garmanma Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 I'm working on my daughter's friend's laptop. It's totally infected to the point that I'll probably just reload WindowsHer mother recently died and she has a ton of pictures she hopes to save. I put the drive in a USB enclosure and it shows up in my computer.I've already scanned the drive with several online scanners and supposedly nothing shows, but I know better. With the drive back in the laptop, The malware just takes over until it finally reaches the Desktop and then it's non-responsive, even in safemode.If I hook it back up to my computer, what are the chances of infecting my computer while downloading the .jepegs? Do viruses attach to pics.? Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blim Posted February 26, 2008 Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 No idea, but a guess.......I wonder if you could upload the photos to Photobucket and then retrieve them back?? If not, I'd be tempted to just print off the photos!Liz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 27, 2008 Report Share Posted February 27, 2008 I have been done that procedure for over two years on tons of drives and never have got infected. Viruses can't just run by themselves. They are just sitting their dormant on the drive. The only reason they run on her computer is because their are registry entries that make it happen. The only two ways I could think you could possibly get infected would be to double click an infected file, or possibly autorun. In theory, if the drive is plugged in and has autorun enabled, it could possibly run a dormant piece of malware that is autorun aware. Temporarily disable autorun on all of your drives before you plug it in.For what its worth, I don't even have anti-virus installed on my main workstation, the one I use to back up client hardrives, and have yet to get infected. One dumb thing I do, which may get me in trouble, is allowing infected machines on my internal lan. I suppose a network aware virus could cause havoc for me someday. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted February 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 (edited) That's what I figured. I went ahead and copied them the other day. Now I just have to wait for the restore disk. It supposedly has a recovery partition, but I couldn't get it to workMarkLiz, your idea wasn't a bad one but this girl had so many pictures I probably would have crashed Photobuckets server Edited February 28, 2008 by garmanma Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 as to the recovery partition, did you try "ctrl F11"(I am assuming you did). The timing can be tough. I have had systems that would not go into the revocery console at first. Usually if I kept using that key combination at different times during boot up it works. If nothing elase, just hold down the ctrl, then just start tapping the F11 key. With dells, you may get a keyboard error if you press it to many times. On some dells, wait until the dell copy write line apears, then try the combination.The ironic thing, I have a newer dell in my shop that I am not able to get to go into activate the recovery process. Like you, I am getting to the point to just do a manual install. If I do this, my client will lose some of the preloaded software that can be useful. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted February 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 Some tips and a work-aroundhttp://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 Since my machine was loaded with vista, I was able to use the option listed in this document. I have not fully went through with it(still need to backup), but it appeared like it was going to work. Did you find a work around that worked for you? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted February 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 I took a break from it yesterday, I was starting to lose my temper. I'll look at it more today when I get back from my daughter's houseMark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 I have been there :-) A good night of sleep can do wonders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted February 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 What an IDIOTYou're right, a good night sleep will do wonders. Like make you realize you're banging on the Alt key instead of the Ctrl key It's reloading now Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted February 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Quick question before I go rooting around Dell's site. The keyboard's messed up. The S and F key doesn't work and I want to use a regular USB mouse and keyboard. Is there a function key combination to use to disable the onboard ones? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 What an IDIOTYou're right, a good night sleep will do wonders. Like make you realize you're banging on the Alt key instead of the Ctrl key It's reloading nowI love it :-) Sometimes we make things so hard. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Quick question before I go rooting around Dell's site. The keyboard's messed up. The S and F key doesn't work and I want to use a regular USB mouse and keyboard. Is there a function key combination to use to disable the onboard ones?Not that I am aware of. Why do you need to disable it, just use the usb instead. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
garmanma Posted February 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 The touchpad was acting funky with both plugged in. I finally disabled it. What has happened is they allowed her 2 year old daughter to bang on the touchpad and keyboard. The mouse buttons are unresponsive 50% of the time. I'll give her the option of replacement or USB. Other than that no problems so far. Just get everything reloaded Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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