Saving Graves US

You see the warnings on the internet and in your email inbox all the time- “Dangerous virus will infect computers tomorrow at noon”. Emails of this ilk usually also admonish you to pass it all to all of your contacts. But how dangerous are viruses and what should you do if you think you have one?

The first thing to do is to make sure the warning is real. Don’t simply assume that it is. Many virus warning emails are fake and intended to panic people and disrupt email traffic by the passing on of the warning. Go to Microsoft.com or snopes.com to see if there is any truth to the warning.

Next, remember the old mantra that a teaspoon of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Ensure that your computer is running an up-to-date antivirus program that updates automatically to catch the newest viruses.

If it is your antivirus program that is telling you that you have a virus, pay attention to exactly what it is telling you. It could be telling you that it detected a virus and deleted it. In this case, you do not have to do anything. The antivirus program has done it for you. If the program does not inform you that it has deleted the virus, it is probably still active. The antivirus program itself may have instructions for segregating and deleting the virus. If it does not, then copy the information provided on the antivirus warning and look it up on Microsoft.com for deletion instructions. In the meantime, do not turn the computer off as it may not come back on if you have a virus, making erasing it more difficult.

What do you do if you are getting error messages on your computer that you believe may be the result of a virus? The first thing to do is to try to manually run your antivirus sweep to see if it will pick up the virus. If it comes up with nothing and your computer is still operational, look up the error message on the internet to confirm that it appears to be a virus. Follow any instructions for removal from valid sites like Microsoft.com or McAfee.com.

If your computer is completely frozen with a virus or cannot boot up, it’s time to get professional help. A professional data recovery specialist can restore your data from a virus-damaged hard drive and return it back to you on a new medium.

There’s no need to panic when a virus strikes. Just like the flu, there’s no need to worry about it unless it remains untreated and infects others. Most viruses can be safely removed from your computer. In the worst case scenario, where you cannot access your data, it can be restored by professional data recovery services in most cases. Just like your body, taking preventative care of your computer can save you headaches later on.