Re: What is the process to backup your hard drive and clean your existing hard drive?

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My comments are interspersed.

"Red" <rspahr1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>What is the process to backup your hard drive and clean your existing hard
>drive?
>

You need only to backup the "clean" portions of the hard drive. The
problem is in identifying what is clean and what is contaminated.

>
>
>I spent some money to have my hard drive eradicated of SPAM and Spy-ware.
>And it works beautifully again. I asked the technicians what their process
>was and they replied they have hardware and software in the $1000+ to
>perform this process.

Most of what you spent was probably for the technician's time. I have
about $10,000 worth of tools and equipment in my own shop (at least).

>
>
>I do not believe that it cost that much for both software and hardware to
>clean a PC hard drive.

There are many good tools available that are free for personal use
only. Using them (legitimately) in a business environment requires
that a license be purchased. And as several different products are
usually needed to clean a system the cost quickly adds up.

>
>
>
>It is my understanding I am to
>
>a) Copy my PC hard drive onto another PC hard drive.
>
>b) Reformat my existing PC hard drive
>
>c) Reload Operating system (Windows XP PRO)
>
>d) Copy back from the 2nd PC hard drive onto the original hard drive
>Data files only

That is the tough part - deciding what is safe to copy back and what
isn't. Many virus/spyware files intermingle themselves with the
"good" data and it is often difficult to tell one from the other.


>
>e) Reload Windows Office and any other software that was originally on
>the PC
>
>
>
>My QUESTION to whom ever is what is the process to:
>
>1) Backup my PC Hard drive and
>
>2) Hardware and Software need
>
>3) What kind of cost should I expect to pay for these items.
>
>4) Can this be done by connecting an external or internal hard drive to
>my existing PC or must I buy another PC to perform this task.
>

I do this type of work quite frequently in my business, and my
procedures are a bit different. I generally prefer to clean up the
existing drive rather than to "slash and burn" the drive and then try
to rebuild and restore it without recontaminating.

In order to clean up the drive you need a variety of software tools
and the knowledge and experience to use them correctly.

Here is a list of the software tools that I used on my last cleanup
job:

McAfee Stinger
AVG7 Antivirus
RAV Antivirus online scanner
Trend Micro online antivirus scanner
AdAware SE
Spy Sweeper
Spybot Search & Destroy
CWShredder
HiJackThis

Note that the last item, HiJackThis, requires specific knowledge in
order to identify the problem items as it does not distinguish between
these and the good items.

Hope this is of some assistance.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
.

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