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Thread ID: 78093 2007-04-02 20:52:00 Removing ANTICMOS.A virus Tony (4941) Press F1
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537851 2007-04-02 20:52:00 Does anyone know of a safe way to remove this virus? I found it yesterday when doing some work on a friend's computer.

I have seen some references to using FDISK /mbr and also using FIXMBR from the recovery console, but there is also a MS KB article that advises against that approach.

Some of the Anti-virus websites (e.g. Symantec) talk about using a rescue disk. Unfortunately we don't have one. We also don't have any commercial anti-virus software (at present) - we are hoping to rely on AVG.

It seems like the risk of damage from ANTICMOS.A is quite small, but still...
Tony (4941)
537852 2007-04-02 21:21:00 Try the free online virus scanner called House Call. It is pretty good. Has fixed problems for me.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Trevor :)
Trev (427)
537853 2007-04-02 21:23:00 Did you try just running the AV on it?

If it needs to be removed without the O/S loaded, I'd take the drive out and hook it up to another PC and then run your AV.
pctek (84)
537854 2007-04-02 21:51:00 Did you try just running the AV on it?It was AVG that first picked it up, but didn't give an option to remove it (unless I am missing something). Tony (4941)
537855 2007-04-02 21:54:00 Try the free online virus scanner called House Call.Thanks Trevor, I'll give that a go when I'm next at my friend's place - she wouldn't be confident to try it by herself. Tony (4941)
537856 2007-04-02 22:05:00 I would still do the fdisk /mbr thing, as stated on the Symantec site .

And make a system floppy and write protect it .

Just going to sites, to do a scan, you maybe there all year trying to remove it .

MS may say not to do the above, but theyre not exactly AV experts .

Does AVG let u make a bootable disk, like what Symantec can do?
Speedy Gonzales (78)
537857 2007-04-03 21:10:00 I would never trust a compromised machine for online banking or shopping again once I knew it had been compromised. A full OS reinstall or a thorough integrity check from a different operating system (e.g. a live CD with the hashes of all system applications) would be the only way I would clear it for secure use. Call me paranoid but in a world where most computers have spyware installed it isn't smart to take risks. TGoddard (7263)
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