Win98 from h3!!

[EightySix Four]

I have been asked to fix a win98 machine that I built a loooong time ago. These people that I sold it to have torched it. I have found over 2000 viruses :-O. I don't have Win98 anymore 🙁. Right now, I can not get it to let me to install new drivers. So I can not get a networking card to run on there correctly. Is my only real choice at this point to do a full reformat?

Also could I put the hard drive in my computer, but keep it isolated to see if i can run a virus scan on it from there? I really am not interested in getting that many viruses on my hd, and that seems like another viable option. Just can't think of any way to isolate it.

 

[mechBgon]

Wow, pretty scary 😛 If you have a WinXP or Win2000 Pro system with current antivirus software, fully armed and updated, then you should be able to safely plunk the old drive into your rig and scan it.

If it can get online at all, try Panda Software's free online antivirus scanner that's linked in my signature first... it'll take a while to get itself downloaded and set up if you have to fall back on dial-up, but let it ride and see how it goes.

edit: by the way, you could start off by downloading free McAfee Stinger, burning it to CD, and see what it's able to knock down. But realize that Stinger isn't aimed at the full 95000 viruses/trojans/etc of full-on McAfee, it's aimed only at the most common set of bugs and will leave others to be dealt with by other means.

 

[EightySix Four]

The virus that keeps showing up, is leaving files that are named "~" (tilde). It's everywhere. I'm ready to kill this thing, but there are files they need. And the dang things are infected. I'm gettin ready to tell them to buy WinXP since the machine aint to bad.

 

[PsharkJF]

Plunk it into another pc with good antivirus and let it churn.