What do I do if my PC does get infected?

Firstly, if you had a good Anti-Virus (AV) software package installed, and it was completely up-to-date, then the chance of infection is extremely low, and you shouldn't need to read the rest of this Web page. If this is the case, then the AV software company's technical support facility might provide some help. Or the virus might have only just been created and you are amongst the first to receive it. However, if this doesn't apply, then read on.

If you think that your computer has been infected, it is important to shut the computer down as quickly as possible to minimise the damage, and get somebody who can help you to recover using the best recovery process to minimise the damage.

How do you prepare for the recovery of an infected computer?

To quickly remove a virus and recover a computer with minimal damage or impact, the following precautions should have already been followed.

• Have a good AV software package installed on the computer, and operational, and completely up-to-date.
• Have a current anti-virus Emergency disk (or disk set) or Recovery disk handy (if it is appropriate for your chosen anti-virus software).
• Have a current system Startup Disk handy (e.g. Windows System disk, Startup disk or Emergency Boot Disk).
• Have the setup and installation disk(s) handy for the computer's operating system (e.g. the Windows CD).
• Have the setup and installation disk(s) handy for all of the software that is installed on the computer, and the driver and setup disks for all of the peripherals (e.g. printer, modem, scanner, mouse, etc.).
• Have a recent backup of the data from the computer.

How do you recover an infected computer?

With the above materials handy, the recovery process might be straight-forward; but might require some amount of technical computer knowledge. Some of the steps that might be employed include the following.

• With the system shutdown, boot the computer from the AV Emergency disk(s) to locate and remove the virus (it might have infected hundreds of files). This step might take several hours to complete.
• Some viruses can be removed from a system using a disinfection utiilty tool that might be available from some AV software Web sites. If so, the tool needs to be downloaded from the Web to a clean PC and copied to a floppy disk for transfer to the infected PC. This process can take between two and eight hours (depending on the PC, the processor, the size of hard drive, the number of files on the hard drive, and the AV software tool).
• Once the virus is completely eradicated, boot the computer from the system's boot disk, and inspect the remaining files and directory structures.
• If the damage is absolutely minimal, the computer might restart, and might run the operating system from the hard drive.
• If the damage is not too great, the operating system might need to be patched from the installation disk(s).
• If the damage is significant, the operating system might need to be re-installed. This could include all application software and device drivers.
• If the damage is catastrophic, all of the software on the PC might need to be re-installed.
• Whatever damage has been done, some AV Web sites provide information on which files would have been corrupted, and how to recover the damaged files.

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