Quote:
Originally Posted by kdogg
I've been avoiding a reformat, just because I was going to purchase a new computer in 6-12 months. I was hoping it would last me. This probably pushes my timeline up to tomorrow, as Dell has a sale on.
Tonight is the last night I'll try and make it work, otherwise, its not worth my time to do a reformat on it.
Question:
I obviously need the data on the machine. Am I at risk if i move this drive to another machine? Or would I be safe if I plugged it into a new machine, and immediately ran the virus scan on it right away?
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Depending on what is wrong with it, you might be. To be as safe as possible you might want to clean it off before you attach it to another PC.
If you really would like to save this PC for short term use without formatting, this is what I would do:
Download, install and run full scans with both
Hitman Pro and
MalwareBytes. Hitman Pro will require you to use the 1 month free license, but MalwareBytes is free for personal use.
Once you can run both of them with no hits either
a)see if your antivirus is functioning and update it
-OR-
b) if it is giving you problems still, just uninstall it and download
Microsoft Security Essentials (or any other free Anti-virus you have an affinity for such as Avast, a 30 trial of Nod32 etc)
Run a virus scan. Repeat until nothing is found.
Download CCleaner and Defraggler from
www.piriform.com
Install CCleaner, and run both the Cleaner and Scan the registry. Backup your registry when it prompts if you feel like it.
Install Defraggler and run it on your system drive. You can also use the built in defrag in Start Menu --> Programs --> Accessories --> System tools --> Disk Defragmenter, as there really isn't much difference, but I think defraggler is a bit quicker and you can do some interesting things with it if you feel so inclined like put some types of files at the end of the disc, like larger media files etc.