Repair

A technically demanding technique used to undo the damage done to a file by virus infection and/or corruption. Most virus infections can be repaired automatically by an anti-virus program, but there are some, together with other types of (non-viral) data corruption which must be handled manually.

This approach requires a relatively high level of technical skills and the use of special software tools which should not be available to ordinary users.

The damaged files should be removed from the main system to a separately partitioned area while being repaired.

If the damage is severe or extensive, affecting a number of files, consideration my be given to recovering an earlier copy of the file from backup.