This has been bugging me

[Star6966]

I understand its been done to death, but I have a nuke and pave vs. straight up removal question.

Where is the benefit in removing the virus?

A nuke and pave is more reliable, generally faster, if you want to be thorough at all, and is far more reliable.

I ask because I am trying to figure out my own personal nuke and pave policy.

Is it a pride thing, to be the superior tech who can remove anything by hand, or is there a significant benefit to removal?

Thanks

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

Nuke and Pave is not always faster because
1. You need to have all the clients software to reinstall ( they might not have discs)
2. You need to backup their data (client might not want to pay for it)

Virus removal by hand is not a pride thing if you can do it it will will end up saving you countless hours worth of effort and make you more productive.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

the client gets their computer back as it was before you got hold of it - ie software, settings, desktop, wallpaper, account settings, etc, etc

less stress for them - less comeback for you

 

[Xander]

What they said. Seriously, N&P is more of a pain IMHO.

 

[datadatau]

Agree 100%, saves time to remove, and customer has all their regular settings. I try to avoid the nuke option.

 

[commodore64]

We get more work because we will always do everything to remove the virus before doing a n&p. Most of my customers would be upset if you just moved a desktop icon, so they want that system to look just how it has for the last few years. It makes since, if youre a basic novice user who can't find the control panel, you don't want a n&p. Not to metion whatever software they may have installed that they "can't find" the disks for.

 

[ATTech]

less stress for them - less comeback for you

Ehhh.. I wouldn't say that. Viruses are unpredictable and there is no guarantee that something else will not go wrong that's related to the damage the virus did. If you set the proper expectations for a nuke and pave, then you won't receive a callback from the reasonable clients.

I do beleive pride is a big part of it. You'll read threads here, about people asking for help with viruses and allude to their techniques only consisting of commercial scans. You'll then notice the replies from people scolding their inexperience at manual removal, with what appears to contain a slight "I'm better than geek squad" undertone to it.

Personally, I've done manual removal. The problem, is that there really is no way to speed it up. It can take 5 minutes, it can take hours. You can write scripts and programs to assist you, but then it's not really "manual removal."

Microsoft provides so many tools for enterprise deployment that can be used in our environment as well, that reimaging systems with full updates, configurations, data and programs can take a half hours with only the initial user intervention. I've been experimenting with MDT, USMT and WDS.

 

[NYJimbo]

Another thread trying to legitimize the "N&P is the best way to go" cop out.

Lame. Very lame.

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

Ehhh..

I do beleive pride is a big part of it. You'll read threads here, about people asking for help with viruses and allude to their techniques only consisting of commercial scans. You'll then notice the replies from people scolding their inexperience at manual removal, with what appears to contain a slight "I'm better than geek squad" undertone to it.
WDS.

I am not sure where I got this from but its always been in my head..."pride is a fools prison"...no amount of scolding is going to stop me from moving forward

 

[Star6966]

I'm not trying to legitimize anything

I am trying to determine for myself how I can determine the n&p vs removal dilemma.

All I am doing is weighing the pros and cons.

Personally, I would spend several hours removing a virus before I would nuke and pave, but I just wanted to toss it in an get the opinions back, because if it were faster and easier to nuke and pave, that I would have to rethink my strategy, but I think I am finding it isn't

 

[ATTech]

because if it were faster and easier to nuke and pave, that I would have to rethink my strategy, but I think I am finding it isn't

It can be, significantly, with the proper technology. That's what I'm working on ;-)

 

[zebest]

This is my first post on this website!

Anyhow, from our experience, we almost always reformat the computer. In the 8 years of being in business we have found that this is by far the best approach to almost all viruses. Not all viruses but almost all. The reasons are simple.

In the past we would remove viruses and customers would or would not come back with another virus, this could be a day to a month from us working on it. We would always look at the computer again and fix it free, that time reformating it.

Current day, we always give the customer a choice in the matter. We let them know the second they bring the computer in their options.

We tell the customer we gurantee our reformats will get rid of the virus 100% and explain to them how we can back up their data and reinstall their programs - for a fee. Some customers want us to remove the virus in this case we try our best and let them know if the virus comes back within 2 weeks we will put that money from the virus removal into the reformat price.

Like I stated before though 90% of computers infected with viruses we reformat. We also sell an antivirus program to most customers where we make a nice profit.

Chris

 

[NYJimbo]

Like I stated before though 90% of computers infected with viruses we reformat. We also sell an antivirus program to most customers where we make a nice profit.

What happens when a computer gets infected after you sell them this antivirus product?. Do you just reformat and reinstall again ?

Nice work if you can get it.

 

[zebest]

Typically we let the customer know what they did wrong to get the virus. This prevents them from visiting us every month. We also explain to the customers that there isn't a single antivirus that protects a user from all the viruses out there. Upon making these clarifications with the customers they almost always know why the end up with a new virus when they bring it back in.

 

[TechguyUK]

I'll add my 2p worth....

If the infection is fairly basic like rogue antivirus, true virus, adware, worms etc I tend to just remove the infections and let the customer have the machine back along with some advice about preventing re-infections.

If I find more serious issues like trojans and rootkits, I generally let the customer know that I can remove the infections but that I can't be sure of the integrity of their system given the nature of the infections I found. I let them know there could be backdoors and all sorts of remote security issues that have been set that will never be detected by the normal methods and that an N&P would be the best course of action in order for us to regain some certainty over the state of their system.

At the end of the day though, it's the customer machine and I can only recommend what I deam to be the best course of action given the circumstances in front of me. If the customer chooses otherwise, its up to them and they have to accept the consequences.

 

[Puff]

For me N&P is a last resort and I avoid it. Just about every customer that comes in is worried about that because that's the type of work they get at a lot of other repair shops...they don't fix the problem, they just reinstall and to me that's something that any keyboard monkey can do.

 

[NYJimbo]

For me N&P is a last resort and I avoid it. Just about every customer that comes in is worried about that because that's the type of work they get at a lot of other repair shops...they don't fix the problem, they just reinstall and to me that's something that any keyboard monkey can do.

Very true. People go through this "We have to reformat your drive" repair nonsense all the time. Last week a lady emailed me for a DC jack job and this was her initial communication:

Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 21:07:35 EDT
From: XXXXXXXXXXX@aol.com
To: Laptops@XXXXXXXXXX.com
Subject: broken DC jack on laptop
----------------------------------------

I have a broken DC jack on my laptop.
What are the chances that you would have to replace the motherboard?
I ask this because I really can't afford to lose all of the information I have on my computer yet again.
I have such bad luck with computers it's ridiculous.
Please e mail me back at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@aol.com
Thanks xxxxxxxxxx

Turns out that the last two repairs she had ended up repairing the actual issue AFTER the techs reformatted her hard drive without warning.

 

[Xander]

"Keyboard monkey". I like that in this context.

In my mind, even a "Pizza Tech" usually tries to fix the problem.

 

[Puff]

Like I stated before though 90% of computers infected with viruses we reformat. We also sell an antivirus program to most customers where we make a nice profit.

Chris

The only reason you reformat 90% of the computer that come in with a virus problem is because you either don't know what you're doing, you're lazy or you are in a hurry and just want to make a quick buck.

My guess is that it's probably a combination of all three.

 

[NYJimbo]

The only reason you reformat 90% of the computer that come in with a virus problem is because you either don't know what you're doing, you're lazy or you are in a hurry and just want to make a quick buck.