Download and run combofix to kill most malware:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/

Click "yes" to anything it wants to do. It will run for about 10-15 minutes, then it reboots, then it sits there for another 10 minutes or so and spits out a log report. Save the log report, and read it to see what it deleted. In my experience it completely kills about 80% of all malware I have come across on family and friends' computers.

Incognoto

France10239 Posts

January 28 2015 15:57 GMT

#10402

Oh, thanks for that one. Will give it a shot.

jetburger

United States87 Posts

January 29 2015 19:59 GMT

#10403

A friend has an old laptop that she hasn't used in like 3 or 4 years. She suspects there might be a virus or something on it. I'm not too tech savvy myself, but I told her that I think the best thing to do would be to just get what little data you can off of there (just pictures and videos, really) and then wipe the whole thing clean with a format and fresh install of Windows 7. First question: I am right about that part so far?

However, she's not even sure she still has the original install disk that I assume came with the laptop. So I said we could probably just get a copy of Windows 7 elsewhere and use that instead of the manufacturer's install disk. Second question: Is it going to be as easy as I'm hoping? Can we just install a fresh copy of Windows and then it will automatically find and install required drivers for things like the display, the touchpad, and everything else that's sort of built in to the laptop?

pheer

5400 Posts

January 29 2015 22:14 GMT

#10404

^ See 3 posts up. Run combofix to kill any malware and a lot of viruses. It will be more trouble than it's worth to reinstall Win7 if you don't have a copy of it handy. You are better off just using the computer until it actually starts to have problems, then reformat as a last resort.

Cyro

United Kingdom20343 Posts

January 29 2015 22:23 GMT

#10405

Some people would have you nuke it from orbit (reformat) immediately; (i'd probably be one of those) while others go the opposite route and only do it as a last resort. I think drivers for GPU, touchpad etc should be findable online, but you can probably check with the model number

Deleuze

United Kingdom2102 Posts

January 31 2015 10:30 GMT

#10406

Does it have its own recover tool? I've used that in the past. It reimages the disk and keeps all firmware, just lose data and program files.

If its a sony or Dell laptop it probably has a recovery tool under any care products on their (yes this is effectively bloatware but it will save you the trouble). Windows key should be under laptop somewhere.

EDIT: what's the make and model?

roronoe

Canada1527 Posts

February 03 2015 21:22 GMT

#10407

I have a portable hard disk that's asking me to reformat all of a sudden. What's a recommended data recovery tool that I should use?

pheer

5400 Posts

February 03 2015 22:56 GMT

#10408

First see if recuva (freeware) can access it:
https://www.piriform.com/recuva

If not, I would recommend R-Studio, which is the best recovery program I have ever used (and I tried about 6 of em):
http://www.data-recovery-software.net/Data_Recovery_Download.shtml

OsaX Nymloth

Poland3244 Posts

February 03 2015 23:01 GMT

#10409

On February 04 2015 06:22 roronoe wrote:
I have a portable hard disk that's asking me to reformat all of a sudden. What's a recommended data recovery tool that I should use?

If you really need to restore data, you can use Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva - there's also a portable version. It does it's job quite nice. Or you can get Hiren's Boot CD, there's few applications than can help with HDD issues.

edit: sniped :<

roronoe

Canada1527 Posts

February 04 2015 00:39 GMT

#10410

Thanks for the suggestion, pheer and OsaX Nymloth!
I downloaded recuva and it's running right now. Look like its going to take a few hours, but it should get the job done : D

Karis Vas Ryaar

United States4396 Posts

February 04 2015 01:58 GMT

#10411

I have a video game system in my room that was previously hooked up to 2 25 foot ethernet cables who were connected via a female to female coupler. I moved said system and now the cords a few feet short. If I hook up another ethernet cable(3 ft) via coupler will that effect quality at all and if so what's my best option. I could also get a 50 foot cable and only use one coupler for the whole thing. I don't really want to by a 25 foot cable and have 20 feet of cable getting in the way

fruity.

