• Data Recovery
• Hard Drive Recovery
• Laptop Data Recovery
• Data Recovery Services
• Hard Drive Data Recovery

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself over and over and infect a computer by deleting files. These viruses are not to be confused with spyware and adware that do not have reproductive ability. A true computer virus spreads from one computer to another through an executable code that is carried through the Internet (email) or removable media such as a CD or USB drive. Before computer networks become widespread, most viruses spread only via removable media, particularly floppy disks. Some viruses spread by infecting programs stored on these disks. Other viruses installed themselves into the disk boot sector. This would mean that they would be run when the user booted the computer from the disk, usually without knowing it. Computers of that era would attempt to boot first from a floppy if one had been left in the drive. This was the most successful infection strategy until floppy disks fell out of vogue.

Computer virus issues have plagued computers and computer users for years. No one is sure exactly where they started or what the first one was. However, we do know that the Univac 1108 and the IBM 360/370 had them. That puts the computer virus birth beginning in the early 1970’s or late 1960’s. Since then, users have been trying to prevent against and/or kill computer viruses.

More traditional computer viruses began in the 1980’s. This was driven by the more widespread use of personal computers. This also led to the increase of use of modems and software sharing. In the most recent history of computer viruses, there was a total epidemic in 1987-1989 in IBM personal computers. These viruses were known by names such as “Brain”, “Vienna” and “Cascade”. Letters would completely drop of monitor displays and computers would randomly start playing “Yankee Doodle”. The “Frodo.4096” virus was the first invisible virus that appeared. During DOS calls to the infected file it would simply change information so the file appeared to be unaffected by the user. The user would continue to use it and continue to spread the file to the rest of their computer and others. Most viruses in our current time are almost always invisible since systems are so much better at detecting these viruses now.

It took awhile after these viruses began, but people finally started to figure out that these crazy things were happening due to a virus and not the hardware. As users tried to scramble to fit this problem, viruses were infecting files and diskettes and hard disks. They were being spread like wild fire across the US, Eastern Europe and Russia. This huge infection began the research and development of the first anti-virus programs to eradicate them from computers.

Now, many users install anti-virus software that will detect and eliminate known viruses from computer downloads or executable files and codes. It also is important to do regular back ups of data. In the rare case that a virus infects your computer or computer network and wipes out files and other important information, most computer professionals can now reinstall the data with backup files.