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06/13/2005 10:03:28 AM · #26 |
I hate that feeling when things go really wrong with PC's, you have my sympathy!
Anways click HERE - Trend Housecall
its a Free online virus scan. I have norton at home, and often this has picked up things that norton has missed, it'll either fix is straight away, or let you know what the beasty is you got and then you can find a fix.
good luck |
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06/13/2005 11:51:54 AM · #27 |
If your not using ZoneAlarm, that should be the first change you make after getting your computer straightened out. Relying on the microsoft firewall does not tell you when stuff on your computer is trying to access the internet without your knowledge. ZoneAlarm does and it's free. Using it may have prevented your present problem, and would have let you know about it sooner.
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07/04/2005 03:14:59 PM · #28 |
Okay, I'm ready...and I have a stupid question.
I've bought a DVD burner and taken all my photo files and documents off the laptop. Now I should just format the C: drive, right?
How do I do that? When I right-click, "format" it tells me it can't do it because there are applications using it blah blah blah.
How can I start over? My computer is toast with the monsters that are on there...
Edit: I have no restore points...I have no idea what happened to them, but they're all gone.
Thanks for your help!
Message edited by author 2005-07-04 15:16:21.
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07/04/2005 03:23:02 PM · #29 |
Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
Okay, I'm ready...and I have a stupid question.
I've bought a DVD burner and taken all my photo files and documents off the laptop. Now I should just format the C: drive, right?
How do I do that? When I right-click, "format" it tells me it can't do it because there are applications using it blah blah blah.
How can I start over? My computer is toast with the monsters that are on there...
Edit: I have no restore points...I have no idea what happened to them, but they're all gone.
Thanks for your help! |
You can prolly get 'round that by rebooting in "safe mode". Before you do so, make sure that you save not only your files, but also:
- export and save off your favorites from your browser
- record any serial numbers that will be needed to reinstall downloaded software
- save off any e-mail files that you might need later
- save off any monitor or printer profiles you may have created
- Make sure you have all the driver software that will be required to get the system back in shape; it should be present on the CD(s) that came with the laptop, but downloading newer versions prior to starting the reinstall might be a good idea.
Good Luck!
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07/04/2005 03:24:12 PM · #30 |
You need a bootable CD/disk. You can't boot from your hard drive and then try and format that same drive. The bootable disk must have the settings for your CD drive or you're computer won't be able to recognize it.
Once you reformat the drive you'll have to re-install the operating system and all other apps. Then you can start restoring the files from your DVD(S).
Message edited by author 2005-07-04 15:26:03.
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07/04/2005 03:26:01 PM · #31 |
Originally posted by cpanaioti:
You need a bootable CD/disk. You can't boot from your hard drive and then try and format that same drive.
Once you reformat the drive you'll have to re-install the operating system and all other apps. Then you can start restoring the files from your DVD(S). |
Okay, sounds good.
I'm honestly not an idiot. In fact, when I'm away from a computer (or near one that's working well) I consider myself to be fairly intelligent!
Thanks!
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07/04/2005 03:28:10 PM · #32 |
Originally posted by Alienyst:
Originally posted by notonline:
viruses cannot attach themselves to music files or pictures. I would however be weary of all .exe, .com, etc.
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I would be careful witrh this statement - it is not true. Virii can attached themselves in pics/music files. Or more correctly, be embedded in them. |
From what I know, you can embed a picture in a trojan, to make it look like a picture, but not the opposite! |
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07/04/2005 03:34:48 PM · #33 |
Originally posted by cpanaioti:
You need a bootable CD/disk. You can't boot from your hard drive and then try and format that same drive. The bootable disk must have the settings for your CD drive or you're computer won't be able to recognize it.
