I have 2 of these and one is a 2.0 and other is 3.0 usb. I currently have all the stuff i need saved into storage site so i could wipe everything off these usb. I saw that it has autorun.inf so there is a good chance i read that my usb flash drive have virus/infected. I want to wipe it fully clean and thus any viruses that it might have which i believe i do, i want it wiped off


How can i do this correctly? I read to click format and thats all? Or should i delete everything on it first, then click format? I already see theres an autorun.inf file so should i remove that first before formatting?


Someone mentioned to just right click and format and just make sure i don't check the option for quick format because that format isn't that good.


Thank you.

Formatting the usb drive is sufficient for what you need - quick or otherwise. No need to delete anything first.

If you want the data completely unrecoverable, I.e. if you are disposing of the drive, that is a different matter.

Also, autorun.inf does not mean there is / ever was a virus - just that something was set to run automatically when the drive was plugged in (some USBs come with software set to autorun - and this may just be a remnant of that). Personally, I always delete autorun.inf files - it doesn't stop the program working, just stops it from starting automatically.

Thanks for that information.


One other thing. There many documents/files that i have in the usb that i want to keep. I wanted to keep it on a storage site like box.com. I want to make sure that when i transfer these documents from box.com to another computer, that there won't be any type of viruses/malware.


What is the best way to do this then? I assume scan it with antisuperspyware, malwarebytes and remove whatever is infectious. Then just upload all those files to box.com? Or should i delete the autorun.inf first before uploading all of those to box.com? Also when i upload, i pretty much just copy all of them then it uploads all the files at once.


When you say delete autorun.inf files, dont you mean that just 1 file? Not sure why you put plural on it. Also do you just click delete on it when you mean delete or thats not the proper way to delete it?


Because i want to make sure any file that i transfer from usb to box.com, none of it has virus/malware so when i open those files on another computer, doesn't matter if its an old or new computer, then it would be virus free. Is this possible or not? Because i did read something that in a site said the best thing to do would be just print out all those files/documents you need then scan each one into another computer. That however would obviously be a huge hassle. Also that wouldn't really work that well with word and excel documents if you get what i mean since i would still be using the same ones and continuing with it.

[QUOTE=PaulyJames200x;45146088]Thanks for that information.


One other thing. There many documents/files that i have in the usb that i want to keep. I wanted to keep it on a storage site like box.com. I want to make sure that when i transfer these documents from box.com to another computer, that there won't be any type of viruses/malware.


What is the best way to do this then? I assume scan it with antisuperspyware, malwarebytes and remove whatever is infectious. Then just upload all those files to box.com? Or should i delete the autorun.inf first before uploading all of those to box.com? Also when i upload, i pretty much just copy all of them then it uploads all the files at once.
[\QUOTE]

Doesn't matter if you delete the autorun file first or not, as long as you don't upload it.

Yes, generally if you select 10 files to upload they are all uploaded at once.

[QUOTE]
When you say delete autorun.inf files, dont you mean that just 1 file? Not sure why you put plural on it. Also do you just click delete on it when you mean delete or thats not the proper way to delete it?
[\QUOTE]

Pluralised as a generalisation. I don't like autorun files. There will be only 1 autorun file in any 1 location.

Yes, just click delete.

Whatever site you read that from is next to useless and a complete waste of time, imo. Just scan with your AV software - if clean, upload them.

Okay just noticed this.


With my usb 3.0 hard drive, i had lot of files that where there. When i click on my computer... it showed a folder that said removable disk. I then copied every file into box.com. I then decided to manually delete a few of the files on the usb 3.0. I was going to delete the rest of the files later today. I just noticed that when i click on my computer now to click on the usb drive....It doesn't show a yellow folder. Instead it shows NO ICON AT ALL. That is strange b/c it always had a yellow folder until i deleted a few word/excel files. Why does it show this? At the moment that means i have a virus on my usb drive then right? I mean... theres no icon at all.


http://www.techchore.com/2009/08/7-s...ected-usb.html

Step 4 mentions that means virus most likely.


Also i had transferred all those documents to box.com WITHOUT deleting autorun and a few other programs. I did scan it already. So what am i suppose to do now then? Does that mean my files in box.com are infected then? I assume i can't just delete the autorun file and my other files on box.com would then be not infected?

