Virus filling up my hard drive!

[Erich_870]

Hey guys,

I need some help. Yesterday or the day before my computer became infected with a virus that is filling my hard drive. It had been pretty full, so when I got a warning message that I was almost out of space I figured it was from a bunch of family pics I uploaded from my camera. I moved a bunch of unimportant photos (1.5 Gb) to an external drive to make some space and though I was good. A couple hours later I was full again. :tapedshut:

So I have updated and run AVG (free version), Ad-aware, and Superantispyware free addition. Spybot is running right now. Some interesting information, when I started Spybot, it asks if it can delete temporary files to make the scan faster. Well, it found 55,000 files! When those were deleted it opened up 15+ Gb of space.

Also, my outlook won't launch any more... :chair:

Give me some advice here guys, what else should I do?

Thanks,

Erich

[Seanz0rz]

bit defender is what usually catches most of the stuff i have to deal with.

no experience with a virus like that, good luck mate!

[Erich_870]

Thanks Sean,

I'll try downloading it tonight and see if it can find the virus.

Anyone else have suggestions?

Erich

[corax]

I don't have any suggestions on what to do right now, but this will probably serve asa painful reminder to back-up info on a regular basis in case you need to wipe the drive clean

[Crinale]

i used Microsoft Security Essentials on my windows computers... hasnt let me down yet (it looks for viruses and spyware)

[Erich_870]

I don't have any suggestions on what to do right now, but this will probably serve asa painful reminder to back-up info on a regular basis in case you need to wipe the drive clean


Yeah, I've never had to do that before, so I'm completely unprepared.

I understand backing up files in case of a hard drive failure, but what do you do for programs?

Erich

[L33T35T Tacoma]

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

download the free version. great program for an on-demand scan (not a scheduled nightly scan).

if you have the resources and know-how, the EASIEST way to clean out a virus is to take the hard drive out of said computer and install it in another computer and do a scan and clean that way. that way the virus isnt activly running, as some viruses guard themselves against antivirus software.

Is said computer a laptop or desktop?

[Erich_870]

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

download the free version. great program for an on-demand scan (not a scheduled nightly scan).

if you have the resources and know-how, the EASIEST way to clean out a virus is to take the hard drive out of said computer and install it in another computer and do a scan and clean that way. that way the virus isnt activly running, as some viruses guard themselves against antivirus software.

Is said computer a laptop or desktop?


It's a desktop

Erich

[L33T35T Tacoma]

If you have another computer of roughly the same age it should be fairly easy to remove your hard drive and install it in the other as a secondary to clean it up

[Erich_870]

We're a one computer household at the moment. :hillbill: My wife has been monitoring several scans today, so I'll see what we have when I get home. I've not run any scans in safe mode yet, so I will download the programs you all have shared so far and do them in safe mode if needed. :confused:

Thanks for all the help so far, and keep it coming. :thumbup:

Erich

[MTL_4runner]

Usually in a case like that I boot from the Norton CD and have it scan the drive from there. That way the virus can`t hide in RAM and should be wiped clean. Norton and Kaspersky have both worked well for me thus far.

[Erich_870]

Thanks for all the replys guys. I think we've got it under control. It's been 24 hours and we have not had any increase in our HDD size. :thumbup:

Erich

[Crinale]

yay congratulations :-P u have beaten the virus thus far

[Lee]

http://www.eset.com/


BY FAR the best antivirus software ever made for windows. I would run nothing else. Doesn't bother you with a lot of questions, isn't syncing constantly, doesn't do intrusive scans, and won't generally slow you down over time.

it's all I run on my windows instances (xp / vista / 7 through parallels and 7 through bootcamp).