Malware and viruses can be pretty tricky to remove from your PC.  Add in any mission-critical applications to the mix makes it that more difficult.  Although there are many computer repair services out there, many don't have the knowledge of how important the data is.

A recent example of this comes to mind.  A customer of CCS recently infected their Windows Server with a virus.  They took their server to a local repair shop that is a little closer to them then CCS is.  There is usually not a problem with this but after getting their Server back and plugging everything back in, nothing worked as expected.

Once I was able to get everything working again, the anti-virus software was complaining the the system was still infected.  The owner took the server back to the repair shop, and later received a call that the system needed to be reinstalled.  As she should have done, she called CCS to ask what we thought.  I explained that in some cases its necessary but I did not feel it was in this case. I asked if she would bring the server to CCS which she agreed.

I got the system up on the bench and saw why the previous repair shop wanted to re-install the system.  Without knowing the consequences I could see why, but it was still unnecessary.  In a matter of a few minutes, I had the system back up, cleaned of all malware/viruses.  One important thing that I saw was that none of the Windows updates were installed since they started using the system.  This is usually your first line of defense against getting infected.  Your ant-virus/malware software and Windows Updates will usually protect you against infections.  Being aware of what your doing can also help against infection.

Although most of you know this information, did you know that CCS Retail Systems has close to 100 years of aggregate experience in computer systems. We can usually clean a machine of infection without any data loss in half the time that most computer repair shops.  We also have a comprehensive Malware blog (here) that will help you be proactive in keeping your systems clean of infection and down time.  Personally I have seen some of the most destructive infections,  and have been able to resurrect the system back to stability with no virus/malware infections.

If you need help cleaning a system, or have questions about what another shop might do, call the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800-672-4806 or email_us.  BEFORE giving another shop the go ahead to re-install anything on a mission-critical system. check with us

-Bryan