Need Another School Lesson: Computer Help plz... CONFUSED lol

[DPancoast]

Alright so luckily this isn't happening to my computer, but my dads. I haven't had to deal with something like this in a LONG time, and back then I made the **** happen on purpose so I could see how much I could get out of or fix and what I could make happen (lol... I used to do a lotttt of "bad" programming lol)

It's a pretty old Dell (probably from 04') with Windows XP Pro that has 512mb ram, small hard drive, etc. He uses it for work and checking email and thats about it so it's ok for him. BUT it seems he got a bug on Saturday.

From what I can gather, I think it came from some Webshots picture thing he uses. I knew it would happen someday because I used to cleanse his computer monthly, defrag it, and update where needed but then he didn't want me to do it anymore so I respected his decision and stopped.

Well again, after probably 5 years without an adaware scan the computer is in trouble.

As it sits, I can't get into the operating system at all. When I turn the computer on, it comes up to the welcome screen, I click on the user account (doesn't have a password.. no big deal) it says "loading user settings" or whatever the norm is, and then a split second later without switching screens, going black, or anything it says "saving settings" and i'm back to where I was when I turned on the computer.

Happens in all modes. Safe Mode, Safe mode with Debugging, Last Know Good config... ect.. you name it, I've tried it lol.

So at this point I know I have to wipe the computer, BUT all of my dads work stuff is on it. Now I have my Dell in my room that can handle a lot.. it's in tip top shape since I use it every day and I have room to add a hardrive.

So what I was thinking was, what if I take the hardrive out of my dads computer, set it as a SLAVE and go from there. I was thinking I could:

1) scan the hardrive with everything I've got
- Malware bytes
- Adaware
- Spybot S&D
- Hijacker
- AVG
2) get rid of what I can without doing anything crazy
3) try it again back in his computer as a master drive and see if it works.

OR

3a) transfer all of his work pics/documents to my hard drive in an isolated folder
3b) wipe his hardrive
3c) reinstall windows (if I can even find my stuff lol)
4d) hook it back up, re transfer his stuff, and he's good to go.

What do you guys think. I've talked to some of my computer literate friends already and they've all said I'd be ok, but I am TERRIFIED that whatever is on his hardrive is going to jump onto my computer and I will NOT be happy about that because he thinks he has a lot of stuff... but I have prob 25x volume more than he does in music and pics alone.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[the4g63]

I've swapped infected drives from master to slave before and used them for storage, even with the bug/virus still on them, and have never had any kind of infection jump from one drive to the other. I'd say you should be ok doing it any way you'd like. I can't really think of the best way for this situation though. It's possible that if you put a new drive in his computer and tried to load items from the old drive, the new one could be infected as well. I'm kind of rusty myself.

[Xavier]

The only way it could "spread" is if the virus was executed, i.e., you "ran" the virus. Since it will be contained on a slave drive and not on the boot drive any settings it may have changed to make itself run and spread would be null. In other words, it is safe.

[bmatyeah]

put more ram in there for him. its so cheap

[jpalamar]

You can probally just slave the drive and have no issues, but why not just do a fresh install since it has been so long? Probally won't take all that long anyway.

[DPancoast]

thanks for the responses guys.

as far as the ram, i will put more in when i have time and money since it would come out of my pocket since my dad refuses to buy stuff like that.

I want to wipe it clean jay but his work stuff needs to come off first. Plus if i can save the drive it just needs a good cleaning.

we shall see what happens. im at work so it'll have to wait until i get home

[c0nfl1kt]

Some of these new trojans are so sophisticated even restore discs fail to remove them. They anchor themselves to bootsectors and the only thing you can do to get rid of them are formats. That's why I always have a RAID array for my info in slave configuration with a small and fast drive for my OS.

[DPancoast]

i dont think this one is too sophisticated, but who knows.

My ultimate goal is to format and start over, but for now i need to get him back up and running if possible so that he can still work from the computer

[DPancoast]

dads hd is the top one, hd in my computer is the bottom.

My connections in my computer (newer by about 2 years) are different than the ones in my dads computer. There are plugs in my computer for the right side bigger plug, but the only thing that resembles a data connection in my computer is smaller and only fits where you see t he pins designating what the drive is with the white clip on my dads drive..



so anyway. waiting on my one buddy to drop off an external drive connection/USB jawn so I can get the files that way and then just have to reinstall windows.

[c0nfl1kt]

Originally Posted by DPancoast

dads hd is the top one, hd in my computer is the bottom.

My connections in my computer (newer by about 2 years) are different than the ones in my dads computer. There are plugs in my computer for the right side bigger plug, but the only thing that resembles a data connection in my computer is smaller and only fits where you see t he pins designating what the drive is with the white clip on my dads drive..



so anyway. waiting on my one buddy to drop off an external drive connection/USB jawn so I can get the files that way and then just have to reinstall windows.

Good old IDE. Get rid of some of that dust, dude. Dust = static = charged particles = computer deth.

[DPancoast]

yeah I blew it out and made it clean as a whistle after I found out I couldn't do anything else today

[james_ls]

Ultimate Boot Disc.

[DPancoast]

yeah thats my next challenge. finding his copy of windows lol

[bmatyeah]

dell should have it. if you cant get it. dude ram is like so cheap and easy to upgrade. its harder to open the case

[DPancoast]

haha yeah i know. I'll get some ram next week. I want to put some in my computer too. Only using 2 of the 4gb capacity lol

[DPancoast]

well I have it hooked up through USB and am scanning it just to see what everything comes up with.

after that... pulling files, finding disks and wiping.

[c0nfl1kt]

What are you using for the scan? A lot of anti-virus/anti-malware/anti-adware programs out there offer incredible false-negatives or are just easy to fool.

[DPancoast]

Im using Malwarebytes Anti Malware, AVG Anti-Virus, and Spybot S&D

AVG picked up a trojan so far but is still scanning and after talking to my dad I think it's the one that was causing the problem. To a normal person that knows nothing it came up as an "Internet Security 2010" and looked like a program and said "YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED". So, so far so good on that front, still scanning but maybe the trojan is just the start of it.

[igo4bmx]

to make it easier- download knoppix live cd or bart pe and boot into an OS on cd then use networking and copy over to your machine- no need to take apart desktops or laptops again.

[DPancoast]

yeah it only took about 4 mins to copy what he needed to my computer. not a huge deal.

gonna try and reinstall windows on his computer shortly. hopefully the cd key still works.

He only had 3gb of important stuff lol

I have like 150+ if I classify what he says is important lol