Secure Steps To Format Infected Phones

So, what if I use the old s60v1v2 device such as Nokia 6600, 7610, N-Gage QD etc and my phone currently infected by virus. Keep reading to know secure steps to format infected phones

How do I solve this problem?

The only solution is, to restore it to factory settings, or in easy term, format or reset your phone and make it like you just buy the phone.

Secure steps to reset your phone

There are 2 steps to reset your phone, one is by soft reset, and one more by hard reset. Soft reset means you restore your phone to a state which you just buy your phone. While hard reset means completely erase all data in the phone memory.

Soft reset can be done by using “restore to factory settings” function in the phone setting, or by pressing a code combination (*#xxxx#). This method is not recommended, firstly because you need to enter your phone lock code before the phone resets (default lock code is 12345 unless you have changed it). It will be very hard if you have forgotten your phone lock code if you already changed it. Second, by using this method, you just erase the data in the phone memory, but not the virus. You are highly recommended to use hard reset instead.

Before resetting

Before you reset your phone, please follow these secure steps to format infected phones. Please backup your important data such as notes, contacts and messages.
You can copy your contacts from phone memory to your SIM card and copy back to phone memory after successfully reset your phone.
You can also use PC Suite software to save backup into your computer.
The backup and restore processes will not be discussed here.

Step by step to Format

1. Remove your memory card from the phone. This is a mandatory step. If not, your phone will be re-infected because, once your phone was infected, it will infect both mass memory and memory card.

2. Choose either soft reset or hard reset. But it is highly recommended to use hard reset using three keys combination method.

Soft reset

Key in *#7780#, press yes and then enter your lock code.

Hard reset

Key in *#7370#, press yes and then enter lock code. Although that people claimed this is a hard reset method, but to me it just like a soft reset.
So the actual hard reset method is as follows:

For phones with numeric keypad

a. Turn off you phone.
b. Switch on your phone, when the screen lights up, before the Nokia logo appears (if Nokia logo already appeared, it will not working. Please repeat if so), quickly hold these combination keys
“*” + “green key(send/call)” +”3“. Hold them down and do not release before “formatting” message appears on screen. After the message appears, you can release the three buttons and wait for the phone to restart after complete formating.
c. Done. You can now restore data if you make any backup

For touch screen phone (Nokia 5800XM used as reference), not guaranteed working, even for 5800, for selected firmware only

a. Turn off you phone.
b. Switch on your phone, when the screen lights up, before the Nokia logo appears (if Nokia logo already appeared, it will not working. Please repeat if so), quickly hold these combination keys “green key(send/call)” + “red(end)” + “camera“. Hold them until your phone restarts.
c. Done. you can now restore data if you make any backup

3. Attach your memory card to a healthy computer using a memory card reader. If you have a good anti-virus installed on your PC, it is enough to scan and just remove the virus from your memory card. If you still doubt, completely format your MMC or SD card, you need to ensure that you choose “FAT” as file format system if you use S60v1v2 phones. If you choose “FAT32”, your phone will not recognize the memory card. If you use S60v3v5 phones, it is okay to use “FAT32”.

4. You can now insert memory card to your phone.

Hopefully this tutorial helpful for you guys.