Hard drive virus removal update#

Hard drive virus removal update#

The reason is that the first thing youвЂ™ll need to do when you boot into the rescue CD is update the programвЂ™s anti-virus definitions, and that requires a working Internet connection. Just one housekeeping note before I get started: If you want to run a rescue CD on a laptop, youвЂ™ll need to plug the notebook into a router or other Internet connection via a networking cable. For now, though, I want to introduce readers to these simple tools. IвЂ™ll post a separate tutorial on setting up a good backup plan soon. I also urge users to segment their systems so that important data files are on a separate chunk of hard drive space than the Windows operating system, which tends to make restoring backups a far simpler affair. But several anti-virus companies also offer slimmed-down Linux-based rescue CDs that can be extremely handy in getting rid of a persistent malware infection, or just for getting a second opinion (or third or fourth) about the state of your system.Д«efore I go any further, let me just state for the record that I donвЂ™t believe there is any substitute for having known good, solid backups of your data and your entire hard drive to restore to in case things go south. I have recommended more full-fledged versions of these rescue CDs (also known as вЂњLive CDs) as a way for small businesses to protect their online banking sessions from malicious software, the lionвЂ™s share of which simply fail to run on non-Windows-based operating systems.

Once youвЂ™ve configured your PC to boot from the CD youвЂ™ve just burned, you can use the CD to scan your hard drive, and - depending on the type of rescue CD you choose - even copy files to a removable drive. The tools in this review are known as a вЂњrescue CDs.вЂќ These are all free, Linux-based operating systems that one can download and burn to a CD-Rom. One of the more common questions I hear from readers with computer virus infections is, вЂњHow do I get rid of a virus if I canвЂ™t even boot up into Windows to run an anti-virus scan?вЂќ Fortunately, there are a number of free, relatively easy-to-use tools that can help on this front.