Betts1964 Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 I think my laptop has a virus. My question for you guys is I have an image of it on an external hard drive from a month ago when it was working fine. If I just restored it from the image will be gone or do I have to install win 10 and then do the image? TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalju Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 There is nothing to think. First - You don't have any virus. Second, if You use image, it will replace only files, what You had when You made this image. All others will stay as they are, also registry. If You want get correctly and proberly working Windows, make clean install, save only personal files and nothing else. If You have HDD, is good to wipe it and then reformat. If You have SSD, do not use any wipe or shredder, use only trim and reformat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekkio Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 Before engaging in an image restoration make sure you indeed have a virus What makes you think your laptop could have a virus ? If you didn't plug that backup drive after the moment you think you caught a virus it should be gone. Otherwise your backup drive may have been infected as well so it will be better to do a cleanup. Talking about a literal virus such as Virut use your AV to detect the infected files. If your system is infected you may do a reinstall or use a dedicated Disinfection tool. Looking for a disinfection tool would require you to know which virus your computer got through. Then the disinfection if possible must be done offline using a Live OS based on Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruzan Posted September 12, 2018 Share Posted September 12, 2018 5 hours ago, bergy1964 said: My question for you guys is I have an image of it on an external hard drive from a month ago when it was working fine. If I just restored it from the image will be gone or do I have to install win 10 and then do the image? to answer your question: you can restore from image, you do not need to reinstall win10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soze Posted September 12, 2018 Share Posted September 12, 2018 A root kit will write over a new image, so figure out the nature of the infection before reimaging. I haven't run anti virus since 2009 and never get a virus but seldom use windows. Maybe if you image sector by sector you could over write a rootkit but it takes a long time. What happened? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s1ave77 Posted September 12, 2018 Share Posted September 12, 2018 13 hours ago, Kalju said: Second, if You use image, it will replace only files, what You had when You made this image. All others will stay as they are, also registry. Not sure what tools you use but that's wrong for Acronis and most other imagers. A full backup includes all files and the restore will always wipe the drive prior to re-imaging process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.