Virus scanner on a cd? Pc recorvery tools?

[duke1]

What are some good virus scanning tools that can run from a cd? at boot up? Or pc recovery tools? for Xp and windows 7, linux, or testing tools to make sure something is alright, What do the computer repair techs tool?

[goofyGAguy]

I use Avast! free anti-virus, and one of the main reasons is because it has a boot scan.

[RealBlackStuff]

Virus scanners on a CD are no good really. They are out of date already the same or next day, after you burn it!
You'd need to run these from a self-booting USB stick, and update the definitions just prior to testing the 'foreign' computer.
For Thinkpads, there's PC Doctor on a CD, that fits most not-so-old models (T4x, X4x, R5x, T/R/X6x).
This could probably also run from the same USB stick as above.
My favorite is Hiren's BootCD, followed by Ultimate Boot CD and UBCD for Windows.
You'd need to 'refresh' these CDs regularly to stay up to date.

If possible, I remove the HD from the other machine and test/repair it using my Apricorn Drivewire interface, connected to my main PC.

[ozzymud]

For bootable CD media, get a Linux LiveCD... can then use ClamAV to scan the windows partition.

Also if able to get to the web, you can use any of the online scanners like Bitdefender's @ http://www.bitdefender.com/scanner/online/free.html or any of the others.

One tool to install on any windows machine to check for bad stuff is "Spybot - Search & Destroy", this will get rid of cruft that AV might not pick up on.

As far as the actual AV on my machines, it's currently Avast, it is the one currently using the least amount of resources (was AVG, but they just got bulky, and Norton has been only a name since around Windows 98, past that it's just pure bloat)

P.S. @ RealBlackStuff: A buddy of mine picked up one of those for like $40, I snickered a bit when I showed him my $15 one from DealExtreme... http://www.dealextreme.com/p/sata-ide-t ... pter-30843 ... has worked very good for many drives, and for sure (whether chepo like mine or a quality one like the Apricorn) the best way to scan another machine for crud

[BeeJayEmm]

Avira offers a "rescue system" anti-virus file that is bootable, using either an ISO or SFX file. in the downloads section of their website here. It is updated several times a day. I have used it successfully in the past, burning the iso to a cd-rw.