England1711 Posts

February 04 2015 08:11 GMT

#10412

What would be my best bet for doubling my current vga cards oompf (gtx 460) Baring in mind it has to be nvidia (hand-me-downs from the pc comp go to the linux box & amd drivers are poor on linux). A 680 is roughly the region horsepower wise. But which model would give me best bang for buck? Would a higher end 670 be better than lower 680?

Cyro

United Kingdom20343 Posts

February 04 2015 08:49 GMT

#10413

670/680 are a few "gens" old, nvidia talk wise. They're pretty recent tech-wise, but they haven't been sold for about a year and a half. If you're buying them used they could be cheap (very true for many GPU's that were upper midrange to high end)

Current gen equivalent to that power level is the 960, which might be a little more costly but has over 1.5x the FPS per watt (which means less power consumption and less heat output, so less noise for similar level of cooling etcetcetc) and they have a few more features such as (i think this applies to 960 but i didn't see confirmation yet) faster nvenc, as well as (definitely applies) MFAA.

Of this generation though, the 960 is more of a "450" than a 460.

The 970, or r9 290, is about 1.7x faster than the 960. There should probably be a 960ti soonish, but it might not be for many months

fruity.

England1711 Posts

February 04 2015 09:48 GMT

#10414

Thanks for the input cyro, appreciated. I didnt think the 960's would be as cheap as they are having just browsed scan. I'll see what I can dig up on the 960's review wise.

Cyro

United Kingdom20343 Posts

February 04 2015 10:01 GMT

#10415

This is one of the better, but more expensive 960 cards~ http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-960-g1-gaming-review,1.html

MielieZA

South Africa25 Posts

February 04 2015 13:00 GMT

#10416

On February 04 2015 10:58 Karis Vas Ryaar wrote:
I have a video game system in my room that was previously hooked up to 2 25 foot ethernet cables who were connected via a female to female coupler. I moved said system and now the cords a few feet short. If I hook up another ethernet cable(3 ft) via coupler will that effect quality at all and if so what's my best option. I could also get a 50 foot cable and only use one coupler for the whole thing. I don't really want to by a 25 foot cable and have 20 feet of cable getting in the way

I would get a 5-port or 8-port switch to connect to the end of the 2 25ft cables,then run a short UTP cable to that. I don't know how much another coupler would effect the throughput, maybe someone a bit more in the know would be able to better advise. Just thought I'd share what I would do

Good luck

pheer

5400 Posts

February 04 2015 13:09 GMT

#10417

"Quality" loss on long Ethernet cables is felt as a loss in transfer speed. Unless your home internet is 100mbps you aren't going to notice a loss in "quality" at all. You can theoretically hook up 100 couplers and still not have any problems because what you are transferring probably doesn't need more than 10mbps anyway. It's true that you can start experiencing packet loss though. So give it a try and see what happens!

fruity.

England1711 Posts

February 05 2015 12:07 GMT

#10418

On February 04 2015 19:01 Cyro wrote:
This is one of the better, but more expensive 960 cards~ http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-960-g1-gaming-review,1.html

I went for the Palit Jet Stream in the end. Price was an over riding consideration. Not a brand I have bought before, I usually go for Gigabyte or Asus. Hope it's a deceision I don't regret.

Zess

Adun Toridas!9144 Posts

February 05 2015 23:58 GMT

#10419

If I plan on overclocking, does paying the ~40% premium for the 290X make sense compared to 290? Binning means I'm probably (though not guaranteed) to end up with more headroom and a more stable card right? Or if I'm pushing both up anyways that just makes the price/performance end up being even worse on the 290X vs 290?

Cyro

United Kingdom20343 Posts

February 06 2015 00:13 GMT

#10420

No. The 290x is usually less than 5% faster than 290 at the same clock speed. Even if it clocked higher on average, it would be silly unless you were simply looking for the fastest single AMD GPU (but not the fastest overall gpu) for enthusiast benchmarking purposes