Well, after about a week of mysterious errors, crashes, and Red screens of death, (Minor registry edit found here > http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=50327 . Seems more appropriate.) I have discovered that my lil’ homebuilt computer is sick. Sick with a fucking Virus, or maybe two. I know for sure that my partitions contain a Boot Sector virus, and that IE’s history file keeps developing something called “Trivial.A.2”
which apparenly insinuates itself into all .com files.
Damn it! I have virus software. I download updates religiously. I scan all e-mails for anything suspicious. My wife, on the other hand ,doesn’t scan e-mails so religiously and we have been infected before by her dim-witted relatives, to whom the computer is a toy to surf the net and play games on, and wouldn’t know virus protection from the hole in their asses.
Bastard goat felching evil unclefucking jerk virus authors. May they all contract ebola.
Now I am prepairing to Reformat my drives, thus removing a year’s worth of downloaded upgrades, files and so forth. (Not to mention about a gig and a half of obsessivly saved porn, for some reason.)
Did I back everything up? No. That would be SMART. I am not smart. I am a fucking idiot.
Do I use virus-safe software to view e-mails, and so on? No. I am strangly attracted to Outlook Express for some reason. I think Bill Gates has brainwashed me or something. (No,wait. That would take a brain, which I obviously do not have.)
At least Yahoo let me import my “favorties” to it, so I don’t lose all my urls.
Strong, strong recommendation: if you’ve got to format and restore the computer ANYway, you might as well do it right and make sure the virus is nuked. A preoceedure called Debugging the MBR will wipe everything off the computer. Everything.
The proceedure can be found here and I recommend that you do it from a restore disk. Just boot from the restore disk to a dos prompt and follow the instructions.
Once you’re done, you’ll have to reboot, repartition (FDISK) and format the HDD. Then restore Windows.
I only know of one virus (Chernobyl) that this proceedure won’t completely destroy. I find that it’s well worth the extra time.
Thanks Fenris. That is the very information I needed, but didn’t even know to ask for…I have decided to put off the whole thing until this weekend so I have a couple free days to deal with this. Until then…Yeesh.
Well here I am on the other side…
I only decided to blank my largest Hard drive… I just pulled the other two for future reference. There was too much on them that I didn’t want to lose…
I may use them to make another computer, and do some sort of file cleaning and transfer, later…
This whole starting over thing gets a little less painfull each time I do it…
Like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer gets less painfull once you get used to it…
I have a program that innoculates the boot sectors of your drive, so then you can remove the virus completely from your computer without having to format. I’ll try to find the link so I can post it here.
I also strongly recommend partitioning your physical drive into two logical drives, one for Windows and one for data. Then create an Emergency Repair Disk (I’ll look for a link, but if I can’t find one I’ll post what I remember what to do). This way, if Windows crashes beyond recovery, you format the Windows partition, then use the ERD to back up system files (most important is the registry). This restores all the settings before the crash (And make sure the ERD is using stable copies of system files).
I can’t believe you PC guys settle for such insecure operating systems that have to be wiped clean periodically due to viruses. You should get a real computer. Get a Mac, there hasn’t been a new Mac virus for about 5 years. Macs are much harder to infect because the OS doesn’t require you to use virus distribution software like Outlook, VBScript, ActiveX, etc…
<yawn>, not even original trolling either. No one’s really so pathetically lacking a life that they have to resort to “My OS is better than yours!” every time computers are discussed.
I assume this is just a sad, sad joke.
If you choose to try to troll again, at least show some creativity.
Thanks for the oh so valuable input, Chas.E. I’m so glad you decided to grace us with your presence.
Oh, but I forgot…you don’t think my input matters because I’m young. That’s right, I had forgotten about that.
Jackass.
Anyways, particlewill, the innoculation program I found was designed for win95.CIH (aka Chernobyl), but it prevents writing to the boot sector, which will allow you to go through a process to clean out your computer completely.
I’m still looking for the particular link I got my program from, but in the meantime I suggest you visit http://www.symantec.com. They have some virus removal tools, and they might have what you need.
I’ll keep looking for the file, just in case you can’t find something at Symantec.
(And we of the Mac persuasion have indeed had viruses within the last 5 years, most noteworthy being that damn Autostart worm of late 1988 which even now continues to wreak occasional Mac-flavored havoc in the graphics community, so Chas E’s input disseminates rather than fights ignorance).
1988 was within the last 5 years? Who is disseminating ignorance now? I checked and it was discovered in may 1998, which is 3 years, so I was pretty close. This worm (not virus) never caused widespread problems, and prevention only takes one click. How many hundreds of PC viruses have been discovered in the last 3 years?
This is the pit, and I’ll put the PC lusers feet to the fire all I want. When are you lusers going to stop purchasing this crappy OS with features that give viruses the ability to run through your machine at will? There isn’t another OS in the world besides those from Microsoft that routinely require total reformat and reinstall just to repair minor problems. You’re the ones that have caused this problem by continuing to vote with your dollars. If people wouldn’t buy insecure OS’s, companies would stop making them. You deserve better. Go get a real OS, like NetBSD (their home page proudly proclaims 8 years without an exploit!) NetBSD is free.
When one exists that runs on a significant number of the computers in the world. It’s a hard and fast rule for now, if you want to be compatible, you have to go Microsoft.
Resistance is futile. You WILL be assimilated.
Re viruses:
I got burned (badly) by a CMOS killer a few years ago. It cost me almost a kilobuck before I figured out what it was. Since then, I have developed a few rules and I adhere to them religiously:
If it’s not a factory sealed disk, or one I made myself, it doesn’t go in my home computer. If I need the files, I scan it on another machine, or email them from my work computer.
If I don’t know who the email is from, it gets deleted. Without opening. Without exception.
If I do know who the email is from, and they attached an executable file (screensaver, cute animation), it get deleted. Without opening. Without exception.
Every few months, or other times it seems prudent, I back up important data files onto a CD. Get a CD burner - they’re cheap, and you can also pipe your stereo into the line input of your sound card and record audio on it.
My financial program is backed up on floppy every time I use it. Without exception.
Yes, some of these might be a hassle, but as long as those scurrilous, pox-ridden scumbags, those pustulent boils on the backside of humanity, those festering dung-encrusted carrion known as virus writers exist, I will keep doing this.
particlewill, what Antivirus are you running? In my research of this virus, it appears that it doesn’t infect the boot sector, only .com files and other program files. If so, try uninstalling your AV, reinstalling it, downloading the updates, then scanning again.
Symantec has virus definitions for all sorts of “Trivial.***” viruses, but I didn’t see one for a Trivial.A.2. If your scan doesn’t work, you might e-mail them (or your AV company if it isn’t Symantec) to see if your system has a new virus.
There are three things there that should interest you.
Checking your ports and then instructions on closing them from attack.
Monitoring data in and out of your computer. This is especially important for DSL or cable modem users. Zone Alarm, I think is the name, is a FREE and very good firewall for Windows. You can also get it at http://www.cnet.com. This software told me I had a virus that the anti-virus software missed. Zone Alarm tells you when a program on your computer is accessing The Internet; a new one popped up trying to send data to someone. It will also tell you how often someone is trying to access your computer. Happens so often that I turned the pop-up window off.
Third party software detector. This is for those big money pirates like Double Click who install software on your computer through their customers’ web sites. It doesn’t send passwords but stuff like surfing habits.