[Transience]

Yes go ahead and stop Kaspersky if it hasn't finished yet... no need to let it finish. It won't delete critical system files even if you tell it to, but no need to try either. Just don't let it delete anything when it prompts you, and then go on with the backing up/formatting.

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Since PC #1 was dead, I used (old) PC #2 to download files to my flash drive and then run them on PC #1. The scary thing is that Kaspersky flagged some of the files on the flash drive I had left in as being infected! This virus apparently will infect every file on your PC if you let it. I reformatted the flash drive. I'm assuming there are no hidden files that can be re-infected I can't see (e.g. recycler, autorun.inf) that need to be worried about?

I purchased a WD MyBook 1T external hard drive in order to run Acronis disk imaging software on it. Since that itself came with software, I've backed that up to the flash drive and removed the drive. I'm now backing up PC #1's data files to it, all in safe mode. It's painfully slow. I'm also backing up the iTunes to CDs via the automated backup. I copied Outlook's PST file to preserve the email. I'm trying to be sure no application files are copied over. After reformatting PC #1 and reinstalling the software, when all is said and done, I will need to one more time do a Kaspersky check on the external hard drive to be sure I don't reinfect. After restoring the PC I'll download Acronis and take a disk image, and then keep doing that.

Important question: Each time anyone connects a USB device to a PC ii invokes an autorun.inf procedure. A sneaky virus would easily modify this file to immediately infect the USB device such that when you attach it to any other PC it infects that one as well. How do you prevent this? Is there anything else I should be aware of?

[jsmitchell]

Since PC #1 was dead, I used (old) PC #2 to download files to my flash drive and then run them on PC #1. The scary thing is that Kaspersky flagged some of the files on the flash drive I had left in as being infected! This virus apparently will infect every file on your PC if you let it. I reformatted the flash drive. I'm assuming there are no hidden files that can be re-infected I can't see (e.g. recycler, autorun.inf) that need to be worried about?

I purchased a WD MyBook 1T external hard drive in order to run Acronis disk imaging software on it. Since that itself came with software, I've backed that up to the flash drive and removed the drive. I'm now backing up PC #1's data files to it, all in safe mode. It's painfully slow. I'm also backing up the iTunes to CDs via the automated backup. I copied Outlook's PST file to preserve the email. I'm trying to be sure no application files are copied over. After reformatting PC #1 and reinstalling the software, when all is said and done, I will need to one more time do a Kaspersky check on the external hard drive to be sure I don't reinfect. After restoring the PC I'll download Acronis and take a disk image, and then keep doing that.

Important question: Each time anyone connects a USB device to a PC ii invokes an autorun.inf procedure. A sneaky virus would easily modify this file to immediately infect the USB device such that when you attach it to any other PC it infects that one as well. How do you prevent this? Is there anything else I should be aware of?

[Transience]

I'm assuming there are no hidden files that can be re-infected I can't see (e.g. recycler, autorun.inf) that need to be worried about?

If you formatted the flash drive then no there's nothing to worry about.

After reformatting PC #1 and reinstalling the software, when all is said and done, I will need to one more time do a Kaspersky check on the external hard drive to be sure I don't reinfect

That's exactly the way to go about it, you should just take over my job here . Once you've reformatted I'll give you a couple tools you can use to scan the drive to make sure that you won't reinfect your fresh install.

A sneaky virus would easily modify this file to immediately infect the USB device such that when you attach it to any other PC it infects that one as well. How do you prevent this?

Problems like these are becoming more and more common unfortunately, there are a couple registry keys that you can use to turn off most autorun functions, if you like I can write up a registry script for you that will make these changes once you've reinstalled. The other tool we use is called Flash Disinfector, which will help to protect your drives from future infection using a specially configured autorun.inf file. Just run it with your removable storage plugged in and it'll be immunized against any autorun attacks.

Cheers,
Dave

[Transience]

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