Inactive Trojan:DOS/Alureon.H found on Non-Bootable Drive

[hamr1965]

Do you recommend Microsoft Security Essentials as a free AV for her laptop once Windows 7 is reinstalled?

 

[Broni]

MSE is a fine program.

 

[hamr1965]

Thank you for all your help - so is this Trojan a particularly nasty variant? And is there anyway to safely access her files by hooking up her infected hard drive as an external drive?

 

[Broni]

I'm not even sure what type of infection we're dealing here with.
Since resetting MBR semi-worked I suspect it's some kind of rootkit, possibly ZeroAccess.
With this kind of infection make sure the hard drive will be formatted.
Using any kind of restoration disk won't work as it doesn't format the drive.

You surely could use some hard drive enclosure (~$20 bucks) to transfer her data.
IMPORTANT!
Install Panda USB Vaccine, or BitDefender’s USB Immunizer on GOOD computer to protect it from any infected USB device.
Scan the drive before transferring anything.