🚀 go-pugleaf

On 8/2/2010 11:35 PM, Dustin wrote:
> John Slade<hhitman86@pacbell.net>  wrote in
> news:i37va2$e0f$1@news.eternal-september.org:
>
>> On 8/2/2010 11:41 AM, Dustin wrote:
>>> John Slade<hhitman86@pacbell.net>   wrote in
>>> news:3dp5o.33911$o27.791@newsfe08.iad:
>>>
>>>> On 8/1/2010 3:04 PM, Dustin wrote:
>>>>> John Slade<hhitman86@pacbell.net>    wrote in
>>>>> news:ILj5o.44119$4B7.2363@newsfe16.iad:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 8/1/2010 8:24 AM, Dustin wrote:
>>>>>>> John Slade<hhitman86@pacbell.net>     wrote in
>>>>>>> news:i32s10$653$1@news.eternal-september.org:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 7/31/2010 4:21 PM, Dustin wrote:
>>>>>>>>> John Slade<hhitman86@pacbell.net>      wrote in
>>>>>>>>> news:L0p4o.32466$OU6.4877@newsfe20.iad:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On 7/29/2010 1:40 PM, David H. Lipman wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> From: "John Slade"<hhitman86@pacbell.net>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> | On 7/29/2010 3:24 AM, David H. Lipman wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> From: "John Slade"<hhitman86@pacbell.net>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> | On 7/27/2010 11:17 PM, RJK wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>             You should know there is malware out there that
>>>>>>>>>>             will
>>>>>>>>>> trash the registry and it's backup. It will require some
>>>>>>>>>> sort of reinstall to get the system back working. I found it
>>>>>>>>>> very rare that I need to do a full reformat and reinstall
>>>>>>>>>> because of malware. Some malware will also corrupt system
>>>>>>>>>> files and when you remove them with scanners, it will make
>>>>>>>>>> the installation unbootable. This is yet another reason
>>>>>>>>>> professionals will make a backup if possible before removing
>>>>>>>>>> infections.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> What software do you use for the backup?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>           I will either use Acronis' or Paragon's backup
>>>>>>>>           software
>>>>>>>> depending on the situation.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Are you storing the backup on
>>>>>>>>> read only media or a hard drive that could fail for any
>>>>>>>>> reason?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>          You mean WORM(Write Once/Read Many) media don't you?
>>>>>>>>          That
>>>>>>>> media can fail also. No media is perfect. I store the backup
>>>>>>>> on business or enterprise grade HDs and will transfer to other
>>>>>>>> media if the customer wants that backup. If it's a large
>>>>>>>> backup they will have to pay me for it. Tell me what software
>>>>>>>> and hardware would you use to backup your customer's HD before
>>>>>>>> you start removing malware?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I haven't heard the acronym WORM in years... Damn, you have
>>>>>>> been around a long time. :) I was thinking of cd-r or perhaps
>>>>>>> dvd-r material.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>           It would be OK for DVD-R if the backup is small. But
>>>>>> swapping 20 or more DVDs is a pain.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It depends. When I was working at a computer shop; I'd either
>>>>>>> use norton ghost corp edition or the hardware drive cloning
>>>>>>> device we had at the time.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>           I rarely use Ghost these days, it used to be the only
>>>>>> thing I ever used.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I really didn't see much point in cloning a malware drive
>>>>>>> for malware removal; I wasn't stupid enough to trash my backups
>>>>>>> of the registry or important files. besides, I wrote several
>>>>>>> utilities to assist me in verifying various windows dll/exe
>>>>>>> files were still intact and okay for reuse.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>          Yea that's good for you, but when you're working for
>>>>>> someone else and they have important data they want to save, I
>>>>>> will backup. Most of the time the customer doesn't have a
>>>>>> backup. A lot of times the customer has a HD that's five or six
>>>>>> years old and they really need a backup done. Then there are the
>>>>>> times when I'm working for a young person and they don't want a
>>>>>> backup they just want the drive wiped and they want the OS
>>>>>> installed.
>>>>>
>>>>> Theres your odd attitude again. What makes you think I wasn't
>>>>> working for someone else when I did those things? Obviously since
>>>>> I didn't own the shop, I was working for someone else.
>>>>
>>>>          Well you made it sound like you were doing it for
>>>>          yourself.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Btw, What certifications do you presently hold? I'm just lowly
>>>>> A+/network+ (back when that stupid thing was still considered
>>>>> worth the paper it's printed on). Are you MCSE?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>          I took courses and wound up teaching an A+ class. A+ is a
>>>> good place to start for someone looking to get certified for
>>>> work at some company that requires that cert. I view the MCSE
>>>> certification as pretty much a money making scam. I look at MCSE
>>>> certifications as a joke in many cases because some courses just
>>>
>>> My boss paid for the tests, it just cost me some driving time. As
>>> I've been doing the computer thing since the trash80 series was
>>> actually new and hot stuff to some, I didn't really need to study
>>> for the exam. While tandy's computers were proprietary in nature,
>>> they had some things in common with cp/m and later dos machines.
>>> Besides, it beat tracing a grounding problem on an AT mainboard
>>> keyboard port.<G>
>>>
>>> The shop I worked at actually fixed problems, we didn't ship to
>>> manufacturer or sell you a new mainboard if components could be
>>> replaced cheaper and still bring the system back to it's original
>>> self. None of us were afraid of soldering pencils or precision
>>> electronics, everyone at the shop had a background in it.
>>
>>        I got my start in electronics and have a background in
>> that too. I took college courses in electronics and am no
>> stranger to repairing circuit boards. I'm no stranger to
>> soldering irons. Well that's what we called them. I used to
>> repair TVs, radios and such years ago.
>
> Odd. I'm familiar with soldering irons as well as pencils,

