[pchelpers] Re: Hard Drive Readability

Hi Trudy,

Saturday, April 21, 2007, 8:03:04 PM, you wrote:

TA> What happend to me was that I had a virus that locked most of my
TA> files on one drive. When I tried to open something it would tell
TA> me "Access denied". Also, most of the folders said "empty" but
TA> when I checked in my computer, I had about 60 GB worth of files on
TA> that drive. Now I can get to most of my files again. Because of
TA> problems that I had, I decided to re-install Windows. So I am
TA> happy I could look through my files to see what I wanted to keep.

Apparently-empty folders have the same cause -- you don't have
permission to look inside the folder.

You should be careful; merely reinstalling Windows without
reformatting the drive (if that is what you're doing) will not
necessarily get rid of all of the "contamination". Some malware fetch
and install other malware, so even if you detect and remove the
original virus, you may still have malicious files on the system. Or,
your security settings may have been adjusted so that your system is
more "open" to infection, often in ways which are not easy to detect.

Many large corporations require that infected systems be wiped
completely, often including the data, in order to avoid reinfection.
One of my co-workers usually does the same (but saving data);
installing fresh tends to be faster when cleaning a badly infected
system (and about break-even for a moderately-infected system), and
the system no longer has the typical dead-wood (including junk
installed by the vendor) that slows it down, and most of the software
is up-to-date, often with the security adjusted to discourage
reinfection, plus, of course, there are definitely no contaminated
files to return and haunt you. Ekhart is another person who is moving
towards reinstalling instead of cleaning.

Do you know what virus it was that caused your problem?

-- 
Scott.



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