New Computer

[Stratadon]

Just pointing out, you can't measure the effectiveness of security software with case studies. Many of you have said that ur security is boss because it has worked for YOU for 2 years. The way you test this, is everyone with different security all goes to the same website that is known to be infected with a variety of malware and see which one comes out of it alive

Most often, malware is not an issue. I never use security software on my pc and I am fine 99% of the time. In the 1% of the time that i get infected, I am confident in my ability to disable and remove just about anything that gets thrown at me.

If you are getting viruses, it is usually operator error. You should know better than to go to sites that are likely hosts of malware.

 

[Cacher]

Just pointing out, you can't measure the effectiveness of security software with case studies. Many of you have said that ur security is boss because it has worked for YOU for 2 years. The way you test this, is everyone with different security all goes to the same website that is known to be infected with a variety of malware and see which one comes out of it alive

Most often, malware is not an issue. I never use security software on my pc and I am fine 99% of the time. In the 1% of the time that i get infected, I am confident in my ability to disable and remove just about anything that gets thrown at me.

If you are getting viruses, it is usually operator error. You should know better than to go to sites that are likely hosts of malware.

I used eicar to test my computer anti viruses for effectiveness. So far Comodo and Malwarebytes are the best

 

[Zovator]

I said hack, not virus.

They're both bad.

 

[Cacher]

They're both bad.

Tru3

 

[GreenEarth]

An important operating system file may also be corrupt not letting you boot. Make sure you run chkdsk.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090103024230AAhLlkS

also download spybot search and destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

run a scan see how many errors you have

And if you have important data on the old hard drives
put them as slaves to a new computer. Basically boot off of a new
hard drive with an operating system on it, and your old hard drives
will act as additional space. See if you can access the data.

http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/04/23/how-to-slave-hard-drive/

If you can't access and have run chkdsk, spybot and any other scans available to you, run recovery software
and copy recovered files to new hard drive. Compile a list of all programs you had installed. Then nuke the old hard drives.

http://www.dban.org/

basically download the file, burn it to a cd, then boot off of the cd, and it will nuke your hardrives. Make sure any hard drives you don't want nuked ARE NOT HOOKED UP. This will permanently erase everything.

This will make sure anything causing problems is gone. After the nuke, reformat to NTFS.

To reformat, go to my computer, right click on hard drive, and there should be a "format" option.


In the future, make sure you have, some kind of virus scan that is generally accepted as good (research is your friend). I use Microsoft Forefront. Also have Spybot Search and Destroy and Malwarebytes. Scan at least every month. Your old hard drive will probably have bad sectors in it so use a new hard drive for main data and programs and the old as backups or a place where you put stuff that you can easily get back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_sector

also if you want some recovery software send me your email and when I get home I'll send you all the ones I have.

Gewd Luck.

 

[Clayto1332]

It is not wise to have no protection. You could very easily get a keylogger or something and not even realize it. You need to get over your stubbornness and at least get AVG or something.../

 

[Zovator]

It is not wise to have no protection. You could very easily get a keylogger or something and not even realize it. You need to get over your stubbornness and at least get AVG or something.../

Just pointing out, you can't measure the effectiveness of security software with case studies. Many of you have said that ur security is boss because it has worked for YOU for 2 years. The way you test this, is everyone with different security all goes to the same website that is known to be infected with a variety of malware and see which one comes out of it alive

Most often, malware is not an issue. I never use security software on my pc and I am fine 99% of the time. In the 1% of the time that i get infected, I am confident in my ability to disable and remove just about anything that gets thrown at me.

If you are getting viruses, it is usually operator error. You should know better than to go to sites that are likely hosts of malware.

^

 

[Audi]

It is not wise to have no protection. You could very easily get a keylogger or something and not even realize it. You need to get over your stubbornness and at least get AVG or something.../

I'd go Malwarebytes over AVG.
Don't want interference with Steam.
I use both, however.

 

[Creeper]

I'd go Malwarebytes over AVG.

Malewarebytes works like a charm. It works great, plus it's free.

 

[Audi]

Malewarebytes works like a charm. It works great, plus it's free.

Damn straight.

 

[Clayto1332]

Malwarebytes is good for removal of something nasty after you get it. AVG is good at keeping you clean (secure web browsing, email etc...).

And Zovator, I am not disagreeing with you but I work in IT and it is just too easy of a thing to do and will save you from a lot of heartache. No one wants to go into the registry and start deleting things. And if you do you damn sure better back it up and all that will do is take up an assload of time when all you had to do was take 3 or 4 minutes and download AVG.

Like I said, there is just no reason not to. You can get malware and not realize it and people can steal all kinds of personal information. Look up what a keylogger does.

 

[GreenEarth]

Oh god the days when I had to mess with the registry and recovery consoles, every step I had to read about on forums so I didn't screw something up more. I've got like 6 different scans ready to go now.

 

[Zovator]

And Zovator, I am not disagreeing with you but I work in IT and it is just too easy of a thing to do and will save you from a lot of heartache. No one wants to go into the registry and start deleting things. And if you do you damn sure better back it up and all that will do is take up an assload of time when all you had to do was take 3 or 4 minutes and download AVG.

Like I said, there is just no reason not to. You can get malware and not realize it and people can steal all kinds of personal information. Look up what a keylogger does.

As I said before, I've only had 2 viruses on my main computer through it's life, and they weren't major. I've never had my personal information stolen via keyloggers ect. So there isn't really a reason for me to use antivirus.

 

[Audi]

As I said before, I've only had 2 viruses on my main computer through it's life, and they weren't major. I've never had my personal information stolen via keyloggers ect. So there isn't really a reason for me to use antivirus.

...Or you've had 2 viruses you've known about.

There's always a reason for antivirus.
Take it from a community of people whose lives are computers.

 

[Cacher]

As I said before, I've only had 2 viruses on my main computer through it's life, and they weren't major. I've never had my personal information stolen via keyloggers ect. So there isn't really a reason for me to use antivirus.

You have had 2 viruses. I want to scan your computer and see how much spyware there is. You will be surprised how your regular sites can give you spyware.

 

[mcfar45]

As I said before, I've only had 2 viruses on my main computer through it's life, and they weren't major. I've never had my personal information stolen via keyloggers ect. So there isn't really a reason for me to use antivirus.

When you get your new computer I would recommend putting Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software on it. It really is just a good precaution to take as you never know what you will encounter on the internet.

 

[Zovator]

...Or you've had 2 viruses you've known about.

There's always a reason for antivirus.
Take it from a community of people whose lives are computers.

You have had 2 viruses. I want to scan your computer and see how much spyware there is. You will be surprised how your regulate sites can give you spyware.

I haven't had any issues with not having antivirus, so there's no reason for me to use it, I've used antivirus programs before simply to check if I actually have any virus etc. and most of the time the scans show nothing.

 

[Zovator]

When you get your new computer I would recommend putting Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software on it. It really is just a good precaution to take as you never know what you will encounter on the internet.

I probably will once I get my new computer, just for the sake of it, but what I'm saying is that there is no need for it if you are careful.

 

[mcfar45]

I probably will once I get my new computer, just for the sake of it, but what I'm saying is that there is no need for it if you are careful.

When it comes to the safety and privacy of your personal information you can never be too careful

 

[Zovator]

When it comes to the safety and privacy of your personal information you can never be too careful

True, but I just don't like the general idea of antivirus, I don't know why, that's just the way it is