The Misery of Malware

by carbonboy on January 11, 2010

in A Day in the Life

One screen shot of three unique Malware Scans - each found different "Viruses"

One screen shot of three unique Malware Scans - each found different "Viruses"

Wow – my Dell laptop has been invaded by about nine different and really nasty malwares. It all happened within a few moments and it took three different Malware Scanners to find and isolate them.

The only problem is that the computer is still infected and there’s only one last hope – get help from a forum that specializes in “basket cases.” Even though everything scans clean, I can’t do a system restore and I can’t reformat the hard drive (which is a last ditch act if all else fails).

I’m beyond frustrated, and now see this as I learning experience. No worries for any visits here, as I stopped using the Dell online for anything immediately. It is not contagious! My little Acer Netbook is my online buddy right now.

I’m now dead serious about buying a Mac. If the forum members can’t help, I just have to toss out this hard drive and buy a new one.

Update coming a bit later – it is time for dinner.

After dinner update: well no, I’ve had a great dinner and I am just going to bed. This can wait until tomorrow.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Ton January 11, 2010 at 11:11 pm

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en Microsoft has a windows 7 Malware removal tool, maybe that might work.

carbonboy January 11, 2010 at 11:26 pm

Thanks – but you forget my great Dell laptop has never had the ability to upgrade to Windows 7. Regardless, the malware is removed, but the damage it all left is still not repaired. This is all (remotely) fasinating.

Ton Patummas January 12, 2010 at 3:01 pm

I once tried the windows system restore utility in the start>accessories>system tools, that worked for me. But I think you mentioned that, that didn’t work either. At any rate if you get a mac get this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA

carbonboy January 13, 2010 at 9:57 am

Hmmm – 45 minutes to write an email. Good Spoof, but I’ll likely go with a MacBook Pro. Well, maybe – apple wants $600 to upgrade to 8 GB of RAM – total rip-off.

Meanwhile my options to recover my Dell are either post a series of log files on a Malware forum and go through a painful recovery process or toss out the hard drive. Today I’m doing nothing!

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