[Discuss] Linux bootable tool to clean Windows NTFS infections?

[Rich Pieri]

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:54:28 -0500
Scott Ehrlich <srehrlich at gmail.com> wrote:

> What Linux bootable tool do people recommend to help clean a [Vista]
> NTFS bootable system?   I'm aiming for an offline solution - antivirus
> and antispyware.

Boot the Linux live CD of your choice, open a shell, and run the command

  dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=512

where "X" is the target disk. And let it run until it errors out. Then
go back and install Windows and restore data from backup. I'm not
joking. There is some deeply-seated malware out there that simply
refuses to be cleaned by ordinary removal. The only way to get it out is
to zero the entire disk and do a clean install.

For lesser infections I suggest the Kaspersky Rescue Disk. It's a Linux
live CD with KDE and a bunch of Kaspersky's scanning and cleaning
tools. It does require a network connection to update signatures which
it stores on the Windows system partition.

Still, good practices are the best policies. I've been running Windows
7 on several computers on wide open networks and I've yet to have any
malware problems. The only runtime "protection" I use are Microsoft's
Security Essentials (virus scanner) and COMODO Firewall in basic mode.
I use Chrome instead of IE, so that's probably a help.

-- 
Rich P.