Will wiping the hard drive still solve all virus issues?

[0roo0roo]

Q says pedantic a lot

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
Q says pedantic a lot

I've read quite a few posts of his, but because I'm in the "Slow-Study" catagory, I've only just noticed.

 

[spike spiegal]

All viruses can be removed if you use the proper tools and removal techniques.

Some Trojans and Malware I've encountered totally FUBAR Winsock and replace critical system .DLLs to the point you have no real practical choice but to re-install the OS. I'm not a fan of GeekSquad either, but they may have been correct in this instance. I agree that educating users is the first line of defense, but it's tough when even forums like this consistently promote BAD advice such as using Firewalls and 'crisis- ware' like Spyware scanners to combat the problem when they are virtually ineffective.

If I run into a really bad Trojan on somebody's PC, and they caught it from hacked software they got from Bittorrent, then I have no sympathy. On the other hand, I run into other people who simply want to use their machine for serious things and have half a dozen Spyware/Virus scanners running along with a couple software Firewalls, and are in tears because they still get infected. They are the victims of the PC industry being full of poorly educated "computer experts" giving bad advice while they simultaneously bad mouth GeekSquad.

 

[jgigz]

Just follow the guide in Johns sig and you should be good to go. =)

 

[John]

Originally posted by: spike spiegal

All viruses can be removed if you use the proper tools and removal techniques.

Some Trojans and Malware I've encountered totally FUBAR Winsock and replace critical system .DLLs to the point you have no real practical choice but to re-install the OS. I'm not a fan of GeekSquad either, but they may have been correct in this instance. I agree that educating users is the first line of defense, but it's tough when even forums like this consistently promote BAD advice such as using Firewalls and 'crisis- ware' like Spyware scanners to combat the problem when they are virtually ineffective.

If I run into a really bad Trojan on somebody's PC, and they caught it from hacked software they got from Bittorrent, then I have no sympathy. On the other hand, I run into other people who simply want to use their machine for serious things and have half a dozen Spyware/Virus scanners running along with a couple software Firewalls, and are in tears because they still get infected. They are the victims of the PC industry being full of poorly educated "computer experts" giving bad advice while they simultaneously bad mouth GeekSquad.

The winsock is easily repaired with the Winsock fix, and if the OS gets hosed you can always do a repair install if you use XP, which is what most people use nowadays. There are other options if you are using 98/ME/2K. A clean install is the easy way out, and the end user has to spend hours reinstalling their software unless they have a current image. Common sense is the best form of prevention.