What you do when your computer gets infected by virus?

@ajithlal (14716)
India
November 18, 2008 12:37am CST
I used to format my hardisk when there is virus in my computer. I always try to keep the copy of my valuable documents in DVDs so that I don't lose them. What you do when your computer get infected by virus?
2 people like this
14 responses
• India
18 Nov 08
so, the best way would be to use latest ant-virus software and remove it.in some cases anti detects the virus but they can remove them. in such case note down the virus name if it shows, there are of of tools available on the net and use them to remove it
1 person likes this
• Singapore
18 Nov 08
scan and remove using anti virus if it really cannot be remove then format
@ajithlal (14716)
• India
15 Sep 12
I also think good antivirus is the solution for viruses.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
1 Dec 08
Besides scream, knock your head against the computer and cry? I keep my novel stuff on my flash drive. I have an anti-virus and I have it run automatically but when I did get a virus, I formatted the computer. That was before, but I do not need to do it now as I never get a virus.
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
1 Dec 08
Yes, Back up,back up, back up. I can't say it enough times because even though I say it often to some friends they still forget to do it and often end up loosing everything because those are also the friends that forget the importance of good antivirus, firewall, etc.etc. etc. I haven't had an infection in many years and hope not to have any at all :) I am very careful however and do scans regularly just in case.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
22 Nov 08
Call my husband's friend and have him erase the entire computer and reformat it.
• India
19 Nov 08
first scaning the computer after that still i feel there are virous in my pc then doing format.
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
18 Nov 08
I use McAfee Anti-Virus and have it set to scan on Access, it makes it nice as when a files is accessed, downloaded the program scans it for viruses if a virus comes up I try to clean or quarantine it, I then remove the program. I have not had a virus in 10 years now, it pays to run a good anti-virus program
@kaka135 (14921)
• Malaysia
18 Nov 08
I'll first use the Anti-virus program to get rid of the virus, if it still fails to do so, then only I'll format my harddisk. I usually partition my harddisk into several local drives, and keep my documents in drives other than C (The drive for Operating System). So, whenever I want to reformat my computer, I just need to format drive C, and it won't affect my documents. ^_^
@orevro (715)
• Philippines
19 Nov 08
i scan my computer with the installed anti-virus, if it's still doesn't work, i would download or get a better anti-virus program, my last resort would be to have the computer formatted..
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
18 Nov 08
Hello ajithlal. There were a few times when I got my computer reinstalled to get rid of the viruses. Though it works, yet I have already found that the best way to remove the viruses completely is to format my harddisk as you do and also install anti-virus software in the computer to make it safe. The last time as well as the first time to have my computer formated, the computer guy told me not to save the files in it as the files were also infected with viruses. I listened to him and he helped me with the computer. Ever since, my computer is like a phoenix. Thank you for your discussion, ajithlal. Good day.
@loxion (1553)
• India
18 Nov 08
I think it will be better if you get anti-virus rather formatting your pc every now and then, i mean in your case will you always make a copy of everything you store on your pc? And again the information you stored on the DVD could still be infected and each time you want to access that info then the computer gets infected again. Same thing applies if you have multiple hard drives connected or maybe if your hard drive has 2 or more partitions, you will still have the virus on you pc because then you will only formatting the one that has OS and the virus still remain on other hard drives, and each time you access them....the virus find its way too.
@mnr367 (65)
• India
19 Nov 08
i use avast antivirus , its free and its very effective. if my antivirus dont detct the virus, i usually format the c drive, i dont keep any datas in the c drive other than system files. i dont fromat the other drive because it contain my valuable dat a, most virus are in the drive in which windows is installed, so if your system is infected with virus keep formating that drive only and check that virus problem continuous, if it continue try formating all the drive
• India
19 Nov 08
well i just copy all the valuable stuff frm the operatin system drive nd then i format it but if all the drives are infected then i use system restore or some powerful antivirus s/w..
• United States
19 Nov 08
I use AntiVir which has a free version with realtime scanning. I use it on my laptop and the family desktop and have not had any issues. If running a virus scan does not solve the issue I have gone to a site called tomcoyote.org which is now located here and under new management http://forums.whatthetech.com/forums.html. The great thing about this site is that there are a number of highly skilled computer guys there that will help you run tools like HijackThis to determine what is causing the infection and than they will walk you through cleaning it away.