to download) and simply reformat the infected HD and install the OS, plus good anti virus software.

But the main problem is that such a happening indicates that the OP is probably not using good AV software (Cheap or free?), or has set it up badly, has no hardware firewall, no software firewall and is maybe using bad email practises as well......certainly something is wrong and it needs to be fixed and fast, before it happens again.....

format the whole system, reconfigure the partition....

& format your external drive before opening in your system.......

i think it will help u.....

A good antivus software should be able to clean an external disk as there are no (well there shouldn't be!!!) system files or structure, only data......which even if infected is usually "cleanable" so to say......

Hate to burst your bubble, but all drives whether external or not are formatted.

That's structure.

Plus, in order to be considered "mounted" in the current file system the OS writes mount table information to the drive whether internal or external. This is especially helpful in the case of flash drives.

Try this experiment with a Windows system:

1) Insert a new-to-the-system flash drive, internal/external USB, internal/external SATA, etc. whatever into your computer.

2) Watch as the plug-n-play discovers the new device

3) Unmount the drive (remove via the green recursive arrow in your task tray)

4) Wait a couple of seconds and re-insert the drive. The plug-n-play process is not repeated as the drive has been added to the known devices list and appropriate handshaking data has been exchanged.

If you plug the drive into a different interface slot (USB, SATA, etc) the drive mounting information has to be exchanged again as if it were a new drive due to the new mount point (address). This actually fingerprints the drive to your system.

If you were to use a binary decoder you can actually manipulate the data on the drive, unlike true fingerprints.

The same goes for UNIX, LINUX, DEC, etc.

On USB drives for example, that is "replaceable" or "modifiable" information, it does not matter if it gets "cleaned off" the disk......you even said that yourself.....correctly!

I was trying to make the comment easy for anyone not computer savvy to show that external disks can be far more easily "cleaned" than real system disks....often with no loss of data at all.

Nothing you wrote has changed anything with regard to external (or internal for that matter) disks.....

On a proper system disk like a Windows C: drive, modifying, cleaning or erasing of any infected system files can easily result in a dead OS or one that simply errors a lot...........the Windows OS repair feature simply is not as good as a reformat and install in my opinion.....

Cleaning a USB drive cannot cannot cause such problems (within my personal experience at least) in my estimation as any system infos needed will be replaced the next time the drive is online......exactly what you yourself wrote....

I expect that someone somewhere has lost USB drive infos/data, probably because they did not know how to do a proper job of cleaning.....or a data file was simply un cleanable, but it would only happen to a relatively few data files....

I have cleaned many disks over the last 25 years for colleagues and friends that were infected.....even a few of my own when anti virus software did not live up to its promises.

Incidentally, there is a lot of junk software out there still purporting to be effective - Norman antivirus is a prime example I am told, though as I only use Kaspersky since 7 or 8 years now for all of my PCs and Laptops, I haven't tried it or anything else, I find it really good and when bought on ebay, quite cheap as well! (Advertising finished!! I have no financial involvement with ANY software product)

Have a really great day.

while we're doing external HDD school

why not make a recommendation as to which format?

I personally am a fan of NTFS, even for my external drives (FAT is generally in place from new). I have never lost a drive using NTFS. I cannot say that for any FAT system....

Also having active S.M.A.R.T. software (plenty for free around), or the software usually offered by your HD manufacturer, which works by making sure you are kept up to date about the state of the disk surface, is also a good idea.....

Is that what you were after? Feel free to let me know if I can be of any further help....

that was it

NTFS seemed the best choice to me, being universally useable

Well almost, I believe that I am correct in saying that at least some mostly older Linux versions cannot read it.They understand only FAT.

I dunno

I'm on modern versions of linux, which don't seem to have any problem with NTFS

I even use NTFS on secondary HDD's with Linux

Ntfs doesn't seem to have limitations on file size like fat does

What I said was "older or earlier versions"........make sense now?

Look back and read what I wrote in two separate posts......that some older versions could not read NTFS partitions.....

What I was not certain was if ALL newer versions could read NTFS partitions or not!!!

& you might try reading what I wrote occasionally

I asked for a recommendation for format for an external HDD

not conjecture about version of linux is compatible

especially within the context of this thread which is about a virus prone windows box

I gave you a chance to share your experience, you instead decided it was more fun to poke me with a stick

[expletive deleted]

I told you NTFS.......

You even understood that it seems in a previous post.

Me not knowing if you also use Linux or not (many people today do a dual boot for windows and Linux), and me not knowing if ALL versions of Linux can read NTFS partitions or not, I made sure you were informed.

You need to pick out the parts that apply in your case, learn to ignore the rest!!!

I thought I did a reasonable job.

Sadly you didn't seem to understand a few important points.....

....is that my problem? I hardly think so.

All here can only react to the quality of the information supplied, I lost my crystal bollack ball years ago!!

If you feel that any replies should be "tailored" better to your needs, you need to supply the necessary information to allow us to be farther sighted for you......OK?

Do have a great day.

(please cross out/ignore what doesn't apply).

Uhhh...yeah...it did change...

external drives do have "structure"...they are formatted

Plain and simple

Apology accepted

p.s. my post #14 agrees wholeheartedly with the idea of slicking, reformatting and reloading to solve problems