Also does this mean my new sager laptop is infected then b/c i had this usb 3.0 in the new laptop?

[QUOTE=mahnahmahnah;45146899][QUOTE=PaulyJames200x;45146088]Thanks for that information.


One other thing. There many documents/files that i have in the usb that i want to keep. I wanted to keep it on a storage site like box.com. I want to make sure that when i transfer these documents from box.com to another computer, that there won't be any type of viruses/malware.


What is the best way to do this then? I assume scan it with antisuperspyware, malwarebytes and remove whatever is infectious. Then just upload all those files to box.com? Or should i delete the autorun.inf first before uploading all of those to box.com? Also when i upload, i pretty much just copy all of them then it uploads all the files at once.
[\QUOTE]

Doesn't matter if you delete the autorun file first or not, as long as you don't upload it.

Yes, generally if you select 10 files to upload they are all uploaded at once.


Yea i unloaded that file as well into box along with the 50 plus files i had. So what am i suppose to do now? Most of the files are very small so thats why i had so many, most are doc/excel files.

So should i just download these files from my box.com to my old asus laptop instead? Then delete the autorun, then scan all these 50 files again, then upload it again to box.com? Also should i open another box.com file instead and dont use that one?

Thing is im 100 percent going to do a complete reinstall on the asus laptop. And now im pretty certain i will do it as well with the new sager laptop due to this issue.

I had some files/documents on my usb that i deleted all of them b/c i wanted to wipe everything then do a format due to it most likely have a virus. I had thought i saved certain files into box.com. I only however saved a portion of them and some of them i did not upload it to box.com. This is with my new sager laptop that i deleted those files from in the usb 3.0.


I also had those pictures on my old asus laptop in pictures but i deleted it. I also deleted it from recycle bin. I dont recall how long ago it was but its within the last few weeks.


Is there a way i can restore some of these documents? The thing is its mostly pictures and a few documents that i didn't save which i thought i saved on box.com. Also they were on both usbs that i have a 2.0 and a 3.0 but i deleted it all then formatted it.


Want to mention that its photos that i want to restore and not any documents.

I tried remo recover, recuva, diskdigger and even though its scans everything, i only see like a few photos in the thumbnails. However, all these pictures are those ads from internet sites etc and not the pictures in my documents in my laptop or the usb drive.

Does this mean i can't retrieve those photos anymore if i used all these 3 programs and scanned it then clicked view as thumbnail and if the pictures are not shown, then i can't recover it?

Wifi is very common now. But do the majority of ppl who play online use wired or wifi connection? I always used wired and liked it b/c its more stable. Even though the wifi connection is good, usually theres going to be a few minor disconnects always it seems compared to wired.


Wired obviously doesn't look good because of hence the wires. But does it seem that most ppl just play wireless these days?

Was there a real question for this forum?

First thing to do when recovering deleted files is to stop using the drive you are recovering from... don't let anything write data to that drive, as each write has the potential of writing over the data you are trying to recover. Deleting and then formatting it doesn't matter, but don't take any further action on those drives.

Where are you trying to recover the files from? The USBs? or the computer?

I ask because some recovery software doesn't work too well on USBs. The USBs would likely have had less writes to the drives, so would give you the best chance of recovery.

Try this one http://www.easeus.com/resource/drive...lash-drive.htm

I've not used box.com, but I assume that you can just delete the autorun.inf from that location? There's no need to get another box.com file... the autorun file will not be infected itself, it just tells the computer to open a specific file when the drive is connected.

I tried that along with diskdigger, photorec, recuva on my usb flash drive. After deep cleaning, all of them show 0 files to recover. That means i can't recover anything then right?

I clicked on the usb, then clicked next to few times and after scanning all i see is 0.

I like to mention that after i manually deleted those files from the usb, all i did was then right click and format and waited a bit. I didn't put anything else or transfer any files into it afterwards. But i assume the formatting it probably overwrote everything then?


Files from the usb and its pictures i wanted to recover.


Also used those programs on the computer but it was way too much... it was like over 2 million pictures or something and i had to view them like 16 at a time. So after all that clicking... i stopped b/c it would take multiple hours at least to check each picture to see which ones i wanted to recover. So i figured well try the usb b/c i only have very few stuff there but since i formatted it, i didnt think it work.

You forgot powerline OP. I use powerline.

