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Delete all infected files?

evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Delete all infected files?

Having run the antivirus software, it has come up with a beautiful list of infected files, which have been placed into quarantine. Great. What do I do with them? I can't just leave them there. However, there are viruses in quite a few program files including win updates and winmedia player....don't know if it would be worth putting down the file names here.
Anyhow, much as I would like to delete every virus, common sense is telling me that deleting files linked to programs might not make them work. What is the solution? I don't want to leave them there, corrupting the system but at the same time deleting them might make the programs not work properly.
What do you usually do and why?   Smiley
10 REPLIES 10
evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

'a complete rebuild' what do you mean? formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows?
Is there any quick fix solution? Is leaving the files in quarantine a viable solution?
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

I must admit that my gut feeling if there were a number of files infected would be to start from "format c:"! It is the safe option.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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hulls
Grafter
Posts: 1,699
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

I thought the point of putting files in quarantine was so the system didn't access them.  So if the programmes run ok with the files quarantined, then they should run with the files deleted, shouldn't they, or am I being niaive?
John
holdtight
Grafter
Posts: 1,634
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

I have to agree a format and reinstall is the only way to now be sure you have a clean system
If you have had what sounds like several viruses that have integrated themselves within system files its would now be very hard and time consuming to try and find the good from the bad
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

If it was just a handful of files I would do as you ask and delete them - but then monitor the system closely and certainly run a firewall like ZoneAlarm which notifies you of any outgoing internet access (unlike the totally useless inbuilt Windows Firewall).
From what you have said it is rather more than a handful, including a number of operating system files. After a problem of that scale I'd be very, very worried that I hadn't managed to clean everything up properly.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

yeah formatting and reinstalling is not really an option for me, I use windows ME and I no longer have the original disks and Microsoft have kindly informed me that I need to upgrade, ie they ve stopped support for ME.
hulls (!), yeah i don't really understand the concept of quarantine. If it stops the computer from accessing the files, then it's as good as deleting them right? Unless there is a way of repairing the files of the virus and putting them back?
Is there some program which just deletes virus sequences as oppose to the whole infected file?
jelv
Seasoned Hero
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

If system files have been moved to the quarantine area and there were not backups of the files available it is likely that some functionality is going to be lost from your system.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

I posted the last one without reading what you'd said jelv. It was a long list but there are only 6 infected prog. files. Good point about the backup, I'll check. ty for the advice
jelv
Seasoned Hero
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

When you say only 6 infected program files you you mean just 6 infected exe files? If you do you also need to count in dll, ocx, drv, cpl and anything else that was in the Windows directory.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Delete all infected files?

good call jelv- they were all backup copies .exe file. It's definitely okay to delete those but my backup will be wrecked, right?