Hard drive fucked up. I'm out of comission for a while.

[Bakadeshi]

#1. As someone else said, you don't need to buy a new HD, you can reformat the old one if all else fails.

#2. If you want to keep your AMVs, the safest way to retreive them is probably (assuming you can;t get into your old OS anymore) install it in another PC as a slave drive (of course make sure an updated antivirus software is installed and running) , copy JUST the amvs over to a quarantuined folder on the good HD, (don;t execute anything on the HD that is executable) then run a virus scan on all the AMVs to make sure nothing infected the amv files themselves. Format the old Harddrive, Reinstall windows and everything else from scratch, then put back in your AMVs.

To avoid infection in the future:

1. have windows update set to automatically download and install updates (many troujans infect people weeks after microsoft has already fixed the security hole and released a security fix for it)

2. Have a reputable Antivirus installed and updated frequently.

3. Have a software Firewall installed, even if you run behind a router. Windows has a built in one in XP service pack 1, but you can also purchase for relatively cheap software like Zonealarm. (this is safest, though if you know what your doing you can probably get away without this step)

4. NEVER execute attachments from emails, even if its from someone you know. If you realy must, virus scan the file first after downloading all updates.

5. Virus scan all executable files you download, even if its from a trusted source. (you can usually right click and scan file in most scanners) Even if it seems kinda paranoid to do this, its good to get yourself in the habbit of doing it on everything you download.

6. If you must visit shady sites like p0rn etc, don;t use IE. Use firefox, or Opera. Same goes for those Lyric sites, they often contain spyware and adware that IE will auto install if not configured correctly. A good precaution is if the site is offering somehting for free that you should realy pay for, then they are getting their money Somewhere. Either in adbanners, or adware/spyware. Use caution on those sites. Ofcourse there are always exceptions.

its a good idea to switch to firefox or Opera for all normal browsing and only use IE for those sites that require it, and even then only on sites that you trust.

7. DOwnload and run weekly Adaware, and Spybot Search and Destroy. Spybot also has an imunization feature that will trick some spyware into thinking its already installed on your system. If you are tech savy, theres also a program called Hijackthis! that shows you what is in all your startup profiles and lets you remove undesired things from starting up when you start windows. You have to know what you are doing though, as the software doesn't tell you what each item is it finds, it will just report it as it sees it.


RECOMENDED VIRUS SCAN SOFTWARE:

Kapersky Antivirus (the one I use):
http://usa.kaspersky.com/store/
Little overhead and catches EVERYTHING that has been thrown at it. I've not been infected since running this software yet. It even catches most spyware also. Only downside is it will render your ocmputer totally useless while it is doing a full scan. the scanning process is very intense it seems. Not too much of a bother, just set it to run overnight when your not using it.

Norton Antivirus:
http://www.symantec.com/index.htm
Another one that pretty much catches everything, I just prefer kapersky because this has too much overhead for me. (takes too much resources while it is running in the background)




How to clean Spyware:

First the Tools: (all of these tools are free to download)
Adaware
Spybot Search and destroy
Hijack This software
Hijack this usage tutorial
Procview

Step1: Download and install Adaware and Spybot. Run both of them and have them clean any infections they find. If any of them are unable to clean a particular file, make a note of the file name and manually delete it in safemode. A few spyware are particularly nasty and may require doing some research online on how to remove them. Example, there is a software package called CWSShredder for the CWS spyware that is dificult to remove.


Step2: Imunize you system in SPybot search and destroy. its pretty self explanatory in the program once you install it. You can choose to run teatimer if you like, its a little program that stops changes to the registry unless you tell it to, but I keep it off.

step3: run HijackTHIS, and follow the guide posted. Pretty much your looking for anything that looks odd loading in your startup. Gnerally the legit stuff will include the vender name, such as Creative for sound stuff, Microsoft for MS stuffs, etc. ANything you don;t recognizr, do a google search and find out what it is. Remove it if it is harmfull. (Note: you may have to run Hijackthis! in safemode for it to remove some troublesome spyware.)

step4: THis is the most timeconsuming part, but nessisary to get the most thorough cleaning that the other steps may have missed. Run Procview. Check every file running in your processes and do a google search for anything that looks suspicious or you don't recognize. Hunt down where the file is and delete it if it is harmfull. You should also check the subprocesses in winsock.dll in the same fasion.

