nGook » diy slow computer

nGook's guide to remove a Virus Method 2

Jarrod — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:05:53 +0000

Difficulty: Remembering your anniversary.
Estimated Cost: Approximately 12 dollars (if you do it the easy way). Fixing it yourself: Still Priceless.
Required Patience: Between 7 and 10.
Summary: This method involves removing the (boot) drive from the infected machine, and connecting it to a non-infected machine, and then using the virus scanner on that machine to remove the virus from the infected hard drive, and then replacing the hard drive back into the original machine. This method is usually 99 percent effective but if system files are infected, the system may not be boot-able when you finish. I will add a guide for that in the future.

Note: This method REQUIRES a second non infected PC. If the infected pc is a laptop then it will have to be disassembled. You may consider my virus removal method 3 (antivirus boot cd) if you are not ready to take your laptop apart. Taking apart 2 desktops is usually pretty easy and straight forward, so I like this method personally if I can.

Tools: Screwdriver (large or small depending on weather the infected pc is a desktop or laptop)
Anti-static strap: (Highly recommended, becauseif you esd your board, you won’t even know it until you try to boot the machine and it does nothing, then you will cry)
A hard drive (ide, sata, or eide) to usb connector/adapter. This is not necessary if both machines (infected and non-infected) are both PC’s. It also makes life real easy, as you only need to take apart the infected machine, and you can plug the infected hard drive into the other computer without having to turn it off. 1 of these will run you between 10 and 20 bucks and they usually can connect all 3 types of drive (not at once). If the infected pc is a laptop, and you do not have an eide to ide cable, then you will need the adapter. If the non-infected pc is a laptop, then you will need the adapter. You are looking for something along these lines: http://www.google.com/products?q=hard+drive+to+usb+adapter&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=gIPjSvOZBojosQO238mwBA&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCYQrQQwAw
But I recommend you go to your nearest electronics outlet (Fry’s electronics, etc…) and pick 1 up. I recommend the cheap one. I paid 12 bucks (usd) for the one I have and it works great.

Next: Pull the hard drive out.

nGook's guide to remove a Virus Method 1

Jarrod — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:52:43 +0000

Difficulty: Swatting flys.
Estimated Cost: 0 dollars. Fixing it yourself: Priceless.
Required Patience: Between 6 and 10.
Summary: This guide will help you get rid of a virus by means of installing antivirus software, anti-spyware software, and touches into hijack this! This method is about 20 percent effective but when it works, you shouldn’t need to reinstall anything or take apart the computer.

Note: This guide assumes you have internet on the infected pc, or have a thumb drive that you can copy these programs to and from to get them onto the infected pc. It also assumes the infected pc is bootable. If it is not, then goto Virus alert 2. It should also be noted that since viruses can protect themselves, a majority of viruses (that can be prevented) can defend themselves if they get on your system before the antivirus software does. This method is effective about 20 percent of the time, but does not require cracking open the case when it works.

Ok so for starters, you can call me on my bullshit “level” chart. Just like the governments “Terror Alert Level”, I made it up. I am refering to a virus that has a low difficulty removal level and your system has probably been infected because you have no antivirus on it. Since you are here I assume you missed my guide on prevention. Moving on, we have 3 steps to removing a weak virus from your system. If this doesn’t work, then proceed to my guide on level 2 removal.

Next: Step 1: Anti-virus.

The nGook guide to Free Virus and Spyware Prevention

Jarrod — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:44:39 +0000

Intro: This is a simple guide that explains how to set up virus and spyware protection on your PC.
Difficulty Level: Feeding the ducks.
Applicable Operating Systems: Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7, although there is no reason I can think of that this wouldn’t apply to previous versions.

So perhaps you have heard horror stories, from friends or colleagues, about that bad new virus that just came out. Maybe you have had a virus on your pc in the past, and you paid the neighbor kid 20 bucks to get rid of it. Maybe someone on the news said something about the ‘next big virus’ to hit pc’s (or perhaps it was on the news anchors pc, and now because of it, the story she was working on is lost forever and she had to report about something, right?). So everyone runs out to the local pc store to pick up a copy of [name of antivirus product here] because they get all flipped out over it. Good news, YOU can ease your finger off the panic button. A little prevention can go along way.

Part 1: (Free) Antivirus Software. You would be surprised at how many people have released to the public, free antivirus software. I recommend avg (http://free.avg.com) , because that’s what I use, and I have had good experiences with it. It’s also pretty popular (#1 result in google if you type in “free antivirus”). I used a product called Antivir from a company called avira, and the software was good as well, but every day when it updated the virus definitions, it would pop up a window to tell me what it was doing and the window would also have an add in it to get Antivir pro. I do not like annoying things, and when my antivirus cannot update quietly, it has to go. If you download and don’t like avg, feel free to look around for other antivirus software.