Virus side-effects

Some viruses leave you with no side-effects to deal with, others may have such extreme side-effects that you have to restore a hard disk in order to recover.

Some viruses gradually make minor changes to data. This type of corruption can be hard to detect.

What to do

It is very important that you read the threat analysis on the Sophos website, and check documents carefully after cleanup. Refer to Get cleanup information to find out how to view details on the Sophos website of the virus’s side-effects.

Sound backups are crucial. If you did not have them before you were infected, start keeping them in case of future infections.

Sometimes you can recover data from disks damaged by a virus. Sophos can supply utilities for repairing the damage caused by some viruses.

Contact Sophos technical support for advice.

For information about contacting technical support, see Technical support.