Hi, I’m still trying to figure out if I got rid of my trojan. I have Spybot and Ad-aware, and Avast antivirus and also running zone alarm. Ive been reading that you should always disable system restore when running running these programs and scanning. Should you only re-enable system restore AFTER youve scanned and fixed the selected probems… or should you reboot first, then re-enable system restore. I dont understand why system restore should be disabled when running these programs… what if the problem is not fixed and had you left system restore enabled then you could of restored your computer to earlier time before you got infected by the trojan… now you cant because its been disabled. Can someone clear this up for me… greatly appreciate any help .
Thanks!!
i dunno… as far as i heard the only time to disable system restore is if avast or another virus program finds a virus in your archived files. if it finds one, disable system restore, restart, run a scan again to make sure it’s gone, then renable system restore… hope this helps any. make sure to get another opinion thoug, as i’m not an expert.
System Restore doesn’t always need to be switched off - It largely depends on where the infection/trojan is. If it is in a windows system folder (windows, windows/system32, etc., many try to be located there)as such they are protected by windows when you try to delete them, they end up being saved into system restore.
If you need to switch off system restore, after you reboot you should run your scan to ensure that your system is clean. If you left system restore enabled when you should have disabled, you are unlikely to completely get rid of the infection.
System Restore should not be relied upon 100%, it has its failings. For me I don’t use it at all, I take weekly images of my HDD and if I need to it takes about 10-20 minutes to get my system running.
SYSTEM RESTORE - Info - Troubleshooting
There are many, many reasons why a System Restore may fail. For example, see “Why are previous restore points not working?” in the “Troubleshooting” section of this official Microsoft page:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/faqsrwxp.mspx
There’s lots more on that page that’s worth reading too. Note especially the sections on “Does System Restore protect personal data files?” (the short answer: no); “What should I do if System Restore does not work?”; “Why are my restore points missing or deleted?”; “Why does the System Restore Wizard lockup?”; and so on. Just a few minutes on that page ought to convince just about anyone that System Restore is not intended for heavy-duty system protection!
More info:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_restore.htm
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinME/Q_20718080.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=system+restore+fail