Virus

I have recently had a new Hard Drive installed and clicking on the AVG free edition i found in the Virus Vault 2 Viruses which were stated to have been found 2 weeks before i had the new hard drive,is it possible the virus was in another part of the computer or can they only be found in the Hard Drive,would i be wrong in thinking that perhaps it was not a new hard drive they installed.
Thank You

 

I have AVG, and it finds lots of viruses. But I think there are differant types. They range from truly evil viruses that do serious damage, to mild ones that report back on your activity to their base unit. A lot of software does this, including Microsoft. They say they are offering you a service of information on updates etc - I say they are spying on you.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the viruses on your machine - most come in the mild category. When your Hard Drive was fitted (I assume not by you) they also had to install drivers and other software, which nowadays is usually picked up from the internet. The items may have been picked up then. I am sure it was a new drive, and viruses can generally only be found on the hard drive.

You can often find out what a virus does, by putting its name, which AVG will tell you, into Google and searching. There are virus info databases out there.

 

Thanks for that Peter,there is a worm a virus and a Trojan Horse so i will look them up on Google.

 

Eastex, Worms and Trojan Horses are types of viruse. And its worth Googling them to learn a bit more about the subject. But some virus checkers (including AVG I think) will give you the specific identity of a your virus - such as Meldan3257 (made up name). And you can Google the specific name.

 

please if your giving advice then please make sure you know what your talking about...no offence mate but your wrong.

Viruses can be found not only on the harddrive but also in your physical memory and your bois.

Any sort of virus that is found on a computer should not be taken lightly, trojans can come in a form of virus or spwyware. viruses do not report back to base, information.

A virus is there for a reason, either too cause some sort of corruption or destroy your computer.

You say your AVG found viruses in your new hdd??

was the old hdd dead??? was this new harddrive installed with a fresh copy of windows and you installed avg and ran it?

if this is the case of the latter, then you may want your bois and memory checked out.

please let me know what happens.

 

PC Medic, The point I was trying to make was that virus checkers such as AVG pick up malware. This includes true viruses, trojans, keyboard loggers etc, it also detects spyware and adware, which AVG calls PUPS (Potentially Unwanted Programs). Some of these, such as keyboard loggers and spyware, may report back to base. Although technically only some of this group are viruses, many use that as a generic term for any malware. I do agree that all should be taken seriously, but they differ in the threat that they pose. That's why I suggested that eastex should Google the names to see exactly what he had picked up.

I appreciate that viruses can be stored in any non-volatile memory, which is why I used the word 'generally', but I suspect that the vast majority of viruses people find are stored on their hard disk.

[ 16. May 2007, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: PeterS ]

 

Eastex - PC Medic is absolutely right, there are other odd places that a virus can hide, but I didn't want to make my answer too complicated.

As I see it. AVG has succesfully detected and dealt with your virus. On that basis I don't think you should worry too much, although again PC Medic is right to say that every virus should be taken seriously. If your virus keeps coming back, inspite of the fact that AVG keeps saying it has dealt with it, then it is likely that it is lodged in the bios or some other inaccessable area, and is continuing to infect your machine. And I am sure PV Medic will be able to help you. But if it doesn't come back, I think you can assume that it has been sorted and that you don't have a problem.

 

I complained to the shop who made it and they insisted it could not happen but i looked in the AVG event history page and there were the viruses which had been detected but this was before i took over the P.C,To cut a long story short somebody in the shop had used my P.C to check for viruses for another party and had been passed on to me,anyway they have now given me a new one and everything is now ok so thanks to everybody who tried to help.

 

Well identified eastex. Having detected and dealt with the viruses, your hard disk was probably OK - but it was exceedingly naughty of them to do this and then pass on the disk to you as a new one.

 

Apparently the viruses were on a D Drive and i only have a C Drive so they had no option but to renew it for me,alls well that ends well.

 

great news......