Transferring Files from a potentially virus-infected computer

[mc962]

I was recently asked to transfer some needed files (pictures, documents, etc.) from an old lenovo laptop with Windows 7 (Home Premium) on it. The one who owned it think that it was likely infected by a virus (slow-downs, apparently it also broke Norton Antivirus). Before I pass on the files she wants me to scan them to make sure I won't be giving her a virus.

I was thinking about scanning it with some combination of malwarebytes, the built-in antivirus on the recovery partition of the lenovo computer (not sure how effective that is, but I suppose it can't hurt), and maybe something else if needed. Does anyone have any recommendations for any other antivirus software to use (free and preferably bootable on a usb, maybe on a disc as well)?

Or is what I'm using good enough for that peace of mind? I'm not really sure what type of virus it might be (or if it's a virus, I'm also doing a disk check and will probably do memtest just in case it was hardware doing weird things), but I obviously don't want to send off some virus-infected file accidentally.

 

[Entomber]

You can put Malwarebytes on a USB and run it off the USB.

if it's just a slow computer it might not even be a virus anyways, computers run slowly for a myriad of reasons - usually not a virus.

like House: "it's not lupus"

 

[mc962]

True. All I know is that she thinks it's a virus. I wasnt actually there when she saw the things she saw to think that it was one. It's not my main computer, so I can just let malwarebytes do it's thing and then play around with my own stuff while it scans. I feel like it's more of a peace-of-mind thing. I just wanted to make sure that doing malwarebytes would cover everything (as I've never used it before), or if I should use it together with something else (Norton, Avast, etc.) to cover all the likely possibilities in terms of malware-type stuff


*Also, I'm planning on wiping the hard drive and putting Linux/fresh windows install, I just need to get the data off first. But I want to make sure it's clean data before I give it away

 

[Entomber]

Just make sure you scan the file after you transfer it, or even scan it on the media that you're transferring it with, just to be sure.

 

[boosted1g]

Fixing infections on the pc is best, but sometimes it is just too slow or it just such a hard infection that clean up is not doable.

Even after fixing infections, dissable autorun, and scan the files on the usb drive or cd disk once you put it into the non-infected computer.

 

[mc962]

I can scan it with malwarebytes on the original pc (I was thinking something along the line of a bootable malwarebytes usb) as the pc itself works well enough to get into windows. But i'll tell her to scan the usb with norton before opening anything

*Edit- I just noticed that it doesnt seem like malwarebytes is bootable? But since I can get into windows then I should be fine just running it from the USB? Or does anyone recommend using a bootable antivirus as well just in case, or will that just be unneeded overkill?

 

[Entomber]

You can just run malwarebytes from the USB, I don't know about booting from USB into malwarebytes. I've fixed virus-ridden computers with a USB containing malwarebytes before.

 

[mc962]

Is it fine to download and install malwarebytes onto the usb using the potentially infected computer (assuming I don't click on any mystery boxes while doing so) or is it better to download and/or install the application to the usb separately from a safe computer?

 

[Entomber]

Oftentimes, viruses will not allow you to download anti-malware software anyways, so you're better off downloading it on a clean computer and then moving it or installing it to the USB.

 

[mc962]

It did allow it to download, and after running it just found a couple of PUPs relating to the registry. Deleting them caused no ill effects that I could see. I think I might run one of the more reputable looking antivirus boot program cds just to make sure

As mentioned before, I'm not even entirely sure that it was a virus. All I heard was that: the computer slowed down a lot and it broke norton (can't do scans and stuff).

 

[Entomber]

It's possible that this person thought they had a virus and downloaded extra antivirus programs, which in turn broke Norton because it doesn't like having other antiviruses installed.

I mean honestly, if Norton was already installed on the computer then it probably did a pretty decent job of keeping malware off as long as the computer was updated.

 

[mc962]

She definitely didn't add anything extra.

And after mucking around on windows with malwarebytes and consolidating the data to be moved, it doesnt really seem that bad to me. The slowest thing so far has probably been this disk check, and even that is proceeding along. She just mentioned that it "broke" norton, as it apparently can't complete a full system scan anymore. I feel like something just got messed up somewhere and that made things seem like a virus, but I just wanted to make sure that things were fine in case there was something really wrong. Plus it gave me something to do instead of sitting around bored all day, so that's a plus