I totally hate Virut virus...
Sunday, 31. May 2009, 19:20:22
Yesterday my netbook got hit by this crap despite having two high end security products installed.
To my luck, it's not repairale/curable...
But that isn't really important as every security software can miss something.
What was the worst in this situation is that for some idiotic reason Virut managed to infect hidden recovery partition. The very thing that usually solves such problems. So each time i restore my system, Virut gets pre-installed with it. Isn't that wonderful?
I've spend 13 hours poking at the netbook in all possible ways with no joy.
I usually have no problem cleaning heavily infestated and infected systems, but this time it was just not meant to be restorable. Problem after problems, catastrophy after catastrophies and failures one after another. It's very hard because there is no optical drive (and i don't have any external USB one), then DrWeb LiveCD crapped out so i couldn't even make a bootable USB key, i can't reinstall Windows XP Home with my key because i need special ULPC version etc etc. In the end i spend like half a day talking to Acer support because they couldn't find my serial number (it was supposedly invalid). Then they found out i'm from Europe and that i contacted their US/Canada tech support.
They then refused to help me because it's not in their stupid policy to help someone even though they initially wasted loads of time with me. Instead they've sent me to European tech support. Or shall i say East European support. To my never ending luck, the East European webpage crapped out and refused to load anything. It was just loading forever and loaded nothing. It's so cool if your in a fuckin center of the Europe and they treat you like a freakin 3rd world country. It's just dissapointing.
Is my money worth any less than the one from Germans or those from France? We all have Euro...
And i probably payed even more for my Aspire One than someone from lets say Germany...
So bottom line, tommorow i'm taking netbook to a local Acer service center. If they just attempt to charge me for repair, i'll throw this damn thing in their face. I'm not gonna pay a cent because their system restoration feature sucks. And they were always like um hum when i was complaining why the hell they don't supply backup CD/DVD's or hell no a recovery USB key (Acer is not the only one doing this).
Today's Sunday was wasted, but at least i now have an idea how to deal with this next time it happens...
To my luck, it's not repairale/curable...
But that isn't really important as every security software can miss something.
What was the worst in this situation is that for some idiotic reason Virut managed to infect hidden recovery partition. The very thing that usually solves such problems. So each time i restore my system, Virut gets pre-installed with it. Isn't that wonderful?
I've spend 13 hours poking at the netbook in all possible ways with no joy.
I usually have no problem cleaning heavily infestated and infected systems, but this time it was just not meant to be restorable. Problem after problems, catastrophy after catastrophies and failures one after another. It's very hard because there is no optical drive (and i don't have any external USB one), then DrWeb LiveCD crapped out so i couldn't even make a bootable USB key, i can't reinstall Windows XP Home with my key because i need special ULPC version etc etc. In the end i spend like half a day talking to Acer support because they couldn't find my serial number (it was supposedly invalid). Then they found out i'm from Europe and that i contacted their US/Canada tech support.
They then refused to help me because it's not in their stupid policy to help someone even though they initially wasted loads of time with me. Instead they've sent me to European tech support. Or shall i say East European support. To my never ending luck, the East European webpage crapped out and refused to load anything. It was just loading forever and loaded nothing. It's so cool if your in a fuckin center of the Europe and they treat you like a freakin 3rd world country. It's just dissapointing.
Is my money worth any less than the one from Germans or those from France? We all have Euro...
And i probably payed even more for my Aspire One than someone from lets say Germany...
So bottom line, tommorow i'm taking netbook to a local Acer service center. If they just attempt to charge me for repair, i'll throw this damn thing in their face. I'm not gonna pay a cent because their system restoration feature sucks. And they were always like um hum when i was complaining why the hell they don't supply backup CD/DVD's or hell no a recovery USB key (Acer is not the only one doing this).
Today's Sunday was wasted, but at least i now have an idea how to deal with this next time it happens...
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 1. June 2009, 13:06
https://forums2.symantec.com/t5/Malicious-Code/W32-Virut-CF-Collateral-Damage/ba-p/388834
Virut sounds rather interesting !
Anonymous # 9. June 2009, 14:28
Because the Virut virus infects every executable and .scr file on your computer, it is nearly impossible to salvage anything. Your best bet is to load some form of XP setup (Acer's version of XP was crap anyway) and choose to format BOTH partitions SEVEN times. The reason why you format it seven times is because data can still be restored up to the sixth time. Once you have finished formatting, load XP on your main drive and copy over the Aspire One drivers that Acer provided you (copy the setup CD, load Alcohol 52%/Daemon Tools on your netbook, and mount the image).
Well, I hope that helped. I recommend getting ESET's NOD32 anti-virus, as it allows you to create as rescue CD that fixes files from a level where the virus can't affect it or you. The only problem with it is its load time on net books.
Anonymous # 24. July 2009, 16:41
Seven times? As.shole dooshbag. The problem with the net is that sometimes people actually believe the obviously dumbass crap they read here. There are a number of freely available virut cleaners. Try those before you format anything. And don't believe ANYONE who tells you to format your drive seven times.
Probably the best backup alternative for the future is Acronis, Ghost, or some other disk imaging. It should take you all of 5 minutes to get everything back to normal
RejZoR # 24. July 2009, 21:08