Viruses and worms

M

Marion

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I note that Complainer mentioned elsewhere about $recycle files on their computer.

I have found it on my external USB hard drive. The anti virus software at work - Sophos - does not quarantine it.

My personal laptop seems to be clean. I ran Windows defender, I downloaded Malwarebytes free and I use Avast free. I need to use the USB external hard drive at home but am afraid to do so in case my laptop becomes infected. All my work is stored on the external drive. My laptop is new and I haven't yet copied my files to it.

What damage can this worm do?

Marion
 
That's not a virus, it's the recycle bin. Windows creates one on each hard drive.
 
Thanks for the speedy replies.

Hoagy: I hadn't realised that Windows did this on an external hard drive. Somebody at work mentioned that they had the recycler virus/worm and when I spotted the $recycle file on my external drive when Sophos was checking it this week I was worried.

Allthedoyles: I will do that. Should I remove Avast? Will it conflict with Microsoft essentials?

Marion
 
Marion said:
Allthedoyles: I will do that. Should I remove Avast? Will it conflict with Microsoft essentials?
Click to expand...
You should only ever have one active anti virus system on a PC, otherwise the conflicts between them can cause serious conflicts and lead to huge problems, so you should remove Avast if you're moving to MSE.

MSE is getting great reviews (I've not yet used it myself to be honest), but Avast still performs well (I used to use it, but found it a little bloated) and there are other offerings out there that perform just as well (Avira is my own personal choice, highly recommended, due to the light load it places on your pc).
 
We run AVG Free 9.0 plus MSE and there are no conflicts . -

It may all depend on your Operatin System - however our post / advice is only from personal experience .
 
Having two real time on access scanners live on a computer at the one time you may experience decreased performance, the system become unstable and you may suffer random crashes. It won't happen in all cases (allthedoyles seems to be getting away with it - unless either AVG or MSE has been set to 'on demand' only which removes the issue), but it's a risk you certainly should avoid.

As long as you keep Avast (or any of the other leading AV's) up to date, the benefits of running two are far less than the potential (stability) risks.
 
I bravely brought home my drive from work and Avast immediately picked up the recycler virus/worm from the drive and quarantined it. My external drive was also new so I am really annoyed that the system at work did not quarantine it.

I rescanned Avast and again it says that a virus was detected. it says it can't find the files (2) in the result section.

Is this because it is in quarantine. Is the F: drive now clean?

Is it now safe to copy over my F: drive to my laptop?

Marion
 
AVG Free 9.0

Have been running AVG Free 9.0 for years with no problem.. its free for personal use.
 

Sounds like you should be ok now but if you can scan the drive with a malware programme as a double check. If you don't have another programme then try this....Malewarebytes its free and is very good, and safe to download from this link.

[broken link removed]
 
Thanks pudds.

I discovered today that there in no anti-virus protection at work on the network. It hasn't been working for a number of weeks! I am still in shock!


Marion
 
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