Help me help a friend with virus problems...

[Someone]

At first this may seem to be a totally unrelated topic for this forum in general. But let me relay to you the situation. A friend of mine has a few discs that upon them are stored translated manga of a topic suited to this forum (*wink wink, nudge nudge*). However, also stored upon these discs is somesort of virus or worm. It may already be on his computer, but he has tried several online virus scanners and such with no help.

Folks here are so helpful with the odd technical question when they arise, I figured I'd ask for him. Anyone have any ideas?

[greygoose]

First, what type of behavior are you seeing that indicates a virus or worm is present?

Second, which online scanners did he use? I've had decent luck with Trend Micro's House Call.

In case it is just adware, or spyware, I would also install and run Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware, both of which are free.

[Someone]

Ok, here's what I've gotten out of him so far...

Originally Posted by greygoose

First, what type of behavior are you seeing that indicates a virus or worm is present?

He says:
that im not sure of, the cds just hold information
but when the information is put onto my hdd, then it doesnt seem long before my hdd stops working right
So I say:
What does the hdd do? Freeze up?
Then he says:
first it starts running slow, then some programs start messing up, and i know that my system folder was deleted

Originally Posted by greygoose

Second, which online scanners did he use? I've had decent luck with Trend Micro's House Call.

In case it is just adware, or spyware, I would also install and run Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware, both of which are free.

He said:
i have used panda, housecall and one other that i know of
i have used everything on those

Anyways, that what he says so far. Any help? I will be here for a little while longer to try and answer more questions.

Thanks!

[greygoose]

Originally Posted by Someone

Then he says:
first it starts running slow, then some programs start messing up, and i know that my system folder was deleted

If his system folder was really deleted, then he's looking at a new install.

[Someone]

Yes, that's true. Luckily for him, he was trying these discs out on a seperate computer/hdd. Everytime he tries to access the discs, the same things happens.

[greygoose]

If he's going to try these disks again on a different machine, make sure he has an up-to-date virus scanner running in real time and checking all file types, BEFORE he inserts the disks.

A good program should catch things as he's transferring the files form the disk to the hard drive.

[Someone]

He has tries that and he says "i have tried everything that i know of even scanning the file before i use it"

[greygoose]

If he's scanned the CD's with multiple online or up-to-date virus scanners, a trojan scanner and a spyware scanner, I would find it highly unlikely that the cds are infected with anything. Something else has to be the problem.

[Someone]

Originally Posted by greygoose

If he's scanned the CD's with multiple online or up-to-date virus scanners, a trojan scanner and a spyware scanner, I would find it highly unlikely that the cds are infected with anything. Something else has to be the problem.

That's what it's beginning to seem like to me, but what could it be? If it is a virus of some kind, why don't the scanners pick anything up? And if it were just corrupted files, why would the system folder delete? Quite the conundrum. Has anyone heard of anything like this?

[greygoose]

The most simple answer is that it's user error. He mistakenly made the wrong click somewhere.

Hardware problems come to mind as well, but I've never heard of a drive problem deleting just the system file.

Personally, I would chalk this up as just one of those things and would do a complete fdisk and reinstall on that machine, and just be done with it.