A Lesson to be learned

Hi People

How are you doing?

Possibly better than several recent clients of mine.

They received large bills for repairs. What sort of repairs, you might ask. You must realise that this is a computer oriented blog, so it has to be for computers.

It wasn't for hardware, but for the software/operating system side of things.

You see, they had the misfortune to pick up some bits of malware and in some cases they hadn't updated their operating system with the latest patches. Although an anti-virus (in some cases internet security packages were present, they were out of license or insufficiently prepared for the nasties) and anti-spyware packages were present, it appears (because they were free) that the software wasn't updated and used to scan the system regularly.

What happened? The first pieces of malware arrive unnoticed and these installed and brought down other pieces of malware. Eventually some nasty rogue anti-malware program were installed and that's when we were called in. Now the seriousness of this situation, is compounded by the fact that several people had conducted financial transactions on these systems, leaving them open to account and card abuse.

On receiving the systems, firstly (on client instructions) we recovered their data (essential as malware can cripple the system) Then, we attempted to remove the nasties using several techniques, which were partially successful (we got the system up and running), but the malware had corrupted the registry, causing the operating system to boot and then put a notice that the services.exe had encountered an error and the system would close after 1 minute.

Solution, repair the operating system, not a word of it. The system disk bypassed the repair option and proceeded to the installation option. Secondary option was to put another copy of the operating system on the hard drive alongside the damaged one, then add all the drivers, programs and re-link the documents, emails etc., this was the approach we made in the end.  Advantages are that the operating system is fresh (no infection and please make sure you have an internet security package installed in the new install, together with at least two antispyware packages - free if necessary- fully updated), data can be copied across to the new installation, and (if possible) the original installation, may be available if something has been overlooked - this is not advisable as system reinfection can occur.  All in all, a process which can take 4-5 hours work, with the engineer present most of the time (hence the large bills).

Some people considered a replacement machine, but whilst this reduced the amount owed, it was still a substantial sum. Now there are several ways to prepare for something like this.

Firstly, backup your data REGULARLY.  Secondly once your system is up and running satisfactorily and you are sure there are no viruses, malware or other faults present, then create an image of your hard drive to another hard drive, dvds, or blue-ray discs (if you are fortunate enough to have a blue-ray recorder).
Thirdly make sure you have the installation files/cds/dvds for all the programs you wish to use with your system (some may be acquired freely on line, but others are not available without paying for them).

Well, I hope you do not suffer the situations that these unfortunate people went through, but you have been warned.

See you next time, people

Regards
Prometheus1618

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Pre-empting software screwups

If you have had your PC get screwed up by a virus / driver / operating system / hardware fault, then you will no doubt be well aware of the situation of "What about all my data, the pictures from our holiday and the kids growing up" scenario.

No I am not going to say anything about backups, my point here is that it is usually the operating system / driver that screws up. Now for many of you, a single large (250GB or bigger) hard drive is usually what you have had the good fortune to have had put into your system when you purchased / made you PC. Right, now if you have to re-install windows or replace the hard drive for any reason, and then re-install windows, for heavens sake, reduce the size of the Windows partition to approx 80-120GB (80000MB - 120000MB) i.e less than 50% of the suggested value of MB that the installation process offers. This will leave you an unformatted partition which you can use to put your data (and emails) on (if you dont know how to do this or need help, again mail me at service@gds888.com).

Once you have finished putting the Windows on, your programs again can be put on the Windows partition. Now using computer management, create the second partition for DATA only (no program installations here, again if you don't know how to do this email me at service@gds888.com). When you have done this, the 'My computer' will reveal two hard drives present. One is used for Windows and program installations, the other will be used for 'My documents' and emails. WARNING DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN THIS PARTITION / DRIVE UNTIL YOU HAVE MOVED YOUR MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER.

To move the 'My documents' folder to the new partition ('hard drive' in My computer)in XP, simply click on 'start', locate 'My documents', right click on this and select 'properties' from the menu. Click on the 'Move' button under the 'Target folder location' section.
This opens a 'Select a destination' window, locate the second drive (without windows on it) and click 'Apply' then wait. Click 'OK' when finished and now your 'My documents' folder is on the second drive/partition. I go into much more detail in my forthcoming book on Windows installs.

So that being done, now for the emails (Outlook Express/Outlook). If you are putting your email back after backing up /recovering it from a previous install. Make sure that you are not connected to the internet/accessing emails (the idea is here you want to avoid setting up your email account, then finding that some recent emails have come down before you have had a chance to put the backed up / recovered email data in place and set up the storage folder).

Outlook versions allow you to import files of various types, and if you have used this option the usual format is as a .pst file. Simply use the import option to put the emails/folders back.

Outlook Express versions do not have an Outlook Express to Outlook Express transfer only an 'upgrade' option to Outlook. To get the folders for the previous Outlook Express installaton, you require access to copy the 'Local Settings'/ 'Application Data' / 'Identities' folder. When you have this it can be placed back in the same place on the new installation OR you could be super smart and put it on the DATA partition and point Outlook Express to that partition (Please remember not to connect to your email before doing this as you will possibly overwrite the folder containing the newer emails or have two folders and have to switch between the two)

That's all for now people
Back soon


We now have a FREE SPYWARE REPORT available, yours to keep and share if you wish. Fill in your details below and get yours now

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First Name:

'For Exceptional Service on Computer Repair visit Green Dragon Solutions'