Ubuntu Rebuild plus Music Importing and Mixing

[David Fawcett]

Hey Rob.

I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to using Ubuntu so I'll leave it up to
more informed minds to offer advise on good FOSS sound mixing software for
Linux.

However my day job is dealing with stuff like what you mate has.

You buddy has malware on his PC - a variant of XP-Antivirus by the sounds of
it. It's more annoying than anything else -it's trying to trick your friend
into buying fake any virus software. Often it comes with a browser hi-jacker
as well so it's probably not a bad think your mates internet access is down.

Thats the bad news. The good news is that if it's what I think it is his
music files should be fine to copy over but it's always worth scanning
first.

A format and reinstall is most certainly recommended to make sure that
you've gotten it all but in the meantime I can recommend running a tool
called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. http://malwarebytes.org/

Quite possibly the worst name ever for a piece of software, but on the bight
side it is a fantastic piece of work and I have used it to clean out
infections similar to the one you describe.

Get it installed and updated and set it for a full scan. I've never had
false positives with it so you should feel confident with the 'Remove All'
button.

If you want to clean out the browser hijacker as well you'll probably want
to clean up afterwards with Hijack This.
http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html

As for new OS? As a tech I run 4 different OSes on my machine (Unbuntu, Win
Xp, Win Vista and Open Solaris) because I need to run what my clients run as
well as have the tools to fix what my clients bugger up.

However - Ubuntu is the default OS.

- Dave.

On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 9:44 PM, Rob Farquhar <imagines at bigpond.net.au>wrote:

> Hi, folks. I've not made any concrete progress on upgrading my Ubuntu
> system yet; I want to dedicate a full weekend to it and we've been busy
> with family stuff.
>
> In the meantime, though, I've started helping a friend with some
> computer woes of his, and I'd like your advice and suggestions.
>
> My friend Dave isn't the most computer savvy of people yet; he's
> definitely keen to learn. At the moment, he's been using a cracked
> Windows XP system with a collection of semi-legit software. Just
> recently, he's started turning his collection of vinyl LPs into sound
> files with the aim of creating a digital library which he can use to
> create mixes (I think he's keen on becoming a DJ). He's asked my advice
> in the past and I've been meaning to sit down with him and sort out his
> PC (we've even talked about putting Ubuntu on) but we both let it slide.
>
> Within the last couple of days, however, everything's gone pear-shaped
> for Dave. From what I can tell, his system has been hijacked by a piece
> of malicious software. His wallpaper has been replaced with a message
> about how his data is now unsafe; he can no longer run apps or even
> access Control Panel functions; Internet Explorer starts unbidden and
> points itself at very shady URLs (ones that look like a jumble of
> letters with .net afterwards). Thankfully, his wireless network card
> which connects to his Internet router is buggered, or else I dread to
> think what he'd be downloading / uploading.
>
> One way or another, it seems he's going to need to reformat his hard
> drive. The problem is that in addition to his other personal files, he
> has eighty-one gigabytes of music which he's gone to great pains to
> import. I'd repartition his HDD, but thanks to the malware I can't
> defragment his HDD under Windows as it stands, and I don't want to risk
> those music files by getting Ubuntu to resize his Windows partition.
>
> We're looking at a shopping trip to buy an external hard drive this
> weekend, which if he's serious about his music he'll probably need
> anyway. In the meantime I've connected his PC to his router via a Cat5
> cable and left an Ubuntu LiveCD running 9.04 in his CD-ROM drive so he
> can browse the Internet and IM, giving me some grace time to consider my
> options.
>
> The main question is, which OS should I install? Now, I know this seems
> a silly question to ask of an Ubuntu user group, but Dave's situation
> and needs mean the answer isn't obvious (at least to me).  The main
> deciding factor is Dave's hobby. He's been using an version 3 of a
> program called MAGIX Audio Cleaning to process the audio data from his
> turntable and convert it into several digital formats. The most current
> version, 15, appears to only be available on Windows, but it's cheap
> enough that he can afford it. I have a spare legitimate WinXP disc and
> key so he can get a legal system up and running, and can recommend
> freeware antivirus and anti-malware products like Avast and Spybot
> Search & Destroy, not to mention MailWasher.
>
> So is there a program of similar function to MAGIX that will run on
> Ubuntu? If so, what other programs would Dave need to consider should he
> get serious about mixing? How is Ubuntu overall with music creation /
> manipulation?
>
> Are there any other options I could consider? Is there a program which
> will allow me to defragment a Windows hard drive from a USB key?
>
> I'd appreciate any help you can provide!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rob
>
> --
> ubuntu-au mailing list
> ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
>
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