This has been a really great thread, folks!
With regard to the question of not knowing whether or not you have any
modified files remaining on the system, you might be interested in the
following URLs, which have been following and dissecting a newer method
of getting malware on to a machine... simply embed it into a Flash "ad":
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/default.aspx
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php?s=ba964b70addd94e94cce765b5a6
9103b&showtopic=18064&st=0&p=86387&
And an excellent paper, written in 2001 by SANS senior faculty member
Lenny Zeltser, with a pretty thorough discussion and break down of what
just one piece of malware can do to a system.
http://www.zeltser.com/reverse-malware-paper/
And if you're really going to re-use the same hard drive for a new
installation (assuming you've saved the data and now want to wipe the
drive clean with fdisk), don't forget to:
fdisk /mbr
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/69013
Jim Monahan
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