I had to fix a computer for a friend. He got viruses on the computer and I have to do a destructive wipe and completely reinstall a fresh copy of windows.

This is not the first time it happened and I am looking for a way to cut down the time it takes to fix this thing when it happens again in the future. I'm getting really tired of having to wipe this computer every few months and reinstalling and completely updating everything.

I have another friend that has the same problem, but I sold him my old compaq, which has a recovery partion on it, so I can just do the destructive wipe from the RP, which takes much less time than if I were to do it from a disk.

What I really want to know is that is there a way that once I fix this one computer and have windows fully updated, is there a program that I can use to create something like a recovery partition so that I can fix it much faster and easier than before?

I know that the issue is that he keeps getting viruses. He does have anti viruses software, not one that I particularly like, since it keeps letting the same thing through. He keeps getting those fake antivirus programs like "MS antirvirus" or "antivirus 08" on his PC, which then messes it up so I have to fix it. I've never had this problem on my own PC. He uses the free antivirus suite that comes with his verizon subscription (Verizons web site doesn't even list who provides the av engine). I know the best way to stop this from happening is to prevent him from going to bad web sites :D, which the WoT toolbar helps a lot with this problem.

As a secondary question, what antivirus programs catch these fake av programs and is there any other programs that actually can remove them?

Edit: I forgot to mention that the PC is running Windows XP

As far as creating your own recovery partition, there is a couple program sthat can do it...

Acronis True Image 2009

Norton Partition Magic w/ Symantec Ghost (follow this link for info)
Make a Recovery Partition - Solutions by PC Magazine


Hope this helps!
Rick

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ITstudent2006

As far as creating your own recovery partition, there is a couple program sthat can do it....

Acronis True Image 2009

Norton Partition Magic w/ Symantec Ghost (follow this link for info)
Make a Recovery Partition - Solutions by PC Magazine


Hope this helps!
Rick

---

Acronis looks like a more wallet friendly solution. I think I may try it out to see if it works the way I want it to. It looks like it will. I need something that I will be able to use at boot up which this looks like it has.

You should get your friend to constatly use sandboxie (google-fu sandboxie)... which will run his web browser in a sandbox. This will stop those rogue fake f&^%$ running. He must be looking at a fair lot of porn. Hehe... good luck

Yes, he looks at lots of porn... Which is a huge problem... Ive taken several steps to help him out... like the WOT toolbar, Firefox, and some other stuff but he doesn't just get viruses, he somehow deletes important stuff too.

I had installed Acronis on his PC and that worked fine. It was nice and quick and had his PC up and running again in no time. That is until he blew up his hard drive. Literally