Computers and harddrives and arrrrgh

Dee Kae

My main rig is pretty much inoperable right now thanks to spyware and the like, so I'm supposed to back up what I have on it's harddrive before attempting to "fix" it. Only issue I have is how could I go about doing this? Someone mind guiding me through this, or linking me a detailed guide or what not? Cause I'd rather do this then give it to geeksquad and have them rape my wallet again.

Notes: I can't even successfully turn on my main computer, so I was told to slave it to another or something of that sort, yet I still have no idea how to do this right. Also I've got this old HP pavilion I'm posting on too that's in working condition.

Mr Blonde

Take out bad hard drive, move the jumpers into slave position (look up jumper positions on the HDD manufacturer's website as they are different from WD to Seagate, etc.).

Plug malware drive in to IDE or SATA cable on working computer in slave position (this matters if it is an IDE drive - the slave position is the middle plug on the IDE cable. One end for MOBO, other end for Master drive). Uses a virus scanner and scan malware HDD. Copy data over (I cannot guarantee viruses/spyware won't move with it or jump ship to your working computer).

FightTest

The easier way is to just burn an Ubuntu live CD and boot off that. Then in the Places menu you should see a XX Gig Media drive and you can just plug in a USB stick and copy the files you want over. Saves you having to screw with hard drives or potentially infect another computer.

Then format, etc..