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Corrupted data after 4 viruses

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11 replies

by computab

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A Windows 98 user suddenly had 4 viruses, Badtrans.B, MTX.EXE, Klez.E, Trojan Horse. I removed them all, then Windows and internet was working normally, but letters & numbers in Word 2000 and Excel files were full of foreign characters and 'squares'. It's a Dell PC 2 years old. Can anyone help?

11 replies

by saihib

My first response is to tell you that "you're screwed" Before you reject my response give me some time to talk to my co-workers. There may be a satisfactory solution. Your problem is not hardware related but after cleaning a virus you can easily wind up with corrupted files.

by bobho

Because you have no backup there is no solution. The damage is probably from the klez virus which overwrites many types of files (doc and xls included) with random data. Since it is an overwrite there is no routine to clean the files.

Here is a link that explains the klez.e virus and what it does:

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/klez_e.shtml

Sorry,

DrBob:>(

by gigelul

Hi,
You can try to reinstall the OS over existing instalation which will preserve the existing application and documents. Maybe the corrupted/missed files will be replaced and this will correct existing problems (after that you can try to reinstallthe Office).

by pierrejamme

Sorry, the only good fix for Klez is a format and re-install of the OS.
Been there done that and it just doesn't work correctly after removing Klez and doing an over the top install.

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