      Well most people I know call all of them "soldering irons" 
no matter the size.


>
>>>
>>> So, as a professional with years on me, do you replace boards or
>>> actually get down and dirty with them?
>>
>>      When I need to repair a blown component like a bad sound
>> card, video card or controller card, I replace it. I haven't
>> needed to repair an actual circuit board for at least 15 years.
>
> So you haven't seen the leaking capacitor issue in your time
> professionally repairing PCs? If you have, did you upsell your client
> instead of replacing the caps? You can find them pretty cheap, in 50-
> 100 packs; enough to do several boards...

     I've seen just about everything that can cause a MB or card 
to fail. I swap it out. I don't whip out a soldering iron at a 
client's house to fix a throw-away component like a mother board 
or card these days. It's just not worth the effort to get the 
actual schematics and replace a teeny tiny resistor that has no 
marking on it. You do of course know that not all components 
exhibit actual visual signs of failure so you have to get a 
meter to go in and test with a schematic on components. There is 
other test equipment for motherboards  Basically it would cost 
the client lots of money and time. Today's components are best 
replaced. Would you actually repair a $30 sound card?

>
>> The last component level repairs I did for a computer was
>> replacing burned out components on my old Amiga computer's
>> motherboard. But I gave up on all that stuff, just not worth the
>> hassle any more especially with these newer multilayer boards
>> with tiny components and surface mounted chips. It can be done
>> but it's usually not worth it.
>
> You don't work with laptops much eh? They're bad about breaking the
> power connector on the mainboard. In those cases, what do you do?

     I do some repairs on laptops like replace bad components. I 
don't do component level repairs when I can save time and money 
buying a replacement part. I let the good folk who make the 
laptop components to the refurbishing work.

>
>>> It looks nice on paper, tho. :) I like you didn't bother to fork
>>> out the 2grand for the MCSE certs, I watched a friend of mine who
>>> knew next to nothing about computers; get MCSE inside of 3 months
>>> time. So, yea, I'm in complete agreement with you about them. Lots
>>> of reading, a very small amount of practice in the LAN I configured
>>> for him, and walla; MCSE certified; but doesn't know his ass from a
>>> hole in the ground.
>>>

>
>>> I know of no malware which would force me to toss an entire restore
>>> point. I can just go into the folder from another system and do
>>> what needs to be done; without endangering said system.
>>>
>>
>>       I used Bitdefender's bootable CD to remove malware from the
>> restore point files and it did not solve the problem. I rebooted
>> and the malware was written there again. Only when I turned off
>
> If the malware was written back when you rebooted, you missed something
> that was being given a chance to run when windows was booted normally.
>

       No that's not what happened. This conversation is going 
in circles, I told you what happened more than once.

>> system restore and when I rebooted, I got a popup stating that
>> it couldn't find a file in the system restore folders that were
>> deleted. Then I did a final scan and the malware was gone,
>> system fixed.
>
> Again, thats on you for missing the file in the first place... Nobody
> said you couldn't store a file in the system restore folder, in fact
> you can.

       Well I'm glad we agree on something, it is possible for 
the malware to behave like I said it did. Now that we've got 
that cleared up. There is no need to waste my time explaining 
what happened yet again.

John