Please help - I think I have a virus!

zuzuspetals

grumpycrab wrote: »

Any idea what triggered the problem? Dodgy download, email link?

I'm not sure what is was. I shall have to be more careful in future!

closed

moneymaker, gloating at other peoples misfortune is not a particularly pleasant trait.

However op, having a macrium reflect (disk image, not clone) backup to a portable drive solves all problems when things go wrong.

Robisere

You probably have Malwarebytes Free, which is good up to a point. I have Malwarebytes Pro (paid for, worth it!) and I thoroughly recommend it. It does not conflict with any other Antivirus and it runs a Threat Scan every day. The database of "Nasties" is continually updated. This is my procedure for dealing with an infection, after a particularly bad one 28 months ago I have no problems now.

When the infection hit my PC, I was running AVG 2012. I now run Bitdefender Total Security and upgrade when due.

To kill the infection, I downloaded Malwarebytes Pro, Adware Cleaner and Hitman Pro. I first scanned with MWB Pro and followed the instructions. After Restart and MWB had killed some malware, I used Adware Cleaner and followed those instructions. After another Restart and more dead nasties, I used Hitman Pro and followed the same procedure, following final instructions on Restart.

Then I switched off the PC, had a coffee and a read for a while before restarting and backing up my system using Macrium Free. Now I back up every week, or more frequently if I have been downloading or doing lots.

I learned a lesson: use MWB Pro and a really good Security programme such as Bitdefender, and backup, backup, backup.