Bootable Virus Check?

Hi,

Been asked to look at a friends PC and it has a virus that reboots it when you get to windows no matter which state you boot it in. I have tried all the safe modes and also tried repairing it using the windows 2000 disc.

She has just bought Norton Internet Security: http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=is&pvid=nis2006

Can I create a bootable CD to clean these viruses off long enough to get this installed and updated?

Regards

Adam

 

Short answer is no. Creating a bootable CD, with any AV app that will run from it, will not clean any virus found on the computer, that's even if it is able to read the file system, which is NTFS.

If you can not boot to Safe Mode, and a repair install has failed, you are headed for a clean install of the OS.

What, if any, error messeges are there?

 

Hi,

Thanks for the answer. We do not get anything, it just about gets into windows and then restarts.

I am also think about slaving the drive in another PC, but finding all the start up components could be a pain.

I found this on the net any use?

http://www.claymania.com/f-prot.html

 

I've played with Fprot for DOS and making NTFS R/W Bootable CDs. Just doesn't get it done. Won't scan inside of archives, and misses most of the nastier infections.

Slaving the HD and scanning it for infections, is your best option; or doing a parallel install of windows. This way the infected OS doesn't boot, and there is a decent chance that the offending virus can be removed and allow the original OS to boot.

The down side is it may not be a virus causing the problem, the OS has become so corrupted that it just won't boot.

 

Hi,

Found out that most New Versions of Norton have a boot option as well, although it didn't work this time.

So slaved the drive, pointed Avast in the direction of the slaved drive and found 91 trojan horses!

Some people!

 

Let Avast clean what it can, save the log if you can and post it as an attachment. Let's see if we can get the drive to a bootable condition.