How to Delete a Virus in your USB drive or Flashdisk

What is a Virus and how does it infects your Computer?

Simply put a Virus is a Malicious Software (MalWare) created by people who wants to destroy.. your files, your computer, your flashdisk...

(NOTE: Virus and Malware will be used in this article interchangeably)

Now, How do there Malware infects your computer?

• Downloading pornographic materials, games and applications in untrusted websites
• Downloading files through peer-to-peer programs (e.g. limewire, torrent, ares)
• inserting your flashdisk to other infected computer and inserting it back to your computer without scanning it first

These are just some of the ways in which malware infects your computer.

Common Malware infections in the flashdisk or USB drive

These are common malwares that infects your usb drive/flashdisk.

• Autorun.inf
• New Folder.exe
• Trojan Virus
• Ravmon.exe
• .vbs scripts
  

Preventing Malware from infecting your computer should start from the owner itself. You can't just say to your computer "OK I already installed the best Anti-Virus on you and you already have the latest virus definitions. Your on your own now!" What I mean is, it's the responsibility of the owner to prevent infections to your computer whether it be from another usb drive or from the internet.

Ways in preventing Virus infection

As the saying "Prevention is better than cure" and it's very true when it comes to computers. Preventing a malware from infecting your computer would save you a lot and i mean A LOT of headache-free hours..

Now, How do I prevent these nasty bugs from infecting my computer you say?

• Disable the auto-play feature of your computer (for windows). Here's the link from Microsoft detailing how to disable the autorun feature of windows NOTE: please use this at your own risk because some of the steps involves editing the registry.
• Make sure that you have the latest update of your Anti-Virus definitions. Updating your Antivirus is one of the best prevention from Malwares, so do it regularly.

NOTE: If your Antivirus couldn't delete the malware you can Safe Mode you computer by following this:

1. Restart your computer
2. After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, tap the F8 key continually; Instead of Windows loading as normal, the Advanced Options Menu should appear;
3. Select Run Windows in Safe Mode, then press Enter.
4. Then scan your computer using an updated Antivirus.

• SCAN FIRST! Each and everytime you insert a USB drive/flash disk on your computer don't forget to scan it first. (Given that your Antivirus is up-to-date).
• You can also install utilities that will check the flash disk that you inserted for malware infection. Search it on Major Geeks (this is not an affiliate site)

  What if it wasn't prevented?

  Well, that's the purpose of this section..:)

  So, how to we remove these nasties from our computer systems?

  There are ALOT of ways to remove them, but you should also be prepared for the worst case scenario in which the infection is severe and the only thing you can do is back-up your important files and format your computer.

  I'll cite some common ways in removing these malware

• Use command prompt to Check if your flash disk is infected by a virus and delete it
• Delete Bar311.exe, password_viewer.exe, photos.zip.exe
  

AND since I dont' have all the answers to your querries, I posted these recommended sites that will help you in your fight againts the malwares menace from your pc.

• TechGuy - this site is full of information about removing malwares (you might want to search first to minimize the hassle in asking for help-maybe you're not the first one to experience such tragedy)
• Major Geek support forum - this site helps people who had their pc infected by malwares (please follow their regulations)
• SpywareInfo support forum - this site is also a support forum to those with malware infection

NOTE: To further maximize efficiency,

• You should install HijackThis (product info is on their site).
• If you download the Executable version please make sure to place it in a permanent folder. HijackThis makes backups of anything fixed and the backups might be deleted accidentally if the program is run from a temporary folder.
• Run HijackThis, click "Scan and Save Log", and save the logfile produced. Please do not fix any entries with HijackThis unless a helper tells you to. Most of the entries in the log will be legitimate, or even critical to the operation of your computer.
• IMPORTANT! The log file is the one that you will post to these sites so that the malware expert can diagnose the situation..

How to boost your pc performance

Owning a PC is quite troublesome after using it for quite sometime. Browsing the web always, installing lots of applications and using it 24/7 will slow down your PC if you dont know how to properly maintain it. So I've compiled several tips on how to properly maintain your PC so that everytime you use it, it's in its a very good condition.

First thing's first...

1. Be sure to ALWAYS clean your computer from trash (you could also apply it literally) .

Trash will slow down your computer. Temp files, recent docs, temporary internet files and many others will decrease the performance of your PC.

How to clean them? You can use applications that will check your pc for trash then delete them for you. One application that I can recommend (because I tried using it) is CCleaner.

2. Visual effects, themes can slow down your PC

Especially if you have a not-so-fast computer, you may want to disable your themes and visual effects. How to do it?

• Right click My Computer
• then go to Properties
• select Advanced Tab
• click settings on Performance section
• lastly select Adjust for best performance

That's it! It will turn off your visual effects and themes and eventually speed up your PC.

3. Uninstall ununsed applications in your PC.

When your PC is full of applications that where no longer in-use, it takes up space in your hard drive and this space if accmulated will slow down your PC. NOTE: PLEASE BE EXTRA CAREFULL IN UNINSTALLING APPLICATIONS SINCE YOU CAN ALSO REMOVE APPLICATIONS THAT ARE STILL BEING USED.

Where to find it?

• go to Start
• then click Settings
• select Control Panel
• select Add or Remove Programs
  

select the application that you want to remove then click remove

That's all folks! Lastly don't forget to defragment your PC to organize the data inside your hard drive.

Hope this basic tips will help in any ways.

Using command prompt "attrib" to check for Viruses or Malware

Microsoft Command Prompt "attrib" is a very useful tool to check if your hard drives even your flashdisks have been infected by a virus.

You will know if a Malware is inside your hard drive just by looking at the attributes of each files and the file that has the attributes of +s +h +r

The function of attrib is to set and remove file attributes (read-only, archive, system and hidden).

To start attrib

1. Go to Start Menu > Run
2. Type cmd (cmd stands for command prompt)
3. Press Enter key

The Command Prompt will appear showing us where is our location in the directory.

command prompt showing the current location in the directory Using attrib

To use attrib

1. Go to the root directory first by typing cd\(because this is always the target of Malware / Virus)

2. Type attrib and press Enter key

after typing attrib, all the attributes of all the files (excluding folders) will be shown

In this example, I have two files that are considered as malware.

Note that there are two files which I outlined in red (SilentSoftech.exe and autorun.inf). Since you cannot see this file nor delete it (because the attributes that was set on these files are +s +h +r)

1. +s - meaning it is a system file (which also means that you cannot delete it just by using the delete command)
2. +h - means it is hidden (so you cannot delete it)
3. +r - means it is a read only file ( which also means that you cannot delete it just by using the delete command)

Now we need to set the attributes of autorun.inf to -s -h -r (so that we can manually delete it)

1. Type attrib -s -h -r autorun.inf ( be sure to include -s -h -r because you cannot change the attributes using only -s or -h or -r alone)
2. Type attrib again to check if your changes have been commited
3. If the autorun.inf file has no more attributes, you can now delete it by typing del autorun.inf
4. Since SilentSoftech.exe is a malware you can remove its attributes by doing step 1 and step 3(just change the filename) ex. attrib -s -h -r silentsoftech.exe
   

a) I typed the attrib command with the -s -h -r setting b) the result after I pressed enter - autorun.inf has no attributes left

There you have it!!!!

NOTE : when autorun.inf keeps coming back even if you already deleted it, be sure to check your Task Manager by pressing CTRL + ALT + DELETE ( a virus is still running as a process thats why you cannot delete it. KILL the process first by selecting it and clicking End Process.