If this looks too daunting, then the quick way is to look at the bottom of the procviewer where it says the name of the maker for the particular program dll being loaded. When you scroll down to each one, the name changes, usually it says something like "(c) 1999-2004 Microsoft Corp"
or "(c) 2000 creative software" etc. If it is blank for any one file, or you don;t recognize the name, or it tries to copy microsoft or another company name and mispelled it (it seems most of these people that create spyware are outside the US and don't know english well), that should set up a red flag, check the file on google and delete it if it is harmfull.

step 5: Maintain a clean system by following the precautions above, and rescanning for spyware every now and then. If you find new spyware, it might be a good idea to repeat the HijackTHIS! and Procview steps for safe measure.

I used to do this every day for a living when I worked for a computer repair shop, so I can probably help you if you need help with anything in particular.

Hope this helps.

[RamonesFan2020204]

It's losing space by 4 or 5 kb every what? second? minute? hour? Simple browser cashing would do something similar if you restored your system - for a short time at least.

Since the restore, have you tried running antivirus checks? Spyware checks?

I don't know if it's losing space by either the minute or the hour, but I haven't recieved the back up disc of NAV 2006 from Symantec yet, because it totally cleaned out anything I installed myself. And I'm not paying another $30-40 just to download it again.

[oldwrench]

You can start your computer in safe mode, press the F8 key when the first screen come up, and use system restore to go back to a point before this started. If youhave an antivirus program, you could see if they have an online scan, they may be able to help.

As a last resort, reformat the drive and install your programs. You can get a copy of windows xp home from tigerdirect.com for $90 or media center for $139.

Here is another good free antivirus, http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01 there is no reason for anyone to go unprotected. It just makes it worse for the rest ot us.

[NeoQuixotic]

If you don't have any antivirus and have no money to spend I recommend the free version of AVG Antivirus. I've been using it for over a couple of years and have never been infected. I also love it since it uses very little system resources in the background. However, it lacks some advanced features from their paid version. But I have never had a problem. You can get it for both Windows and Linux!

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

[RamonesFan2020204]

I just heard this very moment from somebody that it's NORMAL for the computer to drop off abnout 4-10 KB every few minutes or so. Is that TRUE? That's really messed up.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I just heard this very moment from somebody that it's NORMAL for the computer to drop off abnout 4-10 KB every few minutes or so. Is that TRUE? That's really messed up.

Well, if you're doing stuff that's being cashed, then yea, it's normal...

[RamonesFan2020204]

I just heard this very moment from somebody that it's NORMAL for the computer to drop off abnout 4-10 KB every few minutes or so. Is that TRUE? That's really messed up.

Well, if you're doing stuff that's being cashed, then yea, it's normal...

What do you mean by stuff that's being cashed?

[oldwrench]

Things that are put into temporary memory on the hard drive. The Os uses part of the drive as cash memory to suppliment the ram memory. Some programs use temp cashes for saving what you are working on.

If you really want to know what is going on, go to this site and download Hijack This and Startup List. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/index.html These programs lists everyting running on your computer and allow you to remove any prosses. This may seem scary and you can wreck things by deleting things windows needs, but if you use the snapshot feature and post it on their forum someone will tell you if you have something there you don't want and how to get rid of it. Their are a lot of good people on their forums that can answer your questions and maybe help you out.

[RamonesFan2020204]

Things that are put into temporary memory on the hard drive. The Os uses part of the drive as cash memory to suppliment the ram memory. Some programs use temp cashes for saving what you are working on.

What are some examples? Also, I noticed that everytime I turn the computer on, the drive space appears to decrease by 20 megs. WTF is that all about?

[oldwrench]

Could be the system setting a new restore point into memory, and while you're online the system saves web page info into the internet cashe. It's quite normal to see the drivespace being used up slowly. This is why it is good to clean things out once in a while. Right click on your hard drive, select properties and click on disk clean up. You will free up quite a bit of space that way.