CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[stefuel]

I'll try to keep this as short as I can. My son's PC's HD became so infected that we could no longer use it. The latest virus shut down task manager so we couldn't shut down the application it was attached to. The virus would not allow me to install the latest anti-virus software. So I slid a new HD in the pc and moved over the power and ribbon cable and re-installed all his originald OS and software. The original HD is still physically in the PC. I want to hook it up so that the new anti-virus software can scan it and clean it up. However there is only two 40 pin ribbon connector slots and one is connected to the new HD and the other is connected to the DVD RW drive. There's only a 34 pin slot next. How can I do this so my wife can get some files off that sh wants? Thanks

PC Dummy

[till]

it seems as if your computer has only one ide slot left, which means you can connect two devices. i suggest you either use the plug from the dvd rw drive (and jumper the hd to be connected as "slave") or buy an ide to usb adapter which will allow you to treat the hd like an external usb hd.

EDIT
or you may look for a live-cd with an anti virus program, which would allow you to boot from the cd and perform a scan

[secstate]

If all you want to do is pull some data off (which is what I suggest) you have a couple of options. One already mentioned is to use a LiveCD distro such as Ubuntu. Install old drive back in computer. Boot off of CD in Ubuntu and when it boots off of the CD, copy data to another computer on your network, copy data to flash/usb drive, or burn to CD. This is free and Ubuntu is fairly user friendly. The other advantage of this is you don't risk infecting your new install. The other opition is to puchase an IDE/SATA to USB adapter which will allow you to plug an internal haddrive into any computer with a USB port (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002). You can then copy what files you need from your new Windows install. The adapter also comes with a power supply to power the drive.

I would NOT try to clean the old drive that is infected unless you really know what you are doing. I do this for a living (in a coprorate environment) and it can take hours and hours to properly clean up and you need to do a lot of testing to ensure you got everything. Most the time we just securely wipe (erase) the drive and reinstall after recoverying data.


To avoid this in the future or to simplfy your life. Look at creating a hard disk image of your new clean install. I use Acronis for this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200013&cm_re=acronis-_-32-200-013-_-Product) though there are free options too. This allows you to quick and easily restore an infected machine back to its clean state. You can also make periodic backups over time as well. Another option is to look at Microsoft Steadystate which prevents most peristent malware infections by returning the Windows install to it "virgin" state after the users logsoff. It is free and it was created by MS for internet cafes. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx .

[grogthegreat]

If you are able to burn a bootable CD than you could create an ERD Commander CD wich you can boot to. This will allow you complete access to everything where you can delete any and all infections while they aren't running. But as mentioned above you have to know what to look for and what is safe to delete.

[macgyver655]