When will Eset provide instructions on how to create a boot CD to delete viruses?

Hi Off the Fence,

Don't buy that floppy just yet.
With Easy Media Creator 7 (and I think Nero also) you can make a bootable CD.
Just make your bootable floppy and then copy all the contents into the bootable cd in the CD burning software.

I sure hope Eset decides to offer a way to make a boot CD, or at least a BartPE plugin so we can make the CD. Maybe they could make a little separate utility that would help do it.

 

Thanks! I'll definitely give that a try.

Since they haven't responded to this thread yet, I doubt if they will. Especially since there doesn't appear to be much interest in a boot CD, judging from the lack of posters on this topic.

As far as Eset not making a boot CD available in the first place, it probably boils down to "you get what you pay for". With the $39 price they charge for their program, they simply don't have the resources that Kaspersky has. So they're only able to focus their limited manpower on the essentials--the features that have the biggest demand.

 

Perhaps some of the posters are more concerned with their inability to connect to the update servers, or the domain errors on nod32.com. Having just bought two copies of NOD, and seeing many, many error messages in the update logs for every successful update, that is a more immediate concern for me.
However, providing instructions for making a boot cd (or a Bart PE plugin) should be pretty cheap. The standard boot floppy image per se is not much use. If the floppy does not have read-write NTFS drivers, it's no use at all for scanning and cleaning NTFS partitions.

Doubtless the fact that the originating thread (on some alleged NOD weakness) was locked (with no answer from Eset), and the original poster banned, is relevant to the lack of further postings here also.

 

Well, I am an NOD purchaser, and version 5 of Kaspersky seems still to have too many issues to give me second thoughts. NOD does seem to find most all problems for me (I cross-check using Bart PE and McAfee, and the various on-line scanners), without otherwise locking up or otherwise crippling the computer.

 

Yes, the original poster of this thread was just trying to stir up arguments.

IMO, if you have an infection that is so stubborn that it can't be cleaned in safe mode with virus removal & file tools, you are much better off just reformatting as the problem would probably involve more than just an infected file. For one thing, a boot CD won't get rid of registry entires made by malware. There are tools that will make boot disks that can read NTFS partitions, and with enough knowledge you could probably put something together on your own.. but that's just it, if you don't know a whole lot about these things, you should really let a professional clean things out for you as bypassing Windows to delete files can get you in a lot of trouble. You need to know what files are and do, and know when & how to replace the files you have deleted since you won't have Windows File Protection to do it for you.

Here's a tip for anyone that is has an infection that your AV can't seem to fix: put your Windows CD in the drive, click start > run, type in CMD, when the black window opens type in "sfc /scannow"

SFC (System File Checker, a part of Windows File Protection) will replace any changed/damaged system files with a clean copy. This can sometimes fix problems that keep your antivirus program from working properly (in a few cases even fixing problems that keep your AV from working at all), and give it a chance to do the rest of the cleanup. SFC may not solve every problem, but it's a good start that anyone can do.. I even run SFC once every few months just as a matter of maintenance. The worst I've seen it do is replace my manufacturer's video driver with the Microsoft one, which is really more of a minor annoyance than a problem (just reinstall the driver.)

 

Thanks for that, see you can learn something new every day, so now I can take the rest of the day off

Cheers

 

SFC is a good tool to know, glad to help

I forgot to mention that for Windows 98 (and I'm assuming ME) users should just type SFC in the "Run" box, it will bring up a dialog with 2 different options: extract one specific file or do the auto-check for all system files, you can just select the option to check all files. The Win98 version isn't quite as effective as the 2k/XP version, but it's still a good tool to use.

 

But what if your Windows XP CD is SP1, and you have the SP2 update installed--won't it delete some of the SP2 files and replace them with the old SP1 files?

 

I believe it will. It will try to replace changed files with the originals from the sp1 disc. but then you could reinstall sp2.

 

SFC /SCANNOW has been my best friend on a few occasions.

 

While the original poster was argumentative, I think this thread is of value. If only he would have quit after the first post!

I still think a bootCD for NOD32 would be valuable to people who have moderate skills. It would take some knowledge just to burn the BartPE plugin BootCD anyway, so it is not for total noobs. I don't see how a bootCD would be any different from slaving the HD off a clean computer as far as Windows File Protection is concerned. KAV has a Boot floppy, Mcafee has one, even NAV has one (although poorly implemented). I see no reason why NOD32 should not have one as well. I understand Eset is very busy and this is not the most important issue right now. But I would like it known to Eset that I am a paying customer of 3 copies of NOD32 (with more purchases planned in the near future) and I want a NOD32 BootCD! It is not like it would require a major rewrite of the whole program.

Thank you Notok for the great tip on SFC!

 

They could also just update the existing DOS version to work with NTFS.

I'm sure that there are plenty of users on this board that could use a boot cd effectively without problems, but for general consumption it's really better for the average user to seek out those with experience in cleaning these things out than offering something like a boot cd.. like I say, a boot cd only does part of the job, a novice user isn't necessarily going to know that. SFC is something that anyone can try, and if it doesn't work then you aren't left totally screwed. If it does work then it can allow the antivirus program thats already installed to do it's job.

Roger Bateman: It saves the service pack files when you install them, and looks for a clean version there before prompting you for the CD. I also just found a tool from the NeoWin folks to make a slipstreamed XP cd easily called "AutoStreamer" (http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=188337&st=0&#entry2453585)
Put your Windows CD in the drive, tell it where the full SP2 file is, and it will put them together and create a bootable CD image for you to burn to disk.

 

I have just received a reply from Eset, there are plans in the future to enable a Boot CD to be made with Nod32, though currently they have their hands full with other priorities...

Cheers

 

Well, what a good news. That shows the force of clients like us.

Best Regards,

DonKid.

 

That's great! Thank you for sharing this Blackspear.

One sign of a good company is that it is able to listen to reasonable requests from its users. I am glad to see it.

 

I'm sorry to burst everyone's bubble but that is NOT news. Eset has said this for TWO YEARS now. I asked from the time I got NOD32 two years ago for boot disks and later CD and was told we will do it but we are too busy with other things now. I would wait several months, bring it up again (or someone else would) and the response has always been the same. Eset is always too busy with something. Yes, eventually Eset gets around to implementing SOME customer requests but it takes way, way too long I think. Two years is much too long to wait and now we are told we have to wait longer. GEEEZ!

At the very least, Eset could immediately provide a
BART PE plugin. That would not take much time.

 

To quote Eset: "The plug-in for Bart PE boot CD was made by a person completely unknown to us and Eset has never made a plugin for any 3rd party software. It's always up to developers of a particular program to integrate it with NOD32 via API we provide them with."

So hopefully the person who developed the last plugin will update to the latest Nod32 version, when that happens I'll make a thread so everyone can do the same...

Cheers