P
Pegasus \(MVP\)
Ben Stevenson said:
Here is a copy of the reply I posted last Saturday:
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There is a simple measures you can take to restore the System
Restore facility but I suspect you may not like it.
I think the key to your problem lies in the remark you dropped
in your very first post. Here it goes:
"On my regular virus scan (Avast) check yesterday there was a virus or two,
which were moved to virus chest as directed. This is not uncommon. It has
happened before and no other problems were seen with the computer system."
When I read a note like this one the I hear lots of alarm bells
going off in my head. There are two reasons:
a) Why should your machine suffer repeated virus infections?
A well-kept machine should run virus-free day in, day out!
Either your virus protection is of poor quality or your computing
habits are unsound. I look after lots of PCs and none of them
has ever suffered an infection. If they had then I would lose
a client.
b) It is a commonly held belief that virus scanners can undo all
damage done by infections. This is not so. Some damage can
be repaired but some scars may remain. The same goes for
System Restore - depending on where exactly the damage
was done, it may or may not be undoable. If I was in the
business of writing viruses then I would attack the System
Restore facility, to make the damage stick . . .
In my opinion an infected machine is a compromised machine.
I would back up all my data (including my EMail files), test
the back-ups, then format the disk and start afresh. I would
also take a long, hard look at my computing habits.
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