Backing Up Virused Files

If you have a drive that backs up your files that doesn't prevent you from losing files that were messed with due to a virus and that were backed up, right? For instance, my father has a back up drive and got the Cryptolocker virus which encrypts your files. If his drive backed up files that were encrypted then that back up drive does him no good then, yes? (Luckily, he had unplugged the power to his back-up and forgot to turn it back on for the last 6 months so I was able to retrieve his files.)

Thanks,

VFN

Yes that's right and he's lucky he's got you to sort things out.

Thanks.

His computer still has problems though. It's too slow at times which means something is not as it should be. I quick scanned his pc with Malwarebytes a few times again and it's taking 30 minutes without finding any malware.

There are a few suggestions for malware checking in a document I made over at McAfee Forums, where I volunteer my time, here: https://community.mcafee.com/docs/DOC-2168

That might help a bit. The other thing to look at would maybe be a chkdsk /r to make sure the hard drive is reading properly. There are lots of other reasons too of course.

Thanks so much for that link. Can there be any risk or problems when running a chkdsk /r?

No I them quite often. Do it in an elevated Command Prompt window (How to here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/181765-elevated-command-prompt.html ) then type in chkdsk /r (with the space) and hit the Enter key.
It will object saying volume in use, do it at next boot Y/N ? Type in Y and hit the Enter key and then reboot. It takes a while to complete.
You can also specify the drive letter, useful in multi-boot scenarios: chkdsk C: /r or chdskdsk D: /r etc. etc. If it's for a drive that your are not booted into at the time it will proceed without having to reboot.
The /r designator finds problems and fixes them at the same time.

VFN said:

Thanks so much for that link. Can there be any risk or problems when running a chkdsk /r?

Click to expand...

If the HD is large the main danger, if you don't have UPS, is that you'll get 6 hours into it, then you get a power out. But otherr than being bored to death you should be ok.

Thanks. I didn't have the time to perform any scans on his PC and it was working well enough that he's satisfied at the moment. What is your advice for XP users with regard to Microsoft stopping support in 2014. Would installing a new OS or getting a new PC be sensible?