a couple questions

[Alex of the West]

first,id like to say that viruses for me, have been a serious bane to my overall computer enjoyment. ive had a number of computers over the years, and far more viruses in that time. some of the viruses i can personaly remove by hand, others i cannot. ive relied on trial versions of mcaffe and norton which from what i have personaly experienced, are only hit and miss at best. I recieved a virus that litteraly killed my computer today, while AVG was on, and from only visiting one website without downloading anything. ever since windows xp, ive been relying extremely heavily on factory restore mode. but this is bothersome to constantly lose all my data. I am going to be building my own computer within the next month, and i would like to protect it,and this computer as well.

first question: is there any effective security that is free, that actualy protects your computer? if so, which should i use. (for now just win xp 32 bit home) but id like to go with win7 64 bit soon.

second question: when looking for parts for my new computer, i see lots of gorgeous hard drives that hold the size of alaska (1tb) within them. however, i am constantly reminded of the horrible question, how can anyone fill up more than 150 gigs before encountering severe viruses that force you to format? how do other people tackle this problem?

third question: because i will be building a computer by hand for the first time instead of a store bought one, the lack of a factory restore is a slight concern but not a major one. can someone explain to me the process for formatting under vista and under windows 7?



any advice would be hugely appreciated, thanks in advance! if im coming across as frustrated, im sorry about that, i just keep running into these thorns called viruses.

 

[gamblingman]

now

I hate to be so blunt, but where are you going online? (I dont mean this in a derogatory manner). I ask so that maybe we can help you steer clear of the dangerous sites. Do you open all the emails you receive and open every attachment? (spam can be very tempting to open, but its not worth it)

With careful internet and computer use you should never get a virus. Though they can happen from time to time just from mistakes or internet problems. (hijacked pages, email attachments, scams, etc...)

Anti-virus packages are great, and nearly all of them do their job correctly and well. But they can't and don't act as a lead containment wall to all problems. If you choose to engage in dangerous internet/computer use, if you have vulnerabilities in your system, if other people are using your computer, you stand a very good chance of infection.

Imagine your computer like your car. Would you take it into a really bad neighborhood, or drive back and forth through construction sites, or let friends take it for a joyride? No of course not, because you dont want to get car-jacked, or get tire punctures or get a call that your car is totaled.

For anti virus I like Trend Micro (its on my machine) and AVG (fiancee likes it on hers), and both do a good job. But they wont/can't catch everything, especially if you choose to put it in your computer. Its your job to be careful, other tools like Malwarebytes can eliminate the things that may make it in. Other tools like using a browser like firefox can work as a preventative measure against certain problems finding an entrance.

Many people can fill a 1TB drive. I have at least 1.5 TB of data on my backup HDD and this computer. Again, it just comes down to being careful online and with your computer.

The question concerning the factory restore partition. Ugh, I hate factory restores. They are usually WAY out of date on updates on programs and OS, and then you have to spend hours just updating and removing all the problems (programs you dont need, settings you dont like, etc) that the manufacturer didn't deal with.

You can create your own recovery partition, I have a father-in-law who uses a recovery partition because the way his wife uses computers is akin to adding water to acid.

This is a great illustration showing computer weaknesses and strengths. It was created to show the danger of the conficker worm. But it also works for my point as the majority of infections spread much like this.

From Microsoft Security http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/security/worms/Conficker.aspx

 

[Alex of the West]

my primary computer use consists of

online games, some of them flash
streaming anime sites (ive noticed some carry viruses, you don't have to download them to get them)
occasional torrent site use (some of the pages of these seem to carry viruses)

i'm running win xp. i always use Firefox.
and that's pretty much it, i never really get emails with attachments and i don't randomly download things.

to fill up 1tb of space,you'd have to be using torrents. so how did you pull that off without a format? i think i see what you are saying though, use a small primary hd for programs and then a huge backup hd to put all your stuff on?


so you recommend: trend micro, Malwarebytes ill give them a try, thanks!

 

[johnb35]

my primary computer use consists of

online games, some of them flash
streaming anime sites (ive noticed some carry viruses, you don't have to download them to get them)
occasional torrent site use (some of the pages of these seem to carry viruses)

i'm running win xp. i always use Firefox.
and that's pretty much it, i never really get emails with attachments and i don't randomly download things.

to fill up 1tb of space,you'd have to be using torrents. so how did you pull that off without a format? i think i see what you are saying though, use a small primary hd for programs and then a huge backup hd to put all your stuff on?


so you recommend: trend micro, Malwarebytes ill give them a try, thanks!

Occasional torrent use will get you into heaps of trouble by itself. The malware makers are making programs now that will get by any antivirus or active malware programs. If you don't clean up your usage then you'll be reformatting quite often, which is very unnecessary.

 

[gamblingman]

an = sign

Trend Micro is not free, but it is usually pretty cheap for even their highest coverage package. AVG is free and for sale. There is also avira, Avast, MSE, and so many more. I wasnt really trying to suggest a specific one. Its all down to personal preference.

Though I highly recommend AGAINST any norton product or macafee. They are rather ineffective against infection detection and removal, they are resource hogs, and both are very difficult to fully uninstall.

Malwarebytes is a malware remover, it is free, it is NOT an anti virus program. Malwarebytes is only a removal tool for malware infections. It is used in conjunction with an anti virus program.

---

I filled over a TB with backups, video editing, photos, music, school docs over 4 years, games, and etc...

For the HDD, there are so many ways you can do it. Several hard drives at the same time, one HDD for regular use and a backup external HDD, one HDD partitioned for recovery partition, etc... There are loads of different ways to set up HDD's for utility and safety.

I have XP on my installed HDD, and I have an external HDD for backups.

---

Also,
Torrents = Infections

Don't use use any file sharing programs. There may be a few people who will disagree with me on torrents, but the majority of the time, file sharing is very dangerous. I stay very far away from it. I even set my anti virus site blocker to block the file sharing sites, I consider it that much of a threat.

And if you: have used, are using, or are considering using any illegal software like keygens, crackers, cracked software, etc... don't. Using illegal software is a sure way to get infected, dont use it. 'nuff said.

 

[Alex of the West]

i see, thanks for the tips guys