Help my dying computer

chump

Hello,

I'm running win98SE on a celeron 600 clocked at 900. It has a 20gig HD - unpartitioned.

It has been too long since a reformat.
Also, in recent times it has become riddled with ****e... nothing detrimental but trojan horses and virus aplenty.

Of course I don't possess any up-to-date antivirus software, and need some cheapo advice pronto...

I want to reformat it, but I have alot of valuable things on it, and the zip drive has broken on me...

The HD has 7 gigs free space. Is there anyway I can partition this in situ, and loaf over some of the valuable data into this partition. Obviously clean it for virus's, reformat other partition, update the OS and software etc...


Also is there any free/dirt cheap very good antivirus software I can DL ?


I know I shouldn't have got myself into this predicament, but I have some free time now college is over, and think it's about time I sorted this out...

hulhi

you can use
Partition Magic from Powerquest
or
Partition Expert from Acronis

both of them allow you to change your partition structure without having to run fdisk or low-level format etc.

hulhi

as regarding antivirus software, try http://www.kaspersky.com

Frank Grimes

Try www.grisoft.com for the AV software.

Capt'n Midnight

www.sophos.co.uk

TBH most vendors offer 30 day trials so you should have no problem cleaning down - just make sure you power off and do a really clean boot to bypass the memory resident stuff

- should be a sticky for FREE software and for TRIALWARE too.

sophos is not free - but if a company has a X licence's at work then X home users can use it at home..

fisty

antivirus is something i recommend you invest in rather than going on the cheap - if your stuff is important and you want to protect it get PC Cillin or Norton.

You get what you pay for.

LastIrishMonkey

AVG software Anti-Virus its free

QBall

Originally posted by fisty
You get what you pay for.

Mostly, but not entirely, true when it comes to AV software on Windows.

On the other hand, AVG by Grisoft as mentioned earlier has a free version which is superb. It's small, light and pretty damn good all round.

kaimera

only thing with AVG is 288 virus definitions [as of 10/6] compared with thousands with Norton.

QBall

True, but it has some very good heuristics. I have personally seen it detect 100% of the viruses that have landed on the machine my parents use. (I hand check most of the mail, AVG is only there for when my parents get to it first (which is rare). So far it has detected 4 e-mail borne viruses[1])

In my experience, the best defence against viruses is rapid and repeated application of a clue-by-four to anyone who even thinks about opening an e-mail that looks even vaguely suspicious. At this stage I have my parents trained to be vigilant about their mail and to call me if they're not sure. They insist on using Outlook Express, I've explained to them the risks that that entails and they understand. After turning off the preview pane and patching the hell out of it, I reckon it's safe enough for their use.

If you have money to burn, then Norton is what you should get. If you don't have the money to shell out then use AVG and some common sense.

[1] Not a huge sample, I know, but 4/4 is good enough for me.

Capt'n Midnight

Just make sure you have it patched right up to date and also don't apply any patch until two weeks after it appears cos there is a good chance it will be broken (yes that is contradictory advice I'll let you figure which to use)

If you remember .eml attachments used to be opened and run by OE even if the preview pain was off.

Re the: 2 be 4 - put nails in it - you can then claim it is an opinion pole - anyone who does not share your opinion gets hit by the pole.

If you have money to burn - invest in a firewall (486, 2 Nic's & floppy disk or one of the small HW ones)

PS. On Topic
Most AV programs have an option to make a bootable disk to disinfect systems from a cold boot - get one of these first and use it to clean up as much of the system before you start partitioning / reinstalling etc.

Raz

Just a point on reformatting.
After you've formatted the selected partition you're gonna want to reinstall your OS. If the OS has been provided by the manufacturer then check to see that it doesn't reformatt the whole HDD anyway.
I've got Win2k from toshiba (with my laptop) and when you reinstall the OS it automatically wipes the entire HDD, partitions and all. I lost about 5gigs to it the first time. I have since got myself an ethernet card and I back up everything onto my home PC before I try something like that.
If you have the opportunity to do the same, it's safer than using partitions

disco_rob_funk

www.f-prot.com for free, bootable goodness

RC

LastIrishMonkey

i also wonder can we use AVG and Norton together with no conflicts???

chump

Hello,

Unfortunately all those partition programs have to be purchased... the demo versions dont let you DO anything... pity


I've been searching for free/share ware apps of a similar breed but they dont seem to allow for what I need... I might have to splash out... although probably nawt...

Loads of really good advice anyhoo people, I appreciate it...

Frank Grimes

Originally posted by LastIrishMonkey
i also wonder can we use AVG and Norton together with no conflicts???

I've done that without any problems, although I'd take AVG over Norton/McAfee etc. any day.

Capt'n Midnight

http://members.aol.com/axcel216/

lots of Free LINKS - inc anti virus
also look in the dos section for free FAT32 utils inc resizing - but ansolutely no warranty ,...

Raz

I've decide to upload some very useful partitioning software.
It's the Rescue Disks from partition magic 8.
They make up some great partitioning software by themselves! Almost all the functionality of the full windows GUI version.
Just download the software


HERE

Copy all the files onto their respective disks (don't leave them in the folders, all files should be in the highest directory ie. A:\ , of the floppies)
Then boot from the floppies and you're straight into this fantastic DOS based GUI patitioning software.
I've used it several times and it works a treat.
Remember, read the readme first!!

Capt'n Midnight

You had better post the part of the licence that allows you to do this - otherwise it's WAREZ and you'll be banned pdq.

Like said look at the DOS section of the site above - there are some free utils that do some of wha you want.

Betcha'a there is a util on the Knoppix CD (somewhere ..)

Raz

The files are hosted on Redbrick, the networking society in DCU. They don't back up individual accounts afaik because of the sheer number of people they host for (a couple of thousand). They don't have the money to double their space for just backups.

Remember, read the readme first!!

I said that so as people would read the readme file so they would see the disclaimer I put in.
As you pointed out I state that you must own the full licensed version of PM8 and I also state that the files posted are for backup purposes only.
In fact to create the floppy disks in the first place you must be creating a backup. Therefore to have them on a server means my backup is stored there ie. more accessible for me than to have them on a floppy in my room when I not there.

That said, if you insist that I remove the link then I will. I don't wish to offend anyone.

P.S. I read the charter before I posted that to be sure whether or not I'd be breaking any rules and there was nothing to say I would be.

Raz

My conscience has gotten the better of me and I've remove public permissions on the link. You'll now get a connection refused error.
If anyone downloaded the files could you please remove them from any electronic storage facilities you may have them on.
I hope nobody was offened or angered by that.
I appologise.

Raz.

PS Capt'n Midnight could you please remove my name from your post, thanks.

Talliesin

Originally posted by Raz
I read the charter before I posted that to be sure whether or not I'd be breaking any rules and there was nothing to say I would be.

All charters are on top of the boards.ie rules. The boards.ie rules are on top of the laws of the land in which Boards Ltd. is registered (Ireland). Warez break Irish copyright law, hence the beak boards.ie rules, hence they go against the charter for this board even if the charter doesn't say so (indeed even if it says you can warez).

maxheadroom

If its FAT 32 the mandrake installer does a good job of resizing them non destructively.

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3

quaalude

I use BootIt NG for all partition work.
It resizes partitions really well - all file systems too.

Download a full 30 day trial here -
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
Unzip, then double-click the exe with a formatted floppy in the drive.
Reboot with floppy in, then go into "Maintenance" mode.
I've used this in work for all Windows OS's, from 95 to XP, with no problems.