Please Help me prevent virus

[Prabakar]

My Problem:
I have lots of virus & Trojan horses in my Pen drive. I don't have any valuable data though.

If I plug in the drive in my USB port, the viruses do something & I loose my internet connectivity & it also occupies more space memory. Without knowing what to do, I have formated my hard-drive & reinstalled Win XP and various softwares. So now my computer is free from virus.

Question:
How would I delete the virus in my pen drive & at the same time protect my computer. (I don't need the data in it)

Please help

[salim hussain]

Use knoppix or better PCLinuxOS - if you don't know howto get a friend knowing to do it

[Prabakar]

Thanks for the reply.

And then Is Switching OS the only way? Aren't there any Security settings for such cases in windows?

Like logging in with limited privilege account or in safe mode, I am not sure if it will work.

I don't have Linux & I will have to download it which will take a lot of time.

Thanks again for help:)

[salim hussain]

Knoppix is a live CD it works in memory without touching your disk - by default disks are its read-only. Need 1G of Memory for someboy new to it (but I've made it work in 386 M.) depends on which version. If your computer hasn't got SATA drives use
version 3.7 that a really good one. Otherwise download the CD version 5.1.1. From India it may be slow, but I am sure that downloading 700 M iso should not be difficult if you have DSL. This Knoppix is the better version to check Windows, because it works even if the NTFS has chkdsk error. But PCLinuxOS is so good to replace windows with !!!

[Prabakar]

Thanks again:)
I have made up my mind. I am going to download PCLinuxOS. Its a free ware isn't it?

And I have 256 Kilobits per second bandwidth. I shall download it in 2 or 3 days I guess.

[tmaha9]

Hello again,
It is really a good choice - and use it to
reformat your USB key - the program is Harddrake from system config/hardware/harddrake

[tmaha9]

One other point - If you start doing your internet with it - you'll no longer be messed up by Virus' or malware - like in windows

[Prabakar]

I am downloading the file now & 20% is already over.
Anyway I will finish downloading it by tomorrow. I have never worked with Linux. I would probably start lot of threads. Thanks T.Maha for you concern:)

Knoppix is a live CD it works in memory without touching your disk - by default disks are its read-only. Need 1G of Memory for someboy new to it (but I've made it work in 386 M.) depends on which version. If your computer hasn't got SATA drives use
version 3.7 that a really good one.

Please do explain me how to cut short requirement of 1 GB to 386 MB.
And What are SATA drivers? I do not know of them.

[Prabakar]

I have installed PClinuxOS & I have formatted the pen drive. Though I was not able to connect to the internet in Linux.
But, the purpose for this thread is successfully met:) So Thanks to every one

[salim hussain]

Hello from salimhus,
So what version have you installed - and I'm surprised
that you didn't get it to start your DSL automatically. Because it 10 time less problematic to start Internet with Linux compared to WinXP.

[Prabakar]

I thought I should ask this question in linux forum. Well, I will do it here.

First I downloaded PCLinuxOS from here

Problems I face:
1) When I booted from the CD Linux asked me for Type of connection. I chose DSL & then the wizard said that No hardware is found for this type of connection.
2) After Installing the OS in one of the partition I tried to install driver for my Ethernet LAN card. The driver CD (Zerbonic) had folders for XP, ME, Solaris, etc & Linux 2.6.4
The read me file asked me to compile the source code which resulted in lots of error message. There was a makefile but I didnt know how to use it.

3) I pondered around the OS for sometime to get acquainted with LINUX & I tried to configure internet connection, but again the same problem.

4) I inserted the CD given by the ISP ( BSNL Broadband Sancharnet) and nothing happened. When I opened one of the HTML page It had the content Operating System not supported.

I dont know whether I am giving relevant information but this is all I have.

I dont know much about hardware, but I shall state my hardware related to network connections

1) Lan card
2) External Modem given my the service provider ( Type 1 ) with has provision to connect with USB & Ethernet LAN card( which I am currently using)

Thanks for replying.

[salim hussain]

I still don't know the version of PCLinuxOS - how big the iso is ?
The better Linux is V 2007 or 2008 - there are many other "minime" minimalist but they are not for a newbie to linux.
These are all Live CD - so you don't need to install before you run and test it.
So run the LiveCD and wait until it ask you your country keyboard specifics. The next question will ask you for the internet card and further internet options - most likely if you have DSL - you only reply yes to all. And you should get your internet in Konqueror or FireFox. In that live CD mode there is no possibility of having viruses getting to you.

[salim hussain]

So tell me how it goes

[Prabakar]

Sorry for not replying for a while.
The iso is 698 MB big.
I was not able to connect to the internet when I used the Live version & after installation.
I'll post the screen shots if possible as I am just not able to explain my problem.

[Prabakar]

Here I have come up with some screen shots. Not all of them are relevant to my problem. But just in case,

This looks very much odd. These post has nothing to do with this forum. I shall repost this in linux forum. We shall continue there

[salim hussain]

Hello from SalimHus
It doesnt see any Internet card so it can't access it !
You don't have DSL but an ISDN card, so choose ISDN in network config + other otions it asks. I don't have an ISDN connection, but it usually configure ADSL automatically.
Regards

[Prabakar]

I have replied in Linux forum. Please Check