Two quick questions from someone semi-computer literate

[GT40FIED]

First, can anyone tell me pros/cons of defragmenting my hard drive? I've never done it before and don't want to do it and have stuff royally fucked up. Seems easy enough...just click a few buttons, let it scan, and sit back and wait. I just don't wanna mess anything up.

Second, does anyone know of any software that will block spyware from sending out info on you. I've got Spybot S&D but some of the stuff that's listed as "unchecked" stays on your machine. I accidentally downloaded some program (one of those "zone warnings" that pop up right as you're trying to click on something else) that had like 69 pieces of spyware...some of which didn't get removed. Now my PC is running slower than usual and I can't do a system restore because for some reason the date is off and it won't let me look for a restore point in March. It's also screwed up my whole "disk cleanup" function. Whoever makes this software can suck it.

[IALuder]

defraging your computer is actually something you want to do. it wont hurt comp at all. it actually a scheduale task on the new XP systems.

as for spyware. sorry i dont run any programs to block it. i still havent goten any either.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

Defragmenting your hard drive is important for performance. It sticks data physically together that needs to be, moves stuff to the beginning of the drive, etc. Basically it keeps everything in order so the operating system can access it quicker. Do it! :)

Spyway: SpyBot is an excellent program, but I mainly run AdAware. I don't know why you can't remove the remaining spyway with spybot though. Did you check the boxes and click remove? That's all I have to do on mine. Give AdAware a shot, but just note that adaware will find stuff that spybot won't and visa-versa. If this doesn't help, can you be a little more detailed in what you want to do?

Also, spybot has a program that will run in the background and block new spyware that is trying to infest your machine if you're interested in that.

[GT40FIED]

I actually run both and I'm still having problems. Here's what happened...I was on www.serials.ws looking for some stuff. One their site whenever you navigate through it you get this "zone warning" to download something called the "XXX toolbar" If you click no a box appears that says something won't work right unless you dl the tool bar. Close that box and the zone warning reappears. If you close both a few times it stops popping up. I accidentally hit "accept" and it downloaded not only the toolbar but something called "purity scan" which ironically looks for porn on your comp. Spybot picked up on most of it but won't delete all of it saying that some of the stuff is "unchecked" so it won't delete it. Meanwhile I'm getting pop-ups galore and shit's running really slow (especially when I click on hypertext links from Outlook like post notifications...it's like 2 or 3 times as long as before). Also, for some reason I can't do a system restore because it's not showing me any dates I can go back to.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

Hrm...

Hopefully its not a trojan or something that spybot/adaware won't detect. Run a virus scan as well to make sure.

I am wondering if that "purity scan" was more of a trojan and didn't scan anything? I don't know what to tell you about spybot. All I do it search, then manually check the items I want to delete, then hit "fix problems".

[spoogenet]

The drawback to defragging is time, depending on how badly it's fragmented and how big the drive is, it can take a long time. And it may take multiple passes to really get it defragged. The benefit is better performance and, one could argue, possibly longer HD life since the head probably won't have to move quite as much on a defragged drive. It's a good idea to do time-to-time to keep your performance from degrading too much.

As for the spyware stuff, can't help ya there. But it does sound like you probably got a trojan of some sort.....

b

[GT40FIED]

Well...my antivirus stuff didn't pick anything up, but then again it's not as up to date as I'd like. I just don't have the money to upgrade it.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

Go to one of the virus companies home page and do an online scan. I know grisoft has one, the other major companies should too.

[GT40FIED]

Holy fucking shit...this may have screwed me royally. I dl'ed and installed Grisoft's free program and, upon restart, my computer won't get past the "welcome screen" before it automatically restarts. Tried it time and time again with no better results. How can I fix this if I can't even get it started? Can't have it down for too long as I'm on my roommates comp right now.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

wtf? Read what I wrote above... did you do the free ONLINE scan? It just scans your computer through the browser. Though I know a lot of people that use that virus program with no problems at all.

Did you change anything else on your computer? This is very, very weird, as I've used that program with no problems before.

[spoogenet]

Try loading up in safe mode and removing that software.....but as for antivirus software and trojans, beware that not all AV software fully check for trojans either.....

If that doesn't work, then you are, perhaps, hosed.

b

[GT40FIED]

How do I start in safe mode if I can't even get past the blue welcome screen (Windows XP)? I know...I should've tried harder to find the online scan, but I couldn't find it and figured I'd just dl the free version. I'm thinking the problem is that it conflicts with my Norton shit. Whenever I try using Realplayer and my Creative Player at the same time the same thing happens...shuts down and restarts automatically. So anyhow...how do I start up in safe mode?

[GT40FIED]

Ok...nevermind...all better now. Started it in safe mode by pressing F8 (wish I'd know that 2 hours ago...Lol) and removed the software. Everything works fine now. Thanks for the help guys...seriously, you saved my ass (which I'm a dumbass for putting in trouble in the first place).

[ChrisCantSkate]

one of the higher F-keys gives you the windows startup options... im thinkin its f7 f8 or f10.

[spoogenet]

I'm not entirely sure on Windows XP. I know on 2k you press F8 during the initial loading procedures. It looks like XP is the same....once you get bast the BIOS portion of things, start hitting F8.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315222

Good luck!

b

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

Well hopefully you can fix the real problem now... I'd uninstall norton and then try something else? Plenty of free scanners out there.

[GT40FIED]

Actually I did another scan that popped up like 207 infected files and quite a few trojans. After that, I caved and re-upped my Norton subscription since none of these scans will delete shit without paying money anyway. Norton's scanned 9000 files so far and found 21 infected...which is frightening since that's like 1/10 of my hard drive. People who make this virus shit need to be shot.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

Did you just try reinstalling norton? Every time I reinstall my old Norton, I get another year of updates for some reason. Probably just a bug.

You might want to look into a good trojan scanner as well, but I don't know a lot about that so I won't recommend one.