There might be outdated malware still present on your dad's old hard drive.
There might be outdated malware still present on your dad's old hard drive.
I've collected numerous outdated HDDs from previous PCs and recently examined them all. I upgraded to a new laptop, turned off the network card, and began scanning these hard drives. A suspicious file named "SafePCRepair.exe" keeps appearing in the Users folder of one drive, causing Windows Defender to flag it repeatedly. Despite removing its parent directory and running scans multiple times, the issue persists. The malware seems to originate from 2015. How can I safely eliminate this threat without risking data loss? Please help. My system is an old Alienware M11x running Windows 10 Home 22H2 version 19045.3393.
Get the complimentary versions of Malwarebytes and Spybot Search & Destroy. Execute them under Administrator settings and you’ll likely remove any threats they detect.
The process is usually safe, just remove the file without making any major changes.
Uncertain about SpyBot—it wouldn’t be a good idea since it’s not MWB. Do you really need admin access for MWB, or can you skip that? Also, if the pub is the only option, just remove it or let MWB handle it. Same outcome.
In earlier times I performed several scans on MWB, but it wouldn’t let me delete the quarantined files until I reached the admin area. This became my usual approach afterward. I noticed Spybot identified items that MWB missed and vice versa. I haven’t used Spybot in at least five years.
Spybot could work, but generally MWB is seen as the least intrusive option. Windows Defender usually covers most needs in 99% of situations. I wasn’t sure about admin settings—it might just be a confirmation prompt unless you’re looking for something else.