Boot with AV software

[MadBeaver]

Is there an AV program that you can boot to, so you can clean a very infected Harddrive?

Infected system:
Win XP
Can't boot to harddrive without causing more problems.
Need files on harddrive if possable.

Let me know if more info would be helpful.

[Info Tech Geek]

McAfee & Norton will both boot from CD.

[nihil]

OK, AFAIK several of the AV companies do this sort of thing, they are now disk "sets" and they will not probably not catch things that are best fought from within windows.

Certainly have a look at the Norton, McAfee and PcCillin sites.

Also: http://www.centralcommand.com/rescue_disk.html

Another thought is why not change the HDD jumper to slave and hook it up as the second drive on a machine with up to date AV then run the scan from that box. Do it in safe mode and try some of the online scans like

http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info You are looking for "Active Scan" which is a box down the bottom left of the page (or it was last time I looked)

Another strategy might be to get the AV update, boot your infected drive in safe mode, update the AV then run it (make sure all tests are set to "on")

Good luck

[MadBeaver]

Thank nihil

I also found this http://www.asw.cz/i_idt_1376.html

[nihil]

Hi MadBeaver,

Alwil have been around for ages and seem pretty good...........anyways it's "any port in a storm" here. I would try their free tool.

Also http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger

A similar sort of tool from McAfee that might find things the other one doesn't

These two products are more worm/trojan than virus orientated, but in the current climate I suspect that these are what you most likely have?

A word of warning just because one of the AVs finds a few things, does not mean that you have sorted the problem.I once had to run one four times in a row before I "got" them all.

Good luck