Just to rant

[atlasmike]

So my shop has only been open a week and it seems to look promising. We got the wall built and painted window signs put in and we are waiting on the vehicle wrap to be designed and the lighted sign to be fabricated and installed. I have been to chamber meetings and networking groups almost every day. I have been fixing Iphones which are a pain in the ass. But I love it. I got someone in yesterday that she thought she had a virus. The PC would crash after about 5 mins of operations with an error of Kernal_Data_Inpage _Error. There is a program on here called RetroUI that crashes just after start up. Then there is Pro PC Cleaner and Slim PC. I knock Pro PC out with Super AntiSpyware and then delete both from the registry. But this RetroUI which does the same as Classic Shell Keeps crashing. I stop it in the Task manager and disable it from the start up processes. But it still keeps crashing. It does not crash in safe mode. I think That when PC Pro Cleaner got installed "By Accident" it corrupted RetroUI. So I go after Retro trying to get all of it out of the PC, the registry etc. So Since I don't have time to go through this PC with a lice comb I am backing up her data and refreshing the PC. Time is of the essence. Oh and not only does she use this PC for work and can't work without it, she has Gigs and Gigs and Gigs of pictures and tons of docs on her desktop. I told her that after I back all this up, do not save any data on the PC, just save it on the external HDD she gave me. I told her it could have been catistrophic if it crashed worse than it did .

 

[coffee]

I use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of stuff that fails to uninstall. Does a great job.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

Hopefully you have not reloaded the computer yet. Try Revo out.

 

[atlasmike]

I use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of stuff that fails to uninstall. Does a great job.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

Hopefully you have not reloaded the computer yet. Try Revo out.

ya not yet. I just got done with the backup. I will try this in safe mode.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Just a reminder that she will want a second device to serve as a backup. Otherwise, if the external fails, she will have lost it all. My advice would be to continue using the laptop for regular storage but set up a task to make continuous/periodic backups to the external and possibly on-line storage.

 

[RemotechIT]

iObit Unistaller is good also. Use it myself all the time.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Just a reminded that she will want a second device to serve as a backup. Otherwise, if the external fails, she will have lost it all. My advice would be to continue using the laptop for regular storage but set up a task to make continuous/periodic backups to the external and possibly on-line storage.

This!!!!

Just because it is an external drive does NOT make it any safer then storing it on the main drive. The only thing that helps prevent is losses from OS corruption or the main drive failing. Viruses or massive hard ware failures(lightning, fires, etc) make it just as risky. And frankly an external drive is much more likely to be dropped, bumped, have coffee spilled on it, etc than an internal one. Making it IMO MORE risky then just keeping everything on the internal hard drive. External HDD should not be used for storage, they are for backups not primary storage.

 

[glricht]

Sounds like a Malware infestation. You'll be running into this a lot, so it will help to come up with a standard procedure.

What we do today (and these change over time):
1. Run RKILL to temporarily kill any running bad processes
2. Use Revo Uninstaller (or an uninstaller of your choice) to remove things you can see, but know you don't want
3. Run JRT (Junk Removal Tool) and ADWCleaner to ferret out some hidden things
4. Reboot (ADWCleaner will force this)
5. Use AutoRuns to review the start-up list
6. Reboot again

At this point, things are usually pretty stable. But if testing still shows some issues,
we'll use additional programs as appropriate (e.g. TDSSKiller, MBAR, RogueKiller, etc)

There are other tools that other shops use (as do we when the situation warrants), such as AIO. Once you've got a sequence of steps you're happy with, you can use D7 to automate them.

Hope this helps.

 

[altrenda]

Super Anti Spyware? Is that still a thing?

 

[glennd]

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms854944.aspx

This Stop message indicates that the requested page of kernel data from the paging file could not be read into memory. This Stop message is usually caused by a bad block (sector) in a paging file, a virus, a disk controller error, or failing RAM. In rare cases, it is caused when nonpaged pool resources run out. It is also caused by defective hardware.

assuming you've eliminated the malware, time to look at the hardware
chkdsk
check SMART stats
SMART disk tests
memtest
the page file may have been corrupted. once chkdsk is happy, it may be of benefit to reset the page file. i do this by disabling the paging file, reboot, set it back to how it was or fine tune, reboot again.

