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IF you have good backup, like photos and all, it may be easier and cheaper to reformat and reload.
Stay away from Craigslist. Lots of posers there.
Sorry, no good tech recommendations...
I had to finally do that. Windows will save your files and folders in windows.old so you don't lose them. The only thing we did lose were the limewire songs.
All you have to do is insert your Windows disk and follow the prompts. It's pretty simple.
can't really help with the virus but I personally "clone" my hard drive to a second internal drive every few weeks or after a major change- that worked.
this has saved my butt on more than one occasion. I actually have a 3rd drive jsut in case with a much older, but functional, install. The 2nd drive makes it so all you need to do is swap the sata cables around and reboot and you are back in business, then you can clone onto the virus infected drive.
I use Acronis true image 11. It works fantastic.
As far as your current situation, I hate to say it but a new install after format sounds in order but I might be wrong so I'd see if any pro shops could help you. I personally do not have any experience with them since I do all my computer work myself..
Before you pay anyone....try the free download of Anti-Malware from Malwarebytes.com. I had a trojan on my computer and it was the only thing that removed it. (My fancy-schmancy virus protection from work found the virus, but couldn't remove it.) This free download was a lifesaver.
OH...I learned about this download from a free tech support website that is just WONDERFUL: www.geekpolice.net
Last edited by Sloaf; 09-21-2009 at 06:04 PM..
Reason: add info
You say you have McAfee. Call McAfee and see if they can help you. Last weekend I, too, somehow got a virus that essentially disabled most things on my laptop...except I was able to still connect to the internet. I was not able to do a system restore and I was not able to do anything with my McAfee antivirus. I called McAfee, a little miffed that the virus protection I paid for didn't protect my laptop. I was told that some of the viruses first mask the antivirus software and then unleash.
At any rate, it took McAfee about a total of 4-5 hours to clean up my laptop. Through instructions that I followed as they gave me, they were able to "take over" my laptop and dive deep into it and get the virus(es) out. Yes, I did pay their $89.95 virus removal fee but my laptop has been working great since. There is no way I could have done on my own what they did to clean up the virus and I didn't have to take the computer anywhere to have it fixed and it didn't take days to have it fixed.
I agree with Sloaf, try to download and install the malwarebytes and at the same time, download the Malicious Removal Tool (KB890830) from Microsoft. Also Download and install the update for your anti virus software. Those are the things that we're using at work.
You say you have McAfee. Call McAfee and see if they can help you. Last weekend I, too, somehow got a virus that essentially disabled most things on my laptop...except I was able to still connect to the internet. I was not able to do a system restore and I was not able to do anything with my McAfee antivirus. I called McAfee, a little miffed that the virus protection I paid for didn't protect my laptop. I was told that some of the viruses first mask the antivirus software and then unleash.
At any rate, it took McAfee about a total of 4-5 hours to clean up my laptop. Through instructions that I followed as they gave me, they were able to "take over" my laptop and dive deep into it and get the virus(es) out. Yes, I did pay their $89.95 virus removal fee but my laptop has been working great since. There is no way I could have done on my own what they did to clean up the virus and I didn't have to take the computer anywhere to have it fixed and it didn't take days to have it fixed.
That's the problem with AV software - when they fail, they do so spectacularly. At least the invasion was noticeable - it would be much worse for you NRG if you simply had a spyware that monitored keystrokes and recorded all your personal info and computer habits and left you clueless it was on there. Then again, maybe you did have some of that too, but that's life with Windows. As an aside, you probably want to pay close attention to your credit reports for the time being as well.
Short of getting a Mac and saying goodbye to all this nonsense, I recommend Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html . Its free, has options for scanning the computer before Windows loads, thus killing malware before it can set up to self replicate, has immunizations for the OS and browsers, and has a background resident that checks the registry for changes and blocks unauthorized system changes. If you can't clean up a system with Spybot and a few pre-OS load runs, you're better off doing a clean install of the OS.
I'll re-emphasize that your best bet will be going with MalwareBytes (Malwarebytes.org). Do a full scan with the free version and see what it finds. This is by far the best option out there. McAfee probably won't fix it at this point. If this doesn't do it, backup and reformat will be your best bet. I can recommend some good tech firms, but you'll end up almost paying as much as a new PC for the amount of time this would take.
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