Advice Needed From The Computer Gods

[bill of oz]

i have a computer that is so infected with viruses it is basically hopeless at this point, tried everything, malware bytes, JRT, Adwcleaner , RKill, hirens, spybot, TDSSkiller etc etc etc,

the DCHP Client service is stuck on "starting" in wont let me stop and restart it, ive tried everything, even safe mode,

at this point i cant even get an internet connection of any kind, wired or wireless, even in safe mode,

at this point im throwing in the towel and looking at doing a backup and restore, my question is.....will a backup or system image save the program files on the computer? or just the personal files and documents?

 

[strollin]

A system image will save EVERYTHING including whatever malware/viruses you currently have on your machine. You will need to do a clean install of the OS and re-install all of your programs so you need to do a file-by-file backup of your DATA files. However, there is still the possibility of your data files harboring viruses so you should install AV software prior to restoring your data then do scans on the data after restoring it before you attempt to access it.

 

[bill of oz]

A system image will save EVERYTHING including whatever malware/viruses you currently have on your machine.

thanks, so i guess its best to go the back up route?

that wont backup program files though, will it?

 

[strollin]

No. As I said, you will need to re-install all of your programs.

 

[johnb35]

If it's so infected you can't do anything then you will need to reinstall windows and all programs. You really can't back up programs. They must be reinstalled.