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    HD recovery Help

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by vistanoob18, Feb 10, 2009.

  1. vistanoob18

    vistanoob18 Notebook Guru

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    I was using my computer last night when I downloaded a virus by accident. My computer started going haywire and I didn't know what to do to fix it. I made the mistake of turning off (or maybe a good move) but I can no longer login to windows.

    Is there anyway to recover this drive so it can be used again with my OS and everything in tact? If not, please tell me there is some way to get the data off of it. I have a lot of really important documents on my computer that were not backed up that I need. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    I have a second HD that I'm installing my OS on. My thoughts were to get spyware software, virus software, and scan the disk from a usb connection to maybe get rid of the virus. Let me know what you're thinking and thank you for reading.
     
    vistanoob18, Feb 10, 2009
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  2. vistanoob18

    vistanoob18 Notebook Guru

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    By the way, I'm running windows vista on the computer. I had virus protection (Mcafee - yes spelled wrong) and ran spybot before shutting down the computer.

    The virus took away my ability to access control panel so I couldn't do a restore, it also disabled my winrar so I couldn't unpack any new virus programs. Obviously, now it doesn't even get past an error screen when booting up.
     
    vistanoob18, Feb 10, 2009
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  3. Alex

    Alex Super Moderator

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    Yes you are approaching the problem correctly
    Years ago when I had a computer repair business I had a computer called the “BugCatcher”
    It was just a normal computer loaded with the latest antivirus and anti spyware programs and updates , that I could put a infected computers hard drive in and scan and fix



    Alex
     
    Alex, Feb 10, 2009
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  4. vistanoob18

    vistanoob18 Notebook Guru

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    Alright thank you. I wasn't sure if that was the best option. If that were to fail, could I plug the HDD into my USB port and extract the important files and would there be risk to the HDD I'd be putting them on?
     
    vistanoob18, Feb 10, 2009
    #4