Okay, long post incoming...
In the last week, during foolish torrent searches on sites I pretty much know I shouldn't have been on, I have contracted some viruses / malware; specifically win32:malware-gen which avast! showed up after I did some virus checks and got rid of a couple. EIther way I think these things have managed to do some damage and i've been careful what i've done / visited / inputed into computer since then. EG steam folder was corrupted, admin rights have been suss. etc.
SO tonight I decided to reformat windows, wipe everything and start afresh (computer was brand new 2 weeks ago, so not losing anything essential, just gotta reinstall games). However I am a complete rookie in these things, and discovered from the first screen at 'install windows' that my keyboard (a dual usb corsair vengeance) and mouse don't work.... so naturally I was unable to progress past that point.
I am on here looking to find out, is reformatting my computer, in your hopefully wiser opinions, the only option I have? I have checked and erased all the viruses I could find with Avast! and Malwarebytes and SpyBot - but I'm still very suss regarding admin rights and some of the corrupted files, especially in steam as well as tempuser files.
After I set the computer the way I wanted I backed up everything essential onto my WD Passport 500gb external HDD - however I have no idea how to restore computer from those files, and safely wipe out everything bad that potentially still exists on this computer in its current state. So is this a viable option? and how does one go about restoring / reformatting the computer from the files stored on the WD external HDD? I backed everything up using the software the external HDD came with from WD.
The guys that built this computer did a professional job, with all the essential system files on a 256gb Samsung SSD - is it possible there is a way I can restore the computer from some way within that SSD? I could provide details of what's on there, if I was told what to look for.
I'm just brainstorming here guys - I want to ensure all the nasties are off this computer before I get back into gaming or inputting any sensitive data anywhere on the computer. I made an error and definitely won't be repeating it, i'll save the suss sites for my old laptop from this point on - and should have anyway.
So sorry about the book - but i'm a massive noob in these things, and just need some advice.
Thanks,
SJM.
In the last week, during foolish torrent searches on sites I pretty much know I shouldn't have been on, I have contracted some viruses / malware; specifically win32:malware-gen which avast! showed up after I did some virus checks and got rid of a couple. EIther way I think these things have managed to do some damage and i've been careful what i've done / visited / inputed into computer since then. EG steam folder was corrupted, admin rights have been suss. etc.
SO tonight I decided to reformat windows, wipe everything and start afresh (computer was brand new 2 weeks ago, so not losing anything essential, just gotta reinstall games). However I am a complete rookie in these things, and discovered from the first screen at 'install windows' that my keyboard (a dual usb corsair vengeance) and mouse don't work.... so naturally I was unable to progress past that point.
I am on here looking to find out, is reformatting my computer, in your hopefully wiser opinions, the only option I have? I have checked and erased all the viruses I could find with Avast! and Malwarebytes and SpyBot - but I'm still very suss regarding admin rights and some of the corrupted files, especially in steam as well as tempuser files.
After I set the computer the way I wanted I backed up everything essential onto my WD Passport 500gb external HDD - however I have no idea how to restore computer from those files, and safely wipe out everything bad that potentially still exists on this computer in its current state. So is this a viable option? and how does one go about restoring / reformatting the computer from the files stored on the WD external HDD? I backed everything up using the software the external HDD came with from WD.
The guys that built this computer did a professional job, with all the essential system files on a 256gb Samsung SSD - is it possible there is a way I can restore the computer from some way within that SSD? I could provide details of what's on there, if I was told what to look for.
I'm just brainstorming here guys - I want to ensure all the nasties are off this computer before I get back into gaming or inputting any sensitive data anywhere on the computer. I made an error and definitely won't be repeating it, i'll save the suss sites for my old laptop from this point on - and should have anyway.
So sorry about the book - but i'm a massive noob in these things, and just need some advice.
Thanks,
SJM.
(System).
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