What's new

I think I got a virus! (1 Viewer)

AllenD

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 20, 2000
Messages
412
The wife opened an email and opened the attachment and now the computer freezes up. All I get is a desktop with an hourglass. I can't even boot up in safe mode. What do you suggest I do? Can I make the drive a slave on another pc and run a virus checker on it w/o corrupting the other PC? I'm have no experience at all with this. Thanks for your help.
 

Shayne Lebrun

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 17, 1999
Messages
1,086
Grab a copy of Norton Anti-Virus. Get it up to date. Use it to create a whack of rescue disks (actual floppy disks) and boot the sick computer using them. Follow the instructions. Hope and pray.
 

AllenD

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 20, 2000
Messages
412
Shayne,

Thanks for the response. I update my copy of Norton Anti-Virus on the healthy pc, right? Will updating PC-Cillin do?

How can I boot the sick PC when it won't respond to anything I do in Windows?
 

Shayne Lebrun

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 17, 1999
Messages
1,086
To your first question, yes.

To your second question, Norton Anti Virus has a specific function to create bootable floopy disks for people in your exact situation. Using the norton rescue disks will completely bypass the Windows installation on your hard drive; you're booting a tiny little operating system on the floppy that can only do one thing; scan a hard drive for viruses.

I don't know if PC-Cillin has a similar utility.
 

Kevin P

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 18, 1999
Messages
1,439
What version of Windows are you running? If you're running 95, 98, or ME, hit F8 as soon as the machine starts to boot (right before the Windows splash screen appears). You'll get a menu (where you can choose safe mode, etc.). Choose Step By Step Confirmation. Say yes to each step, and note which one is hanging the machine. Reboot again with step by step and say no to the step that caused it to hang.

Alternatively, boot to a DOS prompt and then run Norton AntiVirus in DOS mode (usually NAVX.EXE or NAVBOOT.EXE). This should help you locate and remove the offending critter.

Last but not least, if your system supports booting from a CD, you can boot from the Norton CD and then run a scan or rescue that way. The newest version of Norton (2002) doesn't have the rescue floppy creation utility anymore.

KJP
 

AllenD

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 20, 2000
Messages
412
Well this is beyond my experience. I couldn't really play around with it since I'm out of town so I employed my brother-in-law, who is in IT, and luckily he's ran into the same virus several time. He was able to clean it up in ten minutes.

Don't open any emails from an unknown source. The bastards used an old high school acquaintance's name to send me the email!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,808
Messages
5,123,525
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top