I recently got a Trojan on my computer after plugging in a contaminated USB drive, and I'm planning to format my system. However, I have around 70 GB of important documents that I need to recover. Given that my cloud storage doesn't have enough space for all these files, is there a secure way to transfer them via another USB drive?
4 Answers
A solid option is to boot from a live USB with a Linux distro, like Ubuntu. It’s user-friendly, and you can use it to copy only safe files to another USB while making sure to enable hidden files to avoid transferring anything malicious. It's a smart way to handle the situation.
Another idea is to temporarily upgrade your cloud storage. It might be a bit pricey for just a month, but it could help if you're really concerned about safety. Just be cautious about what you're uploading.
You could copy the files to a USB on your current setup, then format the drive and reinstall your OS. But be aware that some Trojans can infect existing files. It’s crucial to ensure your files are clean before transferring them back.
That's true, some viruses can hide in files and spread when you reconnect a storage device.
The best approach would be to first disconnect your computer from the internet completely. This can be done physically or via your router. Once that's done, try to run a virus scan using software like Malwarebytes. If that doesn’t work, you could consider physically removing the hard drive and connecting it to another computer to extract your files, but make sure that computer is protected against viruses!
Yep, that’s definitely the way to go!