PC Hardware

K

Kidd man

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Hi I know someone who has a desktop computer she does not want it anymore so I will be taking it of her hands. The reason she doesn't want it anymore is it is highly infected with viruses from her kids downloading junk from the internet. My question is can I just replace the hard drive (because that's ware the virus is right?) and get a new one with a new os or should I do a clean reset and reinstall the operating system. Also witch method would be more affective with getting rid of theses viruses?. If anyone knows of a better method you are free to give you opinion's
 
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You can certainly put a new hard drive in it and do a fresh OS install. You may also be able to remove the viruses/malware from the existing drive. Do you have a copy of the OS and is the Product Key visible on a sticker on the machine somewhere?

If you have the Product Key then it will save you the cost of buying a new OS for the machine.

Instead of reinstalling the OS from an install disk, the machine may have a recovery partition that you can use to recover the machine back to what it was like when it came from the factory. What is the make and model of the computer?
 
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Hi strollin i do not have the pc in my home right now. It's still at her house but I will have those answers for you sometime Sunday... Btw it was bought at a pawn shop so no copy of that os
 
What Operating system does it have on it? Depending on how its infected it may be simpler to just reinstall windows. I can have you run some scans to see what you are up against if you want.
 
As long as you have the sticker on the side of the case with the activation key on it then you can just download the correct windows 7 iso file and create an install cd. As far as those scans go this is what you would need to do.

1.

Please download AdwCleaner by Xplode onto your Desktop.



•Please close all open programs and internet browsers.
•Double click on adwcleaner.exe to run the tool.
•Click on Scan.
•After the scan you will need to click on clean for it to delete the adware.
•Your computer will be rebooted automatically. A text file will open after the restart.
•Please post the content of that logfile in your reply.
•You can find the logfile at C:\AdwCleaner[Sn].txt as well - n is the order number.

2.

Please download Junkware Removal Tool to your desktop.

•Shutdown your antivirus to avoid any conflicts.
•Very important that you run the tool in this manner:
Right-mouse click JRT.exe and select Run as administrator
Do NOT just double-click it.
•The tool will open and start scanning your system.
•Please be patient as this can take a while to complete.
•On completion, a log (JRT.txt) is saved to your desktop and will automatically open.
•Post the contents of JRT.txt in your next message.

3.

Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.
  • Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
  • At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to
    • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    • and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • then click Finish.
  • If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. Please keep updating until it says you have the latest version.
  • Once the program has loaded, select Perform quick scan, then click Scan.
  • When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
  • Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  • A log will be saved automatically which you can access by clicking on the Logs tab within Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

If for some reason Malwarebytes will not install or run please download and run Rkill.scr, Rkill.exe, or Rkill.com. If you are still having issues running rkill then try downloading these renamed versions of the same program.

EXPLORER.EXE
IEXPLORE.EXE
USERINIT.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE

But DO NOT reboot the system and then try installing or running Malwarebytes. If Rkill (which is a black box) appears and then disappears right away or you get a message saying rkill is infected, keep trying to run rkill until it over powers the infection and temporarily kills it. Once a log appears on the screen, you can try running malwarebytes or downloading other programs.

Please post the log that Malwarebytes displays on your screen.

4.

Download OTL to your Desktop


•Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
•Click on Minimal Output at the top
•Click the Quick Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
◦When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL. Just post the OTL.txt file in your reply.

then post the logs from the following 4 programs.

1. Adwcleaner
2. Junkware removal tool
3. Malwarebytes
4. OTL
 
I was looking into wiping the hard drive and i found dban.org seems ok, the main thing they stressed is that it wipes all data including the os witch is cool with me because i have a friend who has windows 7 & 8 extra os and he agreed provide one to go half and half when I sell the pc. Now I think I'm good what do you guys think should I go through with this new plan?
 
You don't need a program to wipe the drive. If anything it'll probably ADD stuff you don't want.

When booting Win __ Install it'll have an option to format the disk.
 
C4C said:
You don't need a program to wipe the drive. If anything it'll probably ADD stuff you don't want.
Click to expand...

You clearly don't know what DBAN does.

OP, you don't need to nuke it with DBAN. Just format it with the Windows installer.
 
If its an OEM machine like HP or Dell then there should be a recovery partition that you boot into to reinstall windows. If its a custom built pc then you would need to have a physical install cd to do it. What kind of computer is it? Make and model?
 
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