Is a virus strictly limited to the harddrive?

[negril]

A friend offered me (free) an approx 4 y/o Dell desktop which has been infected with a virus. He bought a new computer rather than deal with the problem. I have a 250G sata H/D that I'm presently not using. I'd like to use the computer for a home entertainment system. Will replacing the drive on the infected computer solve the problem or can the virus have corrupted the BIOS or other areas that I may not be aware of? Thanx

 

[saran008]

If it is only virus problem, it is easily solvable!

Download Avast antivrus & Malwarebytes, install in that system.

Do a complete scan & clean the infected files.Then the problem is solved.

If the issue is related to some other thing, we have to diagnose& solve it!

Nothing is unsolvable!

Virus is strictly limited with OS (not hard drive). If you have reinstall the OS, the problem is solved, but you have to re install all programs again!

Try installing Antivirus first and see what happens after scanning.

 

[negril]

From what my friend says the computer will now only boot up and stay running for a minute or so. After that it locks up. It continues to get worse. When it first started it would run for fifteen minutes before shutdown. I doubt that it would be possible to download and install the antivirus program or restore the operating system under those circumstances. Of couse, Im here asking for help so evidently I don't know very much. lol Thanx for your reply.

 

[saran008]

Try to login in safe mode!

If you need you can try replacing the hard drive with yours. But what about OS?

 

[negril]

My hard drive is from a system that suffered a cpu or motherboard failure and has Vista installed. Is it possible to plug it in and go or will I have to make bios, etc, changes? appreciate your help

 

[negril]

I have two other operating Dell systems with recovery discs. In the event I run into trouble with the drive I plan to install would it be possible to use the recovery disc on the infected Dell computer. I would prefer this because it would be Win XP.

 

[saran008]

Even though the mobo &cpu failure wont affect HDD!
If the bios settings are set to AUTO & your hard drive is working properly means, it should detect your hard drive straight away!

I afraid that, the recovery disc is specific with model/OS of the Computer.

Login in the safe mode & try to install antivrus & scan!

All the best!

 

[negril]

Best answer selected by negril.

 

[saran008]

Thanks for selecting mine as best answer
You are always welcome to this forum with any kind of system problems!
We are here to help you any time