Trojan infection, partitions and system restore

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Arkanus

Arkanus

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Aug 8, 2010
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Hello. I was silly enough to install CamStudio in my Windows 7 system last night (I had no idea about its bad popularity for malware-related reasons) and my PC got infected with some virus the right moment it auto-installed a lot of random programs (WebProtector Plus and others) and plugins for browsers.

I did a system restore to leave my computer exactly how it was 1 week ago and then used Malwarebytes to clean any possible remains of malware. It found a bunch of PUBs related to WebProtector, so I removed them before proceeding to uninstall these unwanted programs, remove folders related to them, use Ccleaner and run NOD32 in both normal and safe mode.

Is system restore effective against trojans? My computer looks free from bad stuff after doing all this, but I don't feel 100% safe... so I'm considering formatting my hard drive.

I have 2 partitions: C:/ for Windows, and D:/ for work files and games. Should I format both partitions, or it would be safe enough to format just C:/ in case my system is still infected?
Would I still be able to run my Steam games (stored in D:/) after re-installing windows?

Thank you in advance.
 
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MarkW

MarkW

Judicious
Dec 7, 2009
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System Restore is very useful for something like what happened to you. That was a good move on your part to do that quickly.

Now that you have seen how fast your system can be infected, and how easily it can happen, please, go get yourself a good anti-virus program. A lot of people talk about free ones, but I like Trend Micro. I have to pay annually for it, but it would have stopped that problem last night before the problem happened. I also use Chrome as my browser. Chrome will often throw up an alert box if you are trying to go to a site that is known to have malware.

I think you got the problem resolved. I do not think you need to reformat. But get yourself protected properly, and then you will know for certain that you fixed the problem, or the new anti-virus software will find it. Either way, you have peace of mind.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
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Mar 16, 2013
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CamStudio is fine, if you get it from the source
http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/

From elsewhere....who knows.

System Restore just brings the system back to Day X. If the system was infected on X, it will still be infected after a Restore.
Unknown as to your C & D formatting issues. If something on D is infected....ten it may come back.

Steam games should run fine after reinstalling the OS on the C drive.
 
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thor220

thor220

Splendid
Dec 15, 2009
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Based on what you've done, your system is probably safe.

You could format your partitions but there's no guarantee that is 100% effective. Certain viruses can hide in firmware, bios, ect.

Just monitor your processes and services. If anything weird comes up, google it.
 
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Arkanus

Arkanus

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Aug 8, 2010
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Oh, I have NOD32 4 installed. It managed to stop part of the intrusion, but yeah... not the whole thing.

I use Firefox. This virus tried to install a WebProtector plugin for ALL my browsers (even IE) but it was inactive after doing the system restore, manual uninstall and such.
 
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