Computer help needed!!! !! MALWARE !!!

[glundblad]

This is bit off-topic, but when Taz reformats and reinstalls he'll have to make the choice too. :D Right now I have two hard drives, one for the OS (XP Pro) and the other for applications. Both are using the FAT32 file system. I'm debating whether or not to convert the drives to NTFS, and realize if I do there's no going back. What do you gurus recommend? I've never used the NTFS file system. I'm mainly interested and better stability and saving hard drive space. And I do run some old DOS based games like DooM - will those be affected if I convert to NTFS? Thanks :cheers:

 

Well, I am a business app guy and not a gamer. My rule of thumb has always been to use NTFS. NTFS came out when NT was released (early '90's?). I own a beauty shop (don't laugh, it's a lifestyle :yes: ) and it is an old dos ap but my wife would kill me if I upgraded it. Using Fat never crossed my mind. NTFS has always been more secure and reliable. I would dump doom on an NTFS partition and try it out. Games are a little funky compared to other programs but I bet it will work.

 

I seriously doubt you will notice any difference after you convert. It has some minor features that may benefit you. For example, if you had pictures of a good looking 103lbs wife, that you don't want anyone else to see, you can encrypt that folder.

[glundblad]

One more thing. Just to show you how big of a waste of time it is to repair an infected computer, a couple of years ago, I used to be a network engineer. A small company consisting of a server with about 10 client pcs lost their entire domain. They didnt know what was going on. I found out that one of the employees was surfing porn in the computer room on the server no less. His computer had to be taken to the police station if that gives you any idea how bad off this company was. :no:

 

I located the service that was the virus. I would wipe and reload a desktop. Within seconds after I installed a fresh computer on the network, the infection was installed on the new computer. It turned out that it was a laptop that was the culprit.

 

My point is once a computer is infected, it may work ok but it may never be "right" again. You may think it is ok and then new problems surface later on.

[BLHTAZ]

I found that the reformat was the only way to go after considering, and trying, a few things suggested on here. I managed to find a virus, researched it, deleted it (or so I thought), ran another scan and found 3 more trojans, malware files etc.. I worked on trying to find a way to get rid of them and in the process, a forth one popped up, so I knew that the effort was futile, as my system was open and vulnerable, so it was only a matter of time until my personal information would be jeopardized.

[glundblad]

I found that the reformat was the only way to go after considering, and trying, a few things suggested on here. I managed to find a virus, researched it, deleted it (or so I thought), ran another scan and found 3 more trojans, malware files etc.. I worked on trying to find a way to get rid of them and in the process, a forth one popped up, so I knew that the effort was futile, as my system was open and vulnerable, so it was only a matter of time until my personal information would be jeopardized.

 

Also verify that your windows updates are getting installed automatically and use the most current service packs. THat will reduce your exposure but won't eliminate it.

[BLHTAZ]

I found that the reformat was the only way to go after considering, and trying, a few things suggested on here. I managed to find a virus, researched it, deleted it (or so I thought), ran another scan and found 3 more trojans, malware files etc.. I worked on trying to find a way to get rid of them and in the process, a forth one popped up, so I knew that the effort was futile, as my system was open and vulnerable, so it was only a matter of time until my personal information would be jeopardized.

 

Also verify that your windows updates are getting installed automatically and use the most current service packs. THat will reduce your exposure but won't eliminate it.

Yep...configured that way from the start :thumbsup:

 

Amazing how much better this thing works now :yes: .

 

The initial trojan found by Kaspersky had evidently been around for a while without me knowing it, as I found it in my external hard drive when I scanned it before reloading all my files to the PC. I'm glad I had the forethought to scan the back-up files first :smart: