I am sure there are other how to's on this topic - I didn't bother searching - but, here is my take on this
As the subject alludes, this is a how to on deworming a windows installation using linux.
What you need :
a live CD of a linux distro - I prefer PCLinux OS 2009 for it's userfriendliness when modifying ntfs partitions, and it's built in remastering tool.
a standalone antivirus - I prefer Cureit, the free version of drweb antivirus, available at drweb.com
Preparation
Since the antivirus will not run natively in linux, you need the Wine emulator. So first run the live CD on your system, and use Synaptic to install the wine package. Once this is done, you can remaster the installation, so that this step can be avoided in future. The tools to remaster are available in the menus.
Get the latest cureit tool and save it to a thumb drive.
Steps
Use the live remastered CD to boot into the system. login with root username and password.
Next, on the desktop double click on My computer icon. This will list the drives in the system. Double click on any drive that you want to scan. Double clicking makes the drive available for modification, and without this step you cannot access the windows drive. You can similarly activate all drives you intend to scan, though scanning the boot drive is usually enough. Note that the drives appear under /media directory. The first drive will be /media/disk (or /media/volume name if it has one).
Next connect the thumb drive. A window will pop up allowing you to explore the contents. Among the contents right click on the cureit tool and select open with and then enter "wine" in the window the pops up next.
This will launch the cureit tool. It will run a preliminary self scan, which is unnecessary, so you can stop the scan and save some time. Then select Custom scan and browse down to /media/disk (or appropriately titled entry) and start the scan.
Sit back while the tool does it's work. It can disinfect most files, and the rest have to be deleted.
Once the scan is complete, I usually reboot into the windows installation in safe mode and install a full blown anitivirus like Avast that has a "scan on boot" option (and also installs without issues in safe mode unlike many other AVs) and do a "scan on boot" scan of the entire system.
Usually these steps suffice. If system files are deleted, and booting into windows is impossible as a result, you will need to do a repair reinstall.
Besides using an AV from within Linux, you can delete suspicious files right away - like all autorun.infs, "folder name".exe etc.
Let me know your opinions and suggestions on this.
As the subject alludes, this is a how to on deworming a windows installation using linux.
What you need :
a live CD of a linux distro - I prefer PCLinux OS 2009 for it's userfriendliness when modifying ntfs partitions, and it's built in remastering tool.
a standalone antivirus - I prefer Cureit, the free version of drweb antivirus, available at drweb.com
Preparation
Since the antivirus will not run natively in linux, you need the Wine emulator. So first run the live CD on your system, and use Synaptic to install the wine package. Once this is done, you can remaster the installation, so that this step can be avoided in future. The tools to remaster are available in the menus.
Get the latest cureit tool and save it to a thumb drive.
Steps
Use the live remastered CD to boot into the system. login with root username and password.
Next, on the desktop double click on My computer icon. This will list the drives in the system. Double click on any drive that you want to scan. Double clicking makes the drive available for modification, and without this step you cannot access the windows drive. You can similarly activate all drives you intend to scan, though scanning the boot drive is usually enough. Note that the drives appear under /media directory. The first drive will be /media/disk (or /media/volume name if it has one).
Next connect the thumb drive. A window will pop up allowing you to explore the contents. Among the contents right click on the cureit tool and select open with and then enter "wine" in the window the pops up next.
This will launch the cureit tool. It will run a preliminary self scan, which is unnecessary, so you can stop the scan and save some time. Then select Custom scan and browse down to /media/disk (or appropriately titled entry) and start the scan.
Sit back while the tool does it's work. It can disinfect most files, and the rest have to be deleted.
Once the scan is complete, I usually reboot into the windows installation in safe mode and install a full blown anitivirus like Avast that has a "scan on boot" option (and also installs without issues in safe mode unlike many other AVs) and do a "scan on boot" scan of the entire system.
Usually these steps suffice. If system files are deleted, and booting into windows is impossible as a result, you will need to do a repair reinstall.
Besides using an AV from within Linux, you can delete suspicious files right away - like all autorun.infs, "folder name".exe etc.
Let me know your opinions and suggestions on this.