Help?

[clocketpatch]

I think I've just found some sneaky bugger viruses on my machine. They're lurking in this file: C:\SWSETUP\HPGame\games which is full of stuff I DEFINTELY didn't download. Because I deleted my HP games ages back. And these long strings of numbers don't look very game like to me any way.

Thing is, my AVG didn't detect this. I was getting a bit suspicious when I got "No Threats Found" on multiple scans, because usually it at least picks up on internet cookies, right? Then I looked at it during a scan only to discover that it wasn't checking any files. Because it was stuck on THAT file.

So, now I'm stuck. how do I delete these things? They're slowing down my computer and making me nervous. I don't keep any kind of banking info on my computer, but I don't want to be a zombie spam bot either. And I *would* like to be able to check my credit card bill at some point without fear of these things yoinking my info.

I understand that the SWSETUP folder contains base software for the computer, so I really don't want to go removing things from there willy-nill and accidentally uninstall my operating system as a result.

Suggestions?

Comments

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Do you have windows install media? If so, what you want to do first is back up any documents you have. scan the hell out of them with something like avira (the free one...I've had issues with AVG.) When you're sure everything you want to keep is backed up (documents...don't save programs because those could be compromised), select "delete partition" from the install menu. it'll delete the partition. Then you want to create a new one and format it. If you really want to be safe, delete the partition and format it again. Or get ahold of a linux CD and zero the drive, then format it. But just deleting the partition and reformatting should do the trick.

Then you install windows. It's pretty self-explanatory from then on out. If it's XP, make damn sure you install at least SP2 (which you can download ahead of time and burn to cd) before connecting to a network.

[clocketpatch]

I've got the back-up disks if that's what you mean. I'm going to bring the clunker down to the school on Friday to see if anyone there can guide me through this. Or tell me if I'm just freaking out over nothing, which is also possible. Until then I'll be having fun making back-up copies of everything. Damn, I really need to bite the bullet and buy an external hard drive...