Genius move

By Soopa-Genius - 22/09/2011 12:06 - Canada

Today, the new office IT guy figured the best way to get the virus off my computer was to wipe my entire hard drive. He was kind enough to back my data up and restore everything from the backups. Including the virus. FML
I agree, your life sucks 31 506
You deserved it 2 687

Same thing different taste

Top comments

perdix 29

I think it's your IT guy that needs to be wiped.

Comments

j3ebrules 13

oooh. I guess your company wouldn't invest in an anti-virus.

Not every virus can be blocked by anti-virus

What an idiot. At least his advice wasn't "Did you try turning it on and off again?" (I don't think anyone will get that reference.)

Capt_Oblivious 10
Capt_Oblivious 10

NP, that's what I'm here for, to answer questions and terrorize indiscriminately. :)

Stop going to those sites and you'll fix your future viral issues. To compare web surfing to sex: Surfing with a little intelligence is like using a condom! Not as pleasurable, but at least you'll stay virus free!

lionstrife 0

Or just remove the virus without wiping the hdd

beesmakewax 3

If I was your IT guy I would put you on the web filter. Also, you should know that wiping your hard drive is the most effective and quickest way to deal with viruses. It's standard practice no matter where you go.

Capt_Oblivious 10

Quickest? Possibly. Most effective? Not always. It's fine if you or your client doesn't mind having to reload every piece of software, driver, printer, etc that that had prior to the infection, assuming that they have all their disks, serial keys, and so forth. But do you always want to tell a client that their pc needs reloaded as opposed to cleaning it. If so you never learn they structure of a virus, infection methods, etc, and your only solution would be to go that route of wiping it. Standard practice? Not quite. As a systems admin with an extensive client base myself, I would use a wipe and reload as a last resort, especially when dealing with a client that has extensive software, system configurations on their pc. Find a qualified tech and consult them or, if worst case, google the problem. A little research on a users part can go a long way.

beesmakewax 3

Hi, you are correct in explaining that a clean installation of window takes a very long time. This is the reason why IT people in corporate environment use pre configured images to restore workstations

Exactly. Reformat and reinstall takes hours, potentially a full day if they've got a bunch of crap they need reinstalled. Something like Acronis on the other hand... Now that's the way to go. Everything imaged exactly as it should be as a functional workstation with all the requisite software and settings, then if something goes wrong, spend five to fifteen minutes troubleshooting. If you can't work out a solution in that time, more often that not it's simpler, faster, and more time-efficient for everybody involved to just re-image the machine. If the problem persists, then either look for a hardware issue or operator error- failing HDD, shady browsing habits, etc. and address the issue as it becomes known.

Well at least you got that for free, I just paid over $300 to have a "qualified" computer store do that for me!!!!

tildoorf84 7

that's why you don't go to bestbuy....

FYLDeep 25

That's why you do it yourself. Software problems are easy to troubleshoot.

hikers95219 2

good thing you have such a GENIUS to work on your computers...