Infected USB Thumb Drive?

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BanDeodorant

Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
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After using my usb flash drive on the computers at my university, I came home and plugged the drive into my own computer. Next thing I know avast is going crazy with these virus infection warnings. I tried to format the drive, but whenever I insert it again, something opens up from L:\Recycler\Recycler.

I just gave up trying to use the drive anymore, but everytime I restart the computer, some of icons in my icon tray stop showing up, although the program is running in task manager. Also, avast detects the (trojan?) "Iconpop.dll" I've moved it to the chest, and deleted it, but everytime I restart it pops back up again.. So am I screwed, and is it too dangerous that I will just have to reformat?

I hope you guys can help, thanks.

P.S. Wasn't sure which section to post this in, so please move if necessary.
 
Hold the Shift key on your PC and plug in the stick, keep holding the Shift key for a solid minute (not one second less, seriously) after you plug it in. After that, format that drive, immediately; if there are files on it you need to recover, you can do that afterwards with some data recovery application like TestDisk (open source freeware) if absolutely necessary, but don't hesitate and mess around at all.

If the drive is infected, something has gotten into it and created an AutoRun file that keeps popping into action when you insert it - holding the Shift key during the insertion prevents anything from automagically running like CDs, DVDs, whatever, so hold it for a full minute (not one second less, seriously). You *can* look at the content on the drive but if you do so I'd use a Command Prompt and not Explorer, personally.

If you have some AV software installed, scan it before and after the format and make sure the AV software is updated to as current as possible. Check your whole system with a thorough scan, actually.

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan <<<--- Online AV scan, doesn't really 'fix' the problems but will inform you of what's going on, requires IE only

http://housecall.trendmicro.com <<<--- Another online scan, can use Firefox/Opera by choosing the Java version, or IE with the ActiveX one, same principle

Run full scans with one, or both would be recommended, actually.

Good luck...
 
Take a big magnet to that USB thumb drive.


















Yep, just keep bashing it with the magnet until it will no longer plu into your computer.;)
 
Thanks Joe, I tried to get rid of something that always appeared at startup but nothing I tried work, so in the end I just decided to reformat.

I did manage to delete the autorun.inf and recycler folder on the flash drive though, so I guess I won't have to find a big magnet after all.

Thanks again for all the help! [H]ardforum is the best.
 
a couple months ago there was a virus that infected thumb drives by adding parameters to autorun.ini and hiding it so that no matter what you do, plugging in a thumb drive would infect a computer.
 
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