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For the first time in my life, I have downloaded a virus. Help!

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by Innomine, Mar 13, 2015.

  1. Innomine

    Innomine Alchemist ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Ok. So I downloaded something, opened it without looking. And about 5 seconds later I knew something was wrong. Had no idea what to do, but panicked and instantly switched my computer off.

    Started it back up, instantly opened chrome and downloaded AVG then installed it.

    After I had the installer running, i think the virus finished installing itself. Now, I couldn't open many other programs. Chrome has been fucked with, removing my bookmarks and loads up with the homepage set to surfvox.com. (don't click this link, srsly.)

    Chrome still works tho, so I googled malwarebytes, another program I knew from memory. Google has fucked up stuff injected into it, like before the search results. Links to sites which will infect me further I'm sure.

    Scrolled past those, found the proper website, downloaded the file. But the computer won't open it.

    AVG installed fine though, I have little technical knowledge, but since I installed it while the virus itself was installing, somehow it's got around the exceptions?

    Either way, ran it, did a full computer scan, first three things it picked up were from game files i Have on my computer. I had these come up from before I downloaded the virus, so those are ok I think.

    Two others were found. One is called "Found MalSign.Generic.EC3"
    The other is a corrupted exe file. It secured both of these files.

    Despite what AVG has done, stuff is still injected into google, and some apps just won't open. (i.e., installer of malware bytes)

    What do I do now? I don't think I have anything on this SSD that I can't lose, is my best bet to just format it and re install windows? I haven't typed any password on this comp since it happened, what safeguards should I employ?

    I assume everything is compromised? After I finish this post, I'll shut it down and read suggestions from my laptop + phone.
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2015
  2. Newcomb

    Newcomb Minister of Magic

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    Hah, pretty funny. I feel like you should throw in a couple random symbols and stuff though to really sell the joke.
     
  3. Feoffic

    Feoffic Alchemist DLP Supporter

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    I've always found it easier to reformat and re-install windows.
     
  4. Innomine

    Innomine Alchemist ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Can do. Umm, few questions then. I have two hard drives. One an SSD for games + a 2TB (Q drive) with all my large files on it.

    I assume my normal hard drive is fine, and I only have to reformat my C drive?

    Can I copy any files that I want to save from my C drive to my Q drive without infecting it?

    I have pretty much 0 knowledge about virus's.
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2015
  5. Newcomb

    Newcomb Minister of Magic

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    Sorry, tasteless joke. I just used an app to scramble your text. Then you'd think the virus was playing tricks on you.

    Carry on.
     
  6. Sacro

    Sacro Groundskeeper

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    You should get rid of every .exe. If the virus infected any files, it's probably those (but some do infect other files, like .dll's). If you really want to be sure, you can create a topic in the Bleeping Computer malware removal subforum - just make sure to read the guide before posting.
     
  7. Innomine

    Innomine Alchemist ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I have no exe's or .dll's to copy, so thats fine.

    Does this mean I should get rid of all the exe's on my Q drive? Nothing there that's irreplaceable.
     
  8. Sacro

    Sacro Groundskeeper

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    It would be the safe way of doing it, since you don't know if the virus infects .exe files, and I don't think anyone here knows how to analyze a FRST logfile to tell you if anything is infected.
     
  9. Ankan

    Ankan Professor

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    Well i am not very knowledgeable but i spoke with a friend of mine and he said something about rootkits, use killswitch and analyze it. Then submit to some comodo software and whitelist files and then analyze with it the unknown files until you have it all cleared out...

    As i previously mentioned im not really good with this so i spoke with a pal quickly and I dont remember all that he said...
     
  10. Innomine

    Innomine Alchemist ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I've just formatted and reinstalled. Seemed the easiest way to go about it, been meaning to do it for a while anyway.
     
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