 

[NJW]

And frankly an external drive is much more likely to be dropped, bumped, have coffee spilled on it,

... be of dubious quality, remanufactured, have a proprietary interface ...

 

[frase]

run HDD sentinel for HDD health.
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

personally I always purchase WD Black for my systems and customers. Seagate suck, Hitachi are failing pieces of shite as well.

 

[JustInspired]

run HDD sentinel for HDD health.
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

Hi frase,
Does HD Sentinel have a portable version?
Thanks,
Julian

 

[Krynn72]

... have a proprietary interface ...

This is the biggest pet peeve I have with hard drive manufacturers.

 

[lan101]

Sounds like a Malware infestation. You'll be running into this a lot, so it will help to come up with a standard procedure.

What we do today (and these change over time):
1. Run RKILL to temporarily kill any running bad processes
2. Use Revo Uninstaller (or an uninstaller of your choice) to remove things you can see, but know you don't want
3. Run JRT (Junk Removal Tool) and ADWCleaner to ferret out some hidden things
4. Reboot (ADWCleaner will force this)
5. Use AutoRuns to review the start-up list
6. Reboot again

At this point, things are usually pretty stable. But if testing still shows some issues,
we'll use additional programs as appropriate (e.g. TDSSKiller, MBAR, RogueKiller, etc)

There are other tools that other shops use (as do we when the situation warrants), such as AIO. Once you've got a sequence of steps you're happy with, you can use D7 to automate them.

Hope this helps.

I do a similar process as well. I usually throw in combofix and malwarebytes too. If after doing those things if things are still too bad I'd just do a wipe because I could spend several more hours with no results. I try to get things out the door quickly as well so don't wanna have it holding up for more than a day if I can keep from it.

 

[brandonkick]

What others have said:

An external hard drive should NEVER be the primary means of storage. It's even dangerous as a primary
means of a backup solution.

Case in point: about four or five years ago I smacked my western digital mybook across the room...
It was of course and accident, I got stung by a bee and out of sheer surprise and reflex I flaied out my
moose arms and caught the external drive solidly with my for arm and sent it on a pretty nice trip across the
room and ultimately smacked it off my solid wood door.

After a few hours of "surgery" I was able to get the contents back off the drive. Lucky I got anything at all.


Use it as a means, and not the only means, of backup. Storage of files on a regular internal HDD is fine. Even an OS drive.

Just remember to backup copies that are offline at the very least (meaning on a device that isn't running) and offsite (a different
physical location) if possible.

Google drive charges $10 a month for 1TB of online storage. If the stuff is important, trust me, she will want to use something like that.
Greatly increases the chances she won't lose everything.


A note about some of the cleaner tools being mentioned here:

Be sure you know what your doing. Tools like combofix can cause a lot of collateral damage. Just because you have used it once or
twice before with no ill effect doesn't mean there isn't a real danger. Be cautious.

 

[glricht]

... Tools like combofix can cause a lot of collateral damage. Just because you have used it once or twice before with no ill effect doesn't mean there isn't a real danger. Be cautious.

Totally agree. Although I have used ComboFix when faced with a real stubborn problem, it's not a standard tool because of the high incidence of it creating additional problems.

 

[Martyn]

Haven't used Combofix for over a year now.

 

[frase]

Hi frase,
Does HD Sentinel have a portable version?
Thanks,
Julian

It does though purchase
http://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php

 

[FremontPC]

+1 on external hard drives as primary storage. I can't recall a one of them that's warranted for more than 3 years, mostly 1 or 2 years. I generally suggest getting a good external enclosure with a WD Black drive, although the 2.5" blacks only go up to 750GB. In any case, don't leave the important stuff on only one drive.

 

[cypress]

Totally agree. Although I have used ComboFix when faced with a real stubborn problem, it's not a standard tool because of the high incidence of it creating additional problems.

+1 for this. it is very rarely that I use this. I remember using it quite awhile ago and causing some serious damage on a computer using the MySQL database. It quarantined a lot of files that weren't malicious. Safe to say I learned my lesson and it was a good thing I had a backup and I got the issue resolved quickly afterwards. ComboFix is a strong tool and some techs like to use it first but I will only use it if I know something stubborn is still there and everything else I Had thrown at it has had no effects.