I had also come under situation where you were but by making use of Remo Recover Pro edition i was able to recover all my lost data from the storage device... i suspect that you might have gone wrong is utilizing the software in the right way...

nothing is truly erased from a hard drive. Specialist (like the FBI) can recover anything

Probably more appropriate for IP section.

I have a Dell xps 8100 and a asus u45jc-a1 that i had did a clean reinstall due to both computers being very slow and also because i believe theres lot of virus/bloatware in it.


I bought a new sager laptop because i needed a fast computer thats quad core and wanted one where i wouldn't download anything that could be virus in it. When i first got the laptop, it was very fast. I made sure to not put any files in it or download anything that might have a virus.


However, I did have a usb flash drive that had files there and i had put into the sager laptop slot and opened few of those documents up. I had thought as long as i dont transfer those files to my computer, thus as long as i dont copy and paste it to my computer, it was safe. This was until i read if a usb flash drive is infected, even putting it inside a usb port or opening a document from it on a computer could transport a virus.


The thing is at that time, i then decided to scan both usbs that i had and both of them had an auto.inf that i read suggest is most likely a virus. I have an old 2.0 usb and a new 3.0 usb. The thing is with the 2.0 usb, i later saw that after i deleted a few programs off the usb... instead of the usb being shown as an image.. there was no image at all. I read that was another sign of it being infected. So i then deleted everythign on it and then formatted it. Now the usb when checking it in my computer, theres an image there now, and as oppose to no image.


The thing is i noticed that after i put the 3.0 usb into my new laptop, it seemed like my computer got a bit slower as well. I then used superantispyware and it saw over 100 adware/spyware in it each time i scan the computer daily after that date.


Should i do a complete reinstall of my new sager laptop?

I was recommended by someone to scan it with malwarebytes and i did that. It shows nothing. However with superantispyware... everytime i scan it, it would have lot of threats. Today it shows 28 threats. Other days it would be over 100 plus. The thing is when i first got the laptop and didnt put the usb into it, i recalled i didnt have any threats at all when scanning.


Someone then recommended me to scan with herdprotect.


I then see this after the scan


Inconclusive

8227_Holdemmanager2setup.exe (not signed in)
c:users/my name/downloads/8227_Holdemmanager2setup.exe

Recommendation: Not enough information to make a d...


Eset Nod32 (Win32/Packed.Themida)
Fortinet Fortigate (Possible Threat)
K7 Antivirus (Trojan)
K7 Gateway Antivirus (Trojan)
Kingsoft Antivirus (Virus Unknown)
Norman (Suspicious_Gen4.HDNOJ)
Trend Micro House Call (Suspici.A4D64B83)




Thoughts on this? The thing is if i didn't put my 3.0 usb into this new laptop, then im sure i wouldn't have to even think about doing a complete reinstall as when i got the laptop, i was going to make sure any file that gets opened or put in the new laptop i will make sure they are virus free. But i didn't know that putting a usb that is infected could cause this.


Anyone can tell me if any of these are threats/viruses that i should worry about using herdprotect? Also why does superantispyware always show so many threats?

Superantispyware is probably just picking up tracking cookies and things like that - not everything detected is a ZOMG END OF THE WORLD virus. If you actually read the logs it should tell you what type of item each thing is.

I would think that the HEM2 detection in your second post is probably a false positive.

But seriously, you have been flooding this forum with your questions for a while now. You must know that if you really think you have a malware infection you need to follow the steps in the sticky thread for anyone to be able to start helping you properly.

Last, stop worrying about everything so much. Not all autorun.inf files are viruses, you know. While it's a possible infection vector for some common malware that propagates via flash drives, it can also be perfectly innocent.

1. What antivirus program do you have installed?

2. Do you also have MBAM (free version) installed?

3. What happened when you did a full scan of (a) your computer and (b) the flash drives in question with each of those pieces of software?

Incidentally, Superantispyware isn't really that useful these days.

False positive for HEM2 for sure.

Can you try and not spam this forum line a maniac. You have 5 threads on page 1. A lot of tech problems can be solved by some Googling and reading and stuff and you'll end up learning more as well

+1

run malwarebytes full scan, rdkill, combofix, reboot and you should be good.

wot

if your wireless sucks, get a better router. Just got a new one and now our wifi speeds are equal to wired speeds.