I need some help with ways to delete viruses off my friend's computer

He lent it to a friend over a couple month time period and it came back with all sorts of problems. He is trying to minimize the costs for fixing it, and we were just wondering what we could possible do to fix it. When booting up the program , it says there are Critical System errors, trojon/spyware installed, and 5593 viruses currently on the computer. We tried ccleaner, but it didnt really work, so we need some suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

5593! - Reinstall Windows. You're fried.

 

In addition to that, tell your friend to NEVER EVER let this person hold their computer again and I must say that's quite possibly the sickest computer I have ever heard of.

 

and ask your friend how many dodgy porn sites did he visit

 

Do a complete (not quick) format when before you install Windows (you have the option after you boot the CD with it in) and go ahead. :]

 

Delete all partitions.
Reinstall.

 

what is the difference between quick format and complete format?

 

A quick format just deletes the MFT partition table, it doesn't actually wipe the drive.

It probably wasn't 5000 viruses, probably spyware/adware mostly. And 5k is nothing. the worst machine I ever worked on had over 25,000 instances of viruses, spyware and the like. And that was just with one scanning program. (always use at least 3)

 

A full format will take care of every porno-virus bit on that machine. Yes, that is probably how it happened...but lets not talk much about that at all.

Either that or he clicked on "click here for a free virus scan" add somewhere...

 

"I say nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

 

Actually I saw on some show that Music downloading services/websites contain more spyware and junk than adult website do now. So your friend's friend must like music...or porn.....or both...

 

The illegal ones, sure. Gotta target what people are after.

 

Illegal porn, or music? I don't think it's easy to get a virus from music. If you use torrents, your safe.

 

Guys, let's keep this discussion clean. I don't want anything about illegal downloading of music, porn or anything, alright? If there are any more posts on that, I'm locking the thread. It's not germane to the topic.

 

What is the difference between quick and complete format in this case ? They are still nothing but disk sectors so anything left there is "free sector" according to the OS is still not harmful.

complete format is in the past only used to locate and mark bad sectors which I am not sure if newer HD with all those SMART things ever require anymore.

 

I always do a quick format - no problems at all.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Get a free antivirus program such as AVAST, update it and throughly scan the system. It'll take a while to do. Then use CCleaner afterwards, go control panel and delete unknown programs, go program files and delete unknown directories. Even system restore won't delete those rouge programs. Don't let your "friend" run as an administrator. Let him use it under guest so he can't install programs and restricts the use. If all things fail, reinstall everything and find a new friend!

 

Microsoft's explanation.