Hello all,
I've been battling Internet Security 2010, AntiMalware Defender, and background audio ads for about 2 months now. But I think I might have a new twist. Someone on another forum was trying to help me, but we seem to have hit a wall and I'm hoping you guys can help me?

I have an HP Pavillion 7680 running XP sp3.

About 2 weeks ago (after 6 weeks of MBAM, GMER, OTL, etc.) we had gotten rid of Internet Security 2010 and AntiMalware Defender, but the audio ads were still there. Then Internet Security 2010 started up again. I lost all hope. I disconnected my second internal hard drive (D: ) so I could attach a new (just out of the box) drive, copy my work files and music, and start from scratch by wiping my C: drive and reinstalling Windows. Most of my important files are on the D: drive, so I wasn't too worried about wiping C:.

When I restarted, it was all gone! No Internet Security 2010, no AntiMalware Defender, no background audio ads! I haven't seen a sign of any of it for 2 weeks.

My assumption is that this is all sitting on my D: drive somewhere (I have no programs that run from the D: drive).

Can I somehow scan that drive without these things starting up again? Can I copy my files off that drive and replace it? How do I know if my graphic design files, music, photos are infected or safe to move? Would it help to remove that drive from the computer and put it in a USB hard drive enclosure?

I'm happy to run any of the scans and post any logs that would be helpful.

Thanks!

You should be able to scan the "D" drive only using MBA-M. If you feel the drive is infected in any way then no, I wouldn't even attempt to move files from it to the computer until you are certain the entire drive is clean.

Thanks for the reply! While I was having all the problems and D: was still connected, MBAM was scanning all drives, including that one. So I assume it wasn't able to clean it properly. Should I be concerned that the infection could "migrate" onto the C: drive if I reconnect it?
Thanks

I won't say it is impossible but as long as no files are opened on the drive I wouldn't think so.
You said that you disconnected this drive so you could wipe C drive. Guess this confuses me. Can you be a bit more clear?

I disconnected my second internal hard drive (D: ) so I could attach a new (just out of the box) drive, copy my work files and music

Where did you copy these files FROM?
You then said you wiped C drive and there was no infection after that.
IF the infection was ON drive C then wiping drive C would remove it so that would be normal. However, IF the infections were only always found on D drive and you disconnected D drive then there would have been no infections found on C drive even if you had not wiped the drive.

Not really sure why you felt it necessary to disconnect this drive in the first place. That wouldn't have been needed in order to wipe C drive.

I need these things cleared up...were infected files EVER found on D drive or were they always only found on C drive? And where did you get the work files and music files FROM that you copied and then where did you copy them?

Because this poster just advised me that work was continuing at another forum on this problem where work had been done for over a month before posting the question here I explained it was advisable to continue work done there and not continue here.

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