Need help improving general health of my Win 7 system

Hello,

I have just completed the full removal of malware on my machine. My young son downloaded a game without my permission and infected my machine. After all the great help from the WTT Malware Removal team, I received the "all clean" signal. We removed all the malware and it's traces - http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=129191&hl

Now I would like to receive help in order to check the general health of my Win 7 system. In this way, if there are any system files that were corrupted or removed - we can correct them and make sure the system is 100%. Prior to the infection, my machine was running pretty quickly. The good thing is that I did not have crash issues because of the virus, and do not have any now (she is very stable). In this regard my machine was ok. I also do not see any obvious sign of conflicts or corruptions left behind from the malware. It just seems like my machine is slower then it was. So for lack of a better choice of words, I basically want to give my machine a full check-up (a "physical" if you will) - and make sure all is good. Once I know everything is good I will make an image backup, and keep this for safe keeping.

I have a custom machine, that is about 8-10 years old - but runs great. Here is a list of my specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (SP1)

Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard

AMD Athlon 64X2 4800+ Dual Core (2.40 GHz)

4GB Ram

300GB HDD (System Drive for Win 7 and App installs)

500GB HDD (Storage Drive for all my files and projects)

Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS

Like I said, my machine is on the older side, but it was top of the line when I first built it. And overall it has always performed very good for me. I will eventually replace it with the new "fancy" stuff out there now. But for now, she has run great and never let me down (I know, I know - I'm just attached).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

ggee

Hi ggee, I took a glance at your logs over in the Virus and Spyware removal forum and feel this is not an easy situation for you to be in… you have some tough decisions to make…

Here's the first thoughts that spring to mind:

1 in your post you mention:

 

In this way, if there are any system files that were corrupted or removed - we can correct them and make sure the system is 100%

I'm afraid this is easier said than done…   without a format and reinstall…..although we can make some suggestions that may go part of the way.
 

2 The computer seems to have had had an "interesting life" over the last 8 to 10 years, and amongst other things has been exposed to the following:

1. a number of infections, browser hijackers, ad ware, spyware and PUP's
2. installation of P2P file sharing applications
3. Installation of "Registry cleaners"
4. Exposure to code described as cracks, key gens, activation disablers, and the like
5. installation of Remote Access applications

The above list is not exhaustive but is intended to be illustrative ( I have read your explanations on your other topic but can only comment on the evidence I see from those logs.

3 If this machine was brought into my workshop for attention then its most likely that apart from checks on the hardware and warnings not to rely (without exhaustive checks) on material backed up since the machine first became infected, or the events listed in 1 to 5 above, the only service that would be offered is a full format and reinstall of the operating system and all required applications. This is the only way that one can be reasonably  sure that there are no deep seated issues with the operating system and applications. Damaged, missing or corrupted Windows system files, drivers or Registry entries, can have unpredictable results, and these could run from, a general slowing down of the computer and unresponsiveness, to a complete failure to start up at all.

4  So the first recommendation would be to delete from your back ups any files downloaded via torrents (P2P file sharing) where the provenance of the files and material downloaded was not 100% and then to empty the recycle bin and reboot. The second recommendation would be to format and reinstall your operating system and applications. It must of course be your decision on the steps you take but if you don't format and reinstall then you should not rely on the computer in the future for any  important work, but you could run the following to check your hard drive and then repair damaged missing or corrupted Windows protected system files.

From a  command prompt with elevated privileges first run chkdsk with the r switch, the command you need is:

chkdsk /r

accept the warnings, type Y press Enter, type exit press Enter and reboot

Don't interrupt chkdsk whilst its running, it may take several  hours to complete all 5 passes, it will automatically check your hard drive for consistency and repair anything that it can. When chkdsk has finished it will restart you machine so now at a command prompt with elevated privileges run the sfc command with the scannow switch, the command you need is:

sfc /scannow

press Enter

sfc will now scan your system for any protected Windows System files that it finds need attention. It will repair or replace them if it can.

Finally its worth setting up a new user account with admin privileges (via Control Panel User Accounts) boot the machine using this account…. if there is an improvement in the machine's performance when using this new account then you can copy your files over to it if you wish.

The chkdsk, sfc and new user account steps outlined above are a poor substitute for a full format and reinstall, but may help somewhat….anyway as always its your call.

Post back and let us know how you get on.

Regards

paws