IE Hijack virus survived a full hard drive reformat

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

You answered your own question....

You connected to the internet without first having a firewall and antivirus
software loaded and running.

Yes, you can get infected within 5 seconds...

In your case, it was probably just a spam Messenger file, still caused by
the fact that you had no firewall and antivirus running (and I do not mean
the worthless firewall that comes with Windows SP2).

Unless you had a boot sector virus, there is no way that it could have
survived a destruct format.

Bobby



"Cassius" <Cassius.1pw8hm@> wrote in message
news:UdGdnf8NjfvI1QHfRVn_vg@giganews.com...
>
> I spent the best part of the weekend trying to fix my PC after Internet
> Explorer was hijacked whilst I tried to download some DVD ripping
> software - be careful guys. Having tried loads of antivirus / spyware
> removal software to no avail, and having noticed that this evil virus
> had badly messed with the registry of my PC, I decided that the only
> thing to do was to reformat the hard drive.
>
> First I found that the instructions for reformatting my XP hard drive
> would not work. I think the virus was preventing me from formatting it!
> I got down to the "Press Y to format" bit, pressed Y and got a circular
> prompt.
>
> I eventually found a way to do it, having tweeked BIOS and booting XP
> from CD instrad of hard drive. I managed to fully reformat the hard
> drive - all files gone. The first thing I installed was my internet
> connection. I had been connected for about five seconds before a pop-up
> appeared, telling me that my computer was infected. I had not even
> opened Internet Explorer yet.
>
> Has anyone ever seen this before? A virus surviving a hard drive
> formatting?? Has this thing messed with the magnetic polarity of the
> particles of my physical hard drive??! Is there any way I will ever be
> able to shift this? It is pure evil....any ideas would be much
> appreciated. Thanks in avcance.
>
>
> --
> CassiusPosted from http://www.pcreview.co.uk/ newsgroup access
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Recent test proove that an unprotected XP Computer (no filewall, no
anti-virus, no spyware protection) will result in Virus infection, spyware
infestation in 4 seconds during certain time of the day and in less than 1
minute other times.

"Cassius" <Cassius.1pw8hm@> wrote in message
news:UdGdnf8NjfvI1QHfRVn_vg@giganews.com...
>
> I spent the best part of the weekend trying to fix my PC after Internet
> Explorer was hijacked whilst I tried to download some DVD ripping
> software - be careful guys. Having tried loads of antivirus / spyware
> removal software to no avail, and having noticed that this evil virus
> had badly messed with the registry of my PC, I decided that the only
> thing to do was to reformat the hard drive.
>
> First I found that the instructions for reformatting my XP hard drive
> would not work. I think the virus was preventing me from formatting it!
> I got down to the "Press Y to format" bit, pressed Y and got a circular
> prompt.
>
> I eventually found a way to do it, having tweeked BIOS and booting XP
> from CD instrad of hard drive. I managed to fully reformat the hard
> drive - all files gone. The first thing I installed was my internet
> connection. I had been connected for about five seconds before a pop-up
> appeared, telling me that my computer was infected. I had not even
> opened Internet Explorer yet.
>
> Has anyone ever seen this before? A virus surviving a hard drive
> formatting?? Has this thing messed with the magnetic polarity of the
> particles of my physical hard drive??! Is there any way I will ever be
> able to shift this? It is pure evil....any ideas would be much
> appreciated. Thanks in avcance.
>
>
> --
> CassiusPosted from http://www.pcreview.co.uk/ newsgroup access
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Cassius Wrote:
> The first thing I installed was my internet
> connection. I had been connected for about five seconds before a
> pop-up
> appeared, telling me that my computer was infected. I had not even
> opened Internet Explorer yet.
>
>
>
>
> --
> CassiusPosted from http://www.pcreview.co.uk/ newsgroup access

If that was the first thing you did, can I infer that you hadn't yet
installed anti-virus, adaware, spybot search and destroy, spyware
blaster and the microsoft free anti spyware software? (all these I find
essential to keep your PC free from nasties)

If you haven't got anti-virus, there are very good free ones available
from Grisoft (AVG Free) and Avast!.

It could simply be that connecting to the net unprotected you were
quickly re-infected, this can literally happen in seconds if you
haven't got anti-virus and something like the "tea timer" resident
protection found in spybot search and destroy or microsoft's
anti-spyware program.


--
flannelmeister

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

An 'unprotected PC' connected to the internet can be infected within a
matter of minutes.
The virus didnt survive your formating, you just got reinfected.
BTW you cannot format your sys drive within win. You 'have' to use the cd.
Run an online scan via www.kaspersky.com or www.symantec.com
Once up and running, ensure win is updated, buy a decent AV app and install
a Firewall App
If you had these in the first place it is unlikely you would have been
infected, unless by user stupidity!
If you want any specific help on the virus you will have to give us a clue -
its name?!

"Cassius" <Cassius.1pw8hm@> wrote in message
news:UdGdnf8NjfvI1QHfRVn_vg@giganews.com...
>
> I spent the best part of the weekend trying to fix my PC after Internet
> Explorer was hijacked whilst I tried to download some DVD ripping
> software - be careful guys. Having tried loads of antivirus / spyware
> removal software to no avail, and having noticed that this evil virus
> had badly messed with the registry of my PC, I decided that the only
> thing to do was to reformat the hard drive.
>
> First I found that the instructions for reformatting my XP hard drive
> would not work. I think the virus was preventing me from formatting it!
> I got down to the "Press Y to format" bit, pressed Y and got a circular
> prompt.
>
> I eventually found a way to do it, having tweeked BIOS and booting XP
> from CD instrad of hard drive. I managed to fully reformat the hard
> drive - all files gone. The first thing I installed was my internet
> connection. I had been connected for about five seconds before a pop-up
> appeared, telling me that my computer was infected. I had not even
> opened Internet Explorer yet.
>
> Has anyone ever seen this before? A virus surviving a hard drive
> formatting?? Has this thing messed with the magnetic polarity of the
> particles of my physical hard drive??! Is there any way I will ever be
> able to shift this? It is pure evil....any ideas would be much
> appreciated. Thanks in avcance.
>
>
> --
> CassiusPosted from http://www.pcreview.co.uk/ newsgroup access
>