Once you reformat the drive you'll have to re-install the operating system and all other apps. Then you can start restoring the files from your DVD(S). |
win XP has it's own boot device on the OS cd-rom, itself. Just make sure that your cd-rom drive is ur primary boot device, and that you have the CD inserted in it. It'll prompt with some info. It's pretty easy and fast process. It takes a lot longer to install all ur software, than installing windows itself!
In order to format, do it like this:
get a blank floppy disk, go to format and choose to insert the system files (not sure what is the option on the english version of windows, as mine is in portuguese).
Reboot ur PC, and then have the primary boot device to be ur diskette drive, it'll take you to DOS prompt.
While there, type in:
format c:/q (Q stands for quick, which basically erases every single piece of data on you hard drive), or only format c:, which takes a lot longer.
From there, do the thing I've explained in the begining of this post, abot the CD boot stuff!
Was I clear?
Message edited by author 2005-07-04 15:35:59. |
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07/04/2005 03:37:52 PM · #34 |
| Ive got this great program called spysweeper. I bought it at circuit city, where I took my notebook, for virus problems. Seems as though a few of the anti-spyware programs, are spyware themselves. This program has done wonders for my computer, and I can actually log the thing off now......Good Luck |
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07/04/2005 03:39:21 PM · #35 |
Oh, just to add.
It's good to reformat the PC from time to time! I do it at least 3 times a year. I'll be doing that in a few days, my pc is extremelly slow nowadays!
In order to make things easy, i have my hard drive divided into 3 partitions (like drive c: d: and e:, being F: and G: my cd devices and a: my friggin' non-working diskette drive). Once you want to format, just throw every single file you wanna save on the other partition, format c:, reinstall everything, and the move back the info to where u want! |
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07/04/2005 03:53:48 PM · #36 |
My apologies in advance if I present some duplicate advice. I really didn't want to read all that was posted above me.
My advice on software is to run ALL of the below (all free, with one caveat):
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
- Spybot - Search and Destroy
- SpywareBlaster
- Zonelabs Zone Alarm
- Symantec Antivirus (not free unless you are military)
Two years running the same system with no viruses, ads, popups, or any other crud.
One other note of EXTREME importance. If you want to keep your machine clean, NEVER let anyone else use it except you. That means buy your wife a second machine. It's amazing how quickly someone who is not thinking about system security can completely HOSE your system. Protected or not.
P.S. There's assuredly some good advice presented above. I do this for a living (as you can see from my photos, I'm most assuredly an amateur) and present my solutions to you from the "17 years of experience" perspective. However that by no means indicates my advice is better than some of the others' listed above me.
Message edited by author 2005-07-04 15:56:10. |
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07/04/2005 03:58:55 PM · #37 |
Originally posted by aboutimage:
My advice on software is to run ALL of the below (all free, with one caveat):
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
- Spybot - Search and Destroy
- SpywareBlaster
- Zonelabs Zone Alarm
- Symantec Antivirus (not free unless you are military)
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All excellent advice, but for a free and very good antivirus program I (and several other IT work collegues) use Grisoft's AVG.
This version automatically updates itself when you boot up your PC, always been an excellent progra, that I recommend almost daily to home users at my work. |
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07/04/2005 04:14:24 PM · #38 |
Originally posted by brownt:
Originally posted by aboutimage:
My advice on software is to run ALL of the below (all free, with one caveat):
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
- Spybot - Search and Destroy
- SpywareBlaster
- Zonelabs Zone Alarm
- Symantec Antivirus (not free unless you are military)
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All excellent advice, but for a free and very good antivirus program I (and several other IT work collegues) use Grisoft's AVG.
This version automatically updates itself when you boot up your PC, always been an excellent progra, that I recommend almost daily to home users at my work. |
Yes, brownt, you sent me a private message a few months ago and I took every single piece of advice at that time...my computer was running great until recently it all of a sudden died!
I still suspect one of the poker websites...or perhaps it was my wife unwittingly opening an email or something, who knows?!?
So...now I just have to get this thing reformatted! I sure hope I have those disks somewhere!!
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