Virus Disinfection

When dealing with viruses it is important to be able to protect your computer and files from them. Because 100% protection is not possible, it is also important to be able to detect and identify them.  Once a virus infection has been verified on your computer, it is essential to be able to disinfect your computer of the virus.

What is the disinfection process? Disinfection refers to restoring file or boot record to original code after removing the virus.  This can be a tricky and sometimes impossible thing to do.  It also needs to be done carefully because it can be difficult to repair files correctly.

Disinfection programs can be generic or specific.  With a generic disinfection program, the disinfector keeps a record containing the original, uninfected files or boot record.  Obviously this information needs to be saved before the infection occurs.    When there is an infection, the disinfector uses the saved original files to reconstruct the file or record to its original status.  If the generic program is not installed before the infection, it will not disinfect properly.

When a disinfector is specific to a virus, it reverses the action of the virus to recover the uninfected files.  This program requires knowledge of how the particular virus works.

Sometimes users do more damage trying to get rid of a virus than the virus causes itself.  Sometimes a user will reformat the hard drive in order to get rid of a virus losing all of his data and program files.  If the user utilizes the FORMAT command and the virus is resident in the Master Boot Record, the virus is not touched and therefore is not removed anyway.  Unfortunately, the user has lost all of his programs and data.