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AV Users cleansing computers - You are being ILLOGICAL
Hi all
I read over and over again in this Forum that NO AV product is ever 100% effective - although one should of course use protection to make it much harder for your computer to get infected.
However people then conveniently forget THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN -- you can't ensure either that a Virus will be 100% removed using standard tools either - since the AV software can't gurantee 100% protection why should notification of 100% removal be any better either.
IMO if you are unlucky enough to have a computer infection the ONLY PROPER and SAFE way to get rid of it is as follows.
1) Re-initialise ALL HDD's on that machine -- this means writing X'00's (binary zero) on EVERY SECTOR at least 4 times including SECTOR 0 and the Master Boot Record (MBR).
2) Re-install your OS and applications from a KNOWN CLEAN SOURCE.
IMO No other method can be guaranteed as 100% safe.
With decent imaging software etc your re-installation shouldn't take too long anyway. Re initialising the disks is probably the lengthiest part of the process.
Note - if you restore a safe image only the data part of the disk is restored -- it's not a sector by sector restore -- that's why programs like acronis etc are FAST. Thats also why I recommend initialising the WHOLE DISK before restoring.
Here is a link to some secure erase programs
Free Secure File / Disk Deletion Tools: Destructively delete or wipe data in files / hard disks (thefreecountry.com)
Note I am NOT saying DON'T use AV software -- what I am saying is that if you get a computer infection then the only 100% way to clean it is to secure erase everything and re-install from a SAFE copy.
I certainly would NEVER trust a computer again which had been infected and "cleansed" unless it was done following my method above.
Cheers
jimbo