should i pay for antivirus work and then a reinstall?

[TitusRaven]

my computer got real slow and went crazy. the IT guy i hired found tons of virus' on my computer and then deleted them. after that, he found that the c drive was corrupted and told me that he needed to do a reinstall.

he charges per job, so will i have to pay for both the Malware removal and the reinstallation? i assume yes, but the malware removal wouldnt have fixed it all...is it unfair to have to pay for something that didnt do the job or is it fair to pay because he spent time working on it?

 

[Math Geek]

i personally don't charge separately for the services. i assume that more than likely i'll have to do a fresh install and only start out trying to remove it but knowing most likely i'll be re-installing windows. however, whatever you agreed on is what you should pay.

what does he mean by c: is corrupted? more than likely the viruses are still causing trouble and the only answer is to reinstall. i'd argue this angle and hope he'll admit the virus is still there and take the next step to fix it.

who is this it guy by the way? someone you know or a geeksquad type person who works for a company? how much are you paying if you don't mind me asking? if it's already a lot then the reinstall should be included, but if your only paying a friend like $25 then a little more for the time he still has to spend is worth it.

 

[popatim]

Unless he told you to make a drive backup before your brought it to him then He is incompetent. Pay him for the virus removal and get your pc back and never bring it there again. Before you mess with whats on a customers harddrive a backup should be done. At this point you dont have a working computer, virus infected or not, and that his fault. (unless he warned you)

You can reinstall windows yourself.

 

[TitusRaven]

i personally don't charge separately for the services. i assume that more than likely i'll have to do a fresh install and only start out trying to remove it but knowing most likely i'll be re-installing windows. however, whatever you agreed on is what you should pay.

what does he mean by c: is corrupted? more than likely the viruses are still causing trouble and the only answer is to reinstall. i'd argue this angle and hope he'll admit the virus is still there and take the next step to fix it.

who is this it guy by the way? someone you know or a geeksquad type person who works for a company? how much are you paying if you don't mind me asking? if it's already a lot then the reinstall should be included, but if your only paying a friend like $25 then a little more for the time he still has to spend is worth it.

The guy's a geek friend trying to start a business on the side. he charges 100 for malware removal, and 120 for clean installs. more specifically, on the same day he noticed that there was lots of adware on the list of apps on my comp, and tried to do it all on the spot but it was taking too long so i had him take it with him. he said after the scans, he still couldnt do anything. not even a restore (because it said "the c drive is corrupted") a little pop up he said. he couldnt install anything without getting more errrors so he said a reinstall should do it. I dont have a backup drive so he's backing up with one of his own just in case.

btw, he hasnt told me what i'm paying yet, i just know what he normally charges.

 

[Math Geek]

i charge $150 flat rate to remove it all and that includes the back-up, cleaning, restore, whatever is necessary.

i'm willing to bet the drive is just too crapped up to fix and does need the re-install but that's all the malware/virus working and should be included with the normal cost. i'd start talking right now about price before he does a bunch and tries to charge too much after the fact. $120 all out is not too much really for all the effort, i'd go no more than that since this is what he charges for the fresh install and it's a fair price.

but as stated above, the back-up is top #1 priority. if he's not doing it then get it back and do it yourself or take it elsewhere.

i personally never keep my data on the same drive/partition as windows just for this reason. if i have to reinstall, then my data is safe on another drive and i don't worry. plus anything important is backed-up on a second drive for extra data safety.

 

[mdd1963]

The guy's a geek friend trying to start a business on the side. he charges 100 for malware removal, and 120 for clean installs..[/quotemsg]

That alone should be motivation for you to learn to backups, delete partitions, format/reinstall yourself...; a little research on google and youtube will show just how easy it is to use the assorted Linux-based Live CD Antivirus/Rescue disks out there....

Made my daughter learned the delete partition/format/reinstall process (she was 13 at the time) after her 4th infection in a 3-4 month period, and she had no issues learning it with a simple, 7 step checklist scribbled on a napkin!