My virus program keeps popping up telling me that I have a trojan in a
restore file. Yet, when I do a complete scan of my drives, it doesn't
show up.

My question is, can all the restore files be deleted and then start a
new restore point? Where do I go to delete the old restore points?

Elephant wrote:

> My virus program keeps popping up telling me that I have a trojan in a
> restore file. Yet, when I do a complete scan of my drives, it doesn't
> show up.
>
> My question is, can all the restore files be deleted and then start a
> new restore point? Where do I go to delete the old restore points?

Yes, absolutely. You can either delete all the restore points or all but the
latest. If you know for sure your computer is clean and you want to keep a
restore point, first make a new one.

Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore

You'll see where you can create a new restore point. Name it something like
"Clean" ;-). Now run Disk Cleanup (Start>Run>cleanmgr OK) and choose "More
Options". You'll see where you can delete all but the most recent restore
point, which will be the one you just made.

Or you can delete them all. Go to Control Panel>System and click on the
System Restore tab. Turn off System Restore on all drives (you should only
have it on the system drive anyway), answer "Yes" to all prompts, reboot.
Now go back there to turn it on again. Remember, if you have an OEM machine
with a recovery partition or you have a second data partition, don't have
System Restore monitor those.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Go to system properties > system restore tab and turn off system restore,
this will delete all backups, once it's done turn it back on.

--

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"Elephant" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My virus program keeps popping up telling me that I have a trojan in a
> restore file. Yet, when I do a complete scan of my drives, it doesn't
> show up.
>
> My question is, can all the restore files be deleted and then start a
> new restore point? Where do I go to delete the old restore points?

From the KB article titled:
Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore in Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/com.../faqsrwxp.mspx
Also: Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

First create a new Restore Point, this hopefully will be virus free.
Then to delete all but the latest restore point on your machine
by using the disk cleanup utility:
Go to 'Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup'.
Click on the 'More Options' tab and then click 'Clean up' in the System
Restore
Next: click Yes to remove all but the most recent restore point.
Finally: Click the OK button.

Now the only restore point you should have is the new one you just created.
Run your AV utility and see if you get the same error.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com


"Elephant" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My virus program keeps popping up telling me that I have a trojan in a
> restore file. Yet, when I do a complete scan of my drives, it doesn't
> show up.
>
> My question is, can all the restore files be deleted and then start a
> new restore point? Where do I go to delete the old restore points?

Tell you AV app to ignore such findings. Over time, the Restore Point will
be removed.

Elephant wrote:
> My virus program keeps popping up telling me that I have a trojan in a
> restore file. Yet, when I do a complete scan of my drives, it doesn't
> show up.
>
> My question is, can all the restore files be deleted and then start a
> new restore point? Where do I go to delete the old restore points?

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:49:03 -0700, Elephant <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> My virus program


"Virus program"? Do you mean "anti-virus program"?
Which anti-virus program? What trojan does it find?


> keeps popping up telling me that I have a trojan in a
> restore file. Yet, when I do a complete scan of my drives, it doesn't
> show up.
>
> My question is, can all the restore files be deleted and then start a
> new restore point? Where do I go to delete the old restore points?


Read Malke's message for info on how to do this. But bear the
following in mind.

Any form of malware--whether spyware, virus, trojan, or anything
else--in a restore point is completely innocuous and can do nothing at
all *unless* you restore from that restore point.

The only way to remove the virus is to turn off System Restore, then
turn it back on, but that will delete *all* your restore points, not
just the infected one(s). Alternatively you can just wait for the
infected point(s) to fall of the end of the chain--a maximum of 90
days. Note that that alternative may keep some non-infected restore
points, but also requires care and good record-keeping to make sure
you don't accidentally restore the infected restore point.

On the other hand, you need to consider the question of how the virus
got there. It got there because your computer was infected elsewhere,
and went into the restore point while it was infected. So unless
you've already removed the virus or trojan from outside of the restore
point, you can't have a virus or trojan that's *only* in a restore
point.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Thanks to ALL of you for your great advise.

Problem has been taken care of and I once again have a
nice clean machine. I chose to turn off restore, let it
delete all the files, then create a new restore point.
Worked like a charm.

Again, a huge thanks for your help.

You're welcome.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com


"Elephant" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks to ALL of you for your great advise.
>
> Problem has been taken care of and I once again have a
> nice clean machine. I chose to turn off restore, let it
> delete all the files, then create a new restore point.
> Worked like a charm.
>
> Again, a huge thanks for your help.

> Tell you AV app to ignore such findings. Over time, the Restore
> Point will be removed.
>
> Elephant wrote:
>> My virus program keeps popping up telling me that I have a trojan in
>> a restore file. Yet, when I do a complete scan of my drives, it
>> doesn't show up.
>>
>> My question is, can all the restore files be deleted and then start a
>> new restore point? Where do I go to delete the old restore points?

My gosh, what strange answers! Yes, it can. Create a REstore Point,
and then:
Just turn System Restore off, restart, and turn it back on. All past
restore points will be gone.

Start; programs; accessories; system tools; System Restore;
Turn off the restore points there.
Restart
Now they're gone.
Turn System Restore back on by going back to the same place and turning
it on.

System Restore, BTW, only needs to be set to monitor the drive/s your
operating system files are on. It only wastes time & cpu cycles
checking any drives that do not have any system files on them. So if
everything is on drive C as is usual, then System Restore only needs to
monitor drive C. D, E, etc. if you have them do not need to be
monitored for System Restore Points.

Regards,

Twayne