A friend gave me his tower to work on that was running Vista SP1 32bit that was inoperable. Instantly suspected malware due to nature of how it would boot and never get to desktop, basically black screen and pointer and never got past that point.

Steps I have done so far:

Step #1 - Removed the hard DRIVE from this computer and connected it to my SATA USB dock to turn this drive into an external and be able to work with this drive with malware dormant.

Step #2 - Scanned this 500GB drive with MSSE and it found 9 malware items, mostly trojans. Told MSSE to clean this drive and it did.

Step #3 - Placed this drive back into the Dell tower with it disconnected from the internet and turned it on. Windows Vista now came up with a message giving boot options because of an improper shutdown. This is probably because I had to force a shutdown due to the fact that while it was infected it was just a black screen with white pointer and CTRL + ALT + Delete and nothing ELSE functioned and I forced it to shutdown by holding in power button.

Step #4 - System booted to desktop but certain windows features seemed to lag, as well as unresponsive. * I thought I was going to have to perform a repair installation at this point. So I shut it down and booted off of the system recovery disc and saw that it had a memory test option. Figured might as well test the RAM before moving on just in case 2 issues since the tower hasnt been really confirmed as good running yet. Ran memtest and at some point it got through this memtest and the system rebooted itself.

Step #5 - I then figured ok its at the logon lets logon and see if the problem is still there. Now the system is very responsive and not lagging and is acting clean. Connected it to the internet over broadband and performed much needed security updates such as Service Pack 2 and all other patches. System still running fast after reboot and no noticable problems.

Step #6 - Installed, updated definitions and started MSSE scan before bed ( first time in this tower scanning itself with its Vista now SP2 OS active ) to make sure nothing is detected.

Step #7 - Woke up and checked the system and its GREEN NO Malware Detected.

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Here is the list of the Trojans detected and cleaned:

7 Variants of Sirefef

2 Variants of Necurs

http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/threat/encyclopedia/entry.aspx?Name=Win32%2FSirefef

http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/threat/encyclopedia/entry.aspx?Name=%20Trojan:Win32/Necurs

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Is there any other tools I should run against this system to make sure its really clean and not a gaping hole for infection? I use to use Rootkit Revealer in the past, but its been a while since I have had to remove viruses and not up to date on the latest tools for detection, removal, and prevention. As far as prevention goes, I have had good luck with MSSE and my friend had Norton on this system but the definitions lapsed about 4 years ago.

Thanks for assistance

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]Very impressive. May I ask a question. Two questions.
Lots of questions
Would you do it again?
Was all this hard work really better that the alternatives?
Such as:

• Buying a new PC?
• Asking your insurance company to fix it?
• Asking a youngster to disinfect it it as part of his/her science project?
• Blame the slowdown non the government?

• Please close all open programs and internet browsers.
• Double click on adwcleaner.exe to run the scan.
  
• Click on Delete.
  
• Confirm each time with OK
  
• Your computer will be rebooted automatically. A text file will open after the restart.
• Please post the CONTENT of that logfile in your reply.
• You can find the logfile at C:\AdwCleaner[Sn].txt as well - n is the order number.
  

• Make sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
  
• If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
• Once the program has loaded, select "Perform Full Scan", then click Scan.
  
• The scan may take some time to finish,so please be patient.
• When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  
• When disinfection is completed, a log will open in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart. (See Extra Note)
• Please save the log to a location you will remember.
• The log is automatically saved by MBAM and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
• Copy and paste the entire report in your next reply.

• Click on to download the ESET Smart Installer. Save it to your desktop.
  
• Double click on the icon on your desktop.
  

• Leave the check mark next to Remove found threats.
  

I ended up installing Malwarebytes and ran the scan and it found some problems that MSSE did not pick up on.