HELP- restoring files after W32.Nimda virus attack

[twrs]

After cleaning my computer from Nimda virus, I have lots of broken shortcuts in my Start menu and many of my exe files are replaced with a same exe file about 550 KB in size. Is this a virus or not?

Did the virus hide the original files or overwrite them? Is there any way to restore the original files?

Please help and many thanks in advance!!!

[glc]

Have you tried using the Nimda removal tool from Symantec?

You also should update your antivirus software and do a full system scan in case there are other critters lurking in there.

[twrs]

Yes, I've also used the other tools from McAfee and BitDefender. So how do I restore the corrupted exe files and shortcuts?

[glc]

Reinstall the programs.

[myronman]

I just go the nimda virus myself, so I installed mcafee, scanned the whole system. I was able to delete all of the bad file sections (saving the files) completely remove the bogus files, and only had to delete 12 files that the virus couldn't be removed from. At that point, I removed the files, then I tested out all my programs for operability. You really want to do that in the first place.

In short, you will have to re-install the programs that are damaged now as glc said.

[twrs]

I was about to avoid reinstalling if possible, cause there are so many programs that got overwritten which I didn't have the original setup anymore.

Do these overwritten (damaged) exe contain the virus? Cause if I scan them, they're clean.

[myronman]

The damaged .exe's don't contain the virus, it's just that enough of the binaries were deleted to make them unfunctional. That's why you must re-install the programs.