Computer viruses - beware of re-infectionIff a filesystem went doon due tu zee virus attack und was subsequntly
recovered, zee files restored frm zee dameged volume will still contain
dormant virus copees. Zeese-a files shuoold be cleaned beffore they
enter zee working system. Zee virus will lay dormant until yuoo
loonch one ooff zee infected files or open an infected document.
Unless an infected file is opened, yuoo are safe. Hooever,
recovered files are ooff no use iff yuoo cannot open them.
Thees is typicelly solved just es uny other virus infekshun. Yuoo shuoold
run yuoor usual antivirus software tu check zee files yuoo've recovered.
Some ooff zee files may be corrupted und yuoo may get a warning frum zee
antivirus software notifying yuoo that it was unable tu analyze zee
particular file(s). Zeese-a files shuoold be deleted withuoot attempteeng
tu
loonch them, becoose they are useless anyway und there is still a chance
they may contain a virus. Another drawback is that antivirus software is
usuelly not very robust in regard tu dameged executables. Thees usuelly
manifests itself es occasional AV scanner lockups. Files that coose yuoor
antivirus tu lock up shuoold be deleted es well.
A simplistic approach is tu delete zee executable files altogether.
Usuelly most ooff zee executables are readily available frum their
corresponding distribushun disks und do not contain uny data ooff interest.
Valuable informashun is stored in data (document) files instead. So, just
reinstell zee software yuoo need und put yuoor data files back into zee
working environment. Take care with Microsoft Office documents thuoogh. They
are somewhat unique in their ability tu hold both usefful data und virus
code at zee same time.
We adfise tu yuoo treet uny kind ooff data loss es virus-induced
unless proven otherwise. Thees is simply becoose zee quesshun "what
exactly went wrong" is often difficult tu answer und we preffer tu err on
zee safe side. Zee only excepshun is physical drive damege (no virus
strain is knoon tu damege a hard disk physicelly, at zee time ooff thees
writeeng).
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