My son has what seems like a very nasty virus, although he has AVG & spybot installed and up to date, so bad in-fact his ISP has suspended him until it is removed they tell him he is sending lots of spam from it. (He has two teenage daughters)! He has brought it to me to format but requested I save his files first, my quandary is, if I burn the files to DVD, what precaution should I take before reinstalling them on his PC, without re-infecting it? He runs XP pro Can you please help Regards Arthur

Hello Arthur, Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 5:18:39 AM, you wrote: OT> He has brought it to me to format but requested I save his files OT> first, my quandary is, if I burn the files to DVD, what precaution OT> should I take before reinstalling them on his PC, without OT> re-infecting it? Before even thinking of transferring files back to the newly formatted system get it fully up to date and install AV software. It's probably been a case of not keeping up with Windows Updates that's let this one in so when returned make sure he knows to do these whenever the system tells him they are ready to install. -- Best regards, Barry mailto:barry@yobunny.co.uk MicroSoft Free Zone running Ubuntu 9.04 'Jaunty'

Many thanks for the advice Barry, I will pass this info on to him, But my main worry is transferring the nasty. to the clean PC, after the format, I have little idea were it could be hiding. I'm not even game to scan the DVD holding all his data on my Pc in case I get infected too. Regards Arthur 2009/8/19 Old Tyke_FH <oldtyke.fh@gmail.com> > My son has what seems like a very nasty virus, although he has AVG & > spybot installed > and up to date, so bad in-fact his ISP has suspended him until it is > removed they tell him > he is sending lots of spam from it. (He has two teenage daughters)! > > He has brought it to me to format but requested I save his files first, my > quandary is, if I burn > the files to DVD, what precaution should I take before reinstalling them on > his PC, without > re-infecting it? > He runs XP pro > > Can you please help > Regards Arthur >

Hello Old, Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 1:51:57 PM, you wrote: OT> I will pass this info on to him, But my main worry is transferring OT> the nasty. to the clean PC, after the format, I have little idea OT> were it could be hiding. That's why it's necessary to have a fully patched and protected system before anything is copied back - any files that may have been infected will be blocked by the AV program. FWIW it's rare for data files ( documents and pictures ) to be attacked this way and more likely that downloaded programs will be the ones affected if anything so the thing to do is only save data to the DVD, not programs / installers etc. OT> I'm not even game to scan the DVD holding all his data on my Pc in OT> case I get infected too. Know what you mean, though if you are fully patched and up to date with your AV then you should be OK. -- Best regards, Barry mailto:barry@yobunny.co.uk MicroSoft Free Zone running Ubuntu 9.04 'Jaunty'