I know it's Christmastime, but I couldn't help it. One of my computers caught a particularly nasty virus. It was the one that looks like an antivirus program. It ended up attaching itself to critical Windows 7 processes, so it could not be removed and it tore up the firewall in the process.
I may have picked it up investigating naked women riding scooters, or it could have been the kids downloading time-wasting games. Regardless, I got it and couldn't get rid of it.
I went out to some on-line forums looking for a solution, and all I ended up doing was wallowing in the cries of the angry and frustrated. Here's a few of my favorite comments...
"I'd like to get my hands on the son of a bitch that did this. I've removed it three times and it keeps coming back."
"Murder is forefront in my mind."And I agree with them.
Fortunately, I was prepared. I recommend everyone own a 500 GB to 1 TB external USB drive (They go for around $100) to back up anything you care about. I do. That way, worst case scenario happens and you still have your family pictures and important documents. I own four of them because I have a lot of music and video
A Cheap Insurance Policy
I could not clean my computer, but I did not despair. Why? Because I made a complete system image when I first got my computer. Here is how I do it, and I recommend everyone do something similar. A little advanced planning can get you back up and running when disaster strikes.
In addition to an external drive, you will also need another hard drive, and a blank DVD. Here's what I do when I get a new computer:
1. Decrapify the computer. Remove all the trial versions, crapware and other useless stuff.
2. Install good stuff. Spybot, Windows Defender or AVG Free Edition, and all your other software
3. Do a Spybot scan, virus scan Disk scan, Defrag
4. Use Control Panel/Backup and Restore to Create a Rescue Disk
5. Use Control Panel/Backup and Restore to Create a System Image and put it on your external USB Drive
6. Take the hard drive out of your computer, label it, and set it aside. Install the brand new hard drive
7. Boot your computer using the rescue disk you made, and when prompted select 'restore system image'
8. Point the restore process to the USB drive where your system image resides
9. Windows will create a clone on the new hard drive and then boot up to Windows 7.
Once the process completes and Windows starts, you are done. You now have the exact computer you had before, but on a new drive. You also now have an emergency hard drive ready to go if disaster strikes.
If you don't want to spring for the second drive, you can still follow these steps to make a system image, and if heaven forbid something goes wrong with your computer, you can boot up using the the rescue disk and restore your system. Be sure to save off any files and settings first! This process completely wipes your disk, eradicating any spyware, viruses or other useless stuff junking up your computer.
Doing this faithfully for each of my computers has saved me more than once.
Happy computing!
