Recommended SW to clean a boot drive set up as a slave

Discussion in 'Malware Help - MG (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by jlapolla, Jul 5, 2007.

  1. jlapolla

    jlapolla Private E-2

    I recently had an infected HD that would not show the desktop, taskbar or Start menu button. Booted all the way to loading the wallpaper, but none of the above would show.

    When booted in Safe Mode, it would show the Safe Mode message top and bottom, but no desktop or Start button.

    I was able to Slave it on another PC and pull off files and stuff. (for my 14 year old neice, so it was ALL music and photos) :)

    Tried to run several Spyware tools, but they didn't seem to find much, or I couldn't figure out how to direct them to the F: drive.

    I ended up reloading windows XP. All is good. (I chose this option because nothing was critical, and I didn't want to waste your time on something I had an easy fix for)

    Just wondering if there are specific tools I should have tried, or, if cleaning was not possible it it wasn't the active drive.

    thanks,
    John
     
  2. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Some tools will automatically scan all hard disks and other tools will give you the option on which disks to scan. Scanning a drive that is a slave drive can sometimes help to remove some malware but often it will not find everything since the malware is not active (since the drive was not booted).

    It sounds like it was a case of a Virtumonde infection which can often cause problems like you described. Sometimes when you get no Desktop, you can bring up Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-ESC) and then run certain things manually from it to help debug and or clean the PC.
     
  3. jlapolla

    jlapolla Private E-2

    Thanks Chas, I'll try the Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-ESC) shortcut next time I get in a situation like that.
    John
     
  4. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    You're welcome. You should try it now just to be familiar with using it. Bring up Task Manager and click File and select New Task (Run...). Then enter any of the following black bold print items (just examples). The purple print explains what should happen.

    regedit - this should bring up the Windows Registry Editor
    explorer - this should open Windows Explorer
    iexplore - this should open Internet Explorer
    cmd - this should open a command prompt window

    The above are just a few examples and it also assumes that your environment path to programs has not been corrupted.
     
  5. jlapolla

    jlapolla Private E-2

    Hi Chas,

    I tried the (CTRL-ALT-ESC) and it does not bring up the Task Manager. (CTRL-ESC) brings up the Start Menu.

    Am I doing something wrong?

    thanks,
    John

    ps. I did go to Task Manager and tried the New Task and that worked great. Very handy tool.
     
  6. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Sorry about that. It is CTRL-SHIFT-ESC. I was thinking of CTRL-ALT-DEL which also works but on some systems (like Win 2K) you have to make another selection to get to Task Manager and in Win XP CTRL-ALT-DEL does bring up Task Manager but instead of being on the Processes tab you would be on the Applications tab, however it will still get you where you want to go. So you have two choices:

    CTRL-SHIFT-ESC
    CTRL-ALT-DEL
     
  7. jlapolla

    jlapolla Private E-2

    SWEET!

    (CTRL-SHIFT-ESC) worked like a trip to Paramus Park on a steamy summer day!

    Is there someplace I can find a list of most commands that can be used under New Task?
    thanks,
    John
     
  8. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    LOL!

    You can run anything you want from that box. The only possible restriction would be if you enter a file name that it cannot find. If it is not in your Windows environment path then you would have to enter the full path to the file name so that it can be found an run.
     

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