Embedded Virus

[JohnF]

I picked up a nasty one over the weekend and it will not
allow me to install nor run anti-virus software. I tried
Norton and McAfee both. Although Norton brags about a pre-
installation scan, the virus stops it dead in its tracks.
My research tells me this is an "installation stopping"
virus. The virus also deleted my IE home page and all my
restore points in addition to the cfgwin file. How can I
get this thing out of my system? Would reinstalling
windows do it or do I just to reformat my system? I am
prepared to do that but not sure how. Thanks.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Do you know where on your hard disk/partition the virus is - and the name of the virus? See if you can install and run AVG - www.grisoft.com - it may get rid of the virus for you. A reformat/reinstall is the last resort to turn to.

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User


| I picked up a nasty one over the weekend and it will not
| allow me to install nor run anti-virus software. I tried
| Norton and McAfee both. Although Norton brags about a pre-
| installation scan, the virus stops it dead in its tracks.
| My research tells me this is an "installation stopping"
| virus. The virus also deleted my IE home page and all my
| restore points in addition to the cfgwin file. How can I
| get this thing out of my system? Would reinstalling
| windows do it or do I just to reformat my system? I am
| prepared to do that but not sure how. Thanks.

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

Do you know where on your hard disk/partition the virus is - and the name of the virus?

If FATxx, you can find that out easily:
- get a Win98 EBD or other suitable DOS mode boot diskette
- download a free DOS-based av, one/more of:
- www.f-prot.com
- www.nod32.com
- www.sophos.com
- do a formal virus scan of all files
- save the log
- swot up what you find (google, reference sites)
- if no caveats, use the av to clean; save the log

If NTFS, well...good luck. There's no easy maintenance OS for NTFS;
the closest are Linux and Bart's PE boot CDRs, and finding an av for
these and running it formally will be a challenge.

See if you can install and run AVG - www.grisoft.com - it may get rid of
the virus for you. A reformat/reinstall is the last resort to turn to.

Let's hope NTFS's poor maintainability doesn't force that last resort.

-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Running Windows-based av to kill active malware is like striking
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.