A virus Killed my old computer.

tuscarora dave

tuscarora dave

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Hi all. Last weekend I went to Buffalo New York for a Project Object show. The show was great and the drive was absolutely beautiful on the way there and absolutely tiring on the way back home. Anyway, like a day after coming back home i get an email in my spam folder from the New York State Police stating that the above driver has been charged with exceeding the posted 55 MPH speed limit. Like a dummy I open up the attached zipped file and BAM!!! Lesson learned. The virus took over my computer entirely except for my fathers user account that I had set up for him. I lost the operating system, the desktop and all of my saved files. Again, like a dummy i didn't have my stuff backed up either.

I am not much of a computer guy and I couldn't do anything with the mess that the virus created so this morning before doing today's detailing work I stopped out at HHGregg and picked up this HP Pavillion p7-1011 PC, Pretty nice machine with 6 gigs of memory, a pentium G620 and a 1 terabyte hard drive. It sucks having lost all my stuff but it's nice having a brand new and smoking fast computer.

I don't know if a computer guru could go through the old unit and retrieve any of the stuff that seems to have dissapeared or not. I had written a lot of articles that can be re written but it's all the photographs and some important detailing customer info that I am bummed about losing. Oh well, I could think of a million worse things that i have been through in my life so reall it's just spilled milk. Just thought I'd share that.
 
If you can still access one profile on the computers, it should be easy for someone to retrieve your files on your computer. I'm going to be going to school for software engineering and I have people bringing me their computers all of the time. They should be able to retrieve your entire account and files using your dads account. Most computers these days already have a backup drive usually drive D. This is where your stuff is backed up. Well at least your more important stuff. Even if your hard drive crashes, stuff can be recovered from it. It wouldn't hurt to have someone look at it. That way you can have two working computers. But anyways congrats on the new computer. It never hurts to upgrade either. :props:
 
Hey, thanks for reminding me to do a backup! I run a mirrored array but that only protects against a HDD failure, not a virus. I have an auto backup setup to an external drive, but the external drive was giving me error messages that I didn't want to deal with at the time, so I unplugged it...thanks for reminding me.
 
That's a real bummer. Congratulations on the new computer though! I need a new computer. My 6 year old iMac is sloooooooooooooooooooow.
 
Well I did a little searching around and found some backed up discs that i had made some time ago and got a lot of my more important stuff from back then on my new computer. There was 2 years worth of newer important stuff that i lost though. thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a computer specialist have at the old one and see what he can do with it.
 
Sorry about your misfortune. When you think about all the time, money, and effort we all have to expend to protect ourselves from these individuals who seem to have nothing better or positive to do than to think of ways to harm a complete stranger, I wonder what type of punishment would be appropriate? You try not to overreact, but when you have to buy a new computer, which isn't cheap, and you think of all the work lost or has to be retrieved or replaced, it takes something like this out of just being a prank.
 
Just proves that nothing good comes out of Buffalo
 
jpegs13 said:
Just proves that nothing good comes out of Buffalo
Click to expand...

That was an uncalled for shot against us that live in the area. I'm sure you have some undesirable spots in your town too.

On a separate note, how did you like Nietzches Dave?
 
TB88 said:
That was an uncalled for shot against us that live in the area. I'm sure you have some undesirable spots in your town too.
Click to expand...

I think that was simply a joke, man.

Regards,

Setec
Coming to you from the Armpit of America
 
I got one of them also, glad I didn't open it.
 
Sorry for your loss Dave. There should be someone close to you (computer business) that can dig out your files

Thanks for the heads up on the email scam. If I recieve anything from the Po Po I'll know now to ignore :)
 
Dave...it doesn't sound like your hard drive is completely gone. If it can recognize your dad's profile, then it didn't completely kill the OS. You may want to get a dock for the drive or try to slave it. Just make sure you have and anti virus software installed. If you don't have any anti-virus software, I highly recommend AVG Free version, as well as zone alarm (if you don't already have it). There is a free version of that as well. I have a feeling you can still salvage your files.
 
Dave-
Computers are my life. I would be very happy to help you out, especially since you have a reputation for doing so much for others. It's your turn, my friend. I've repaired and retrieved data like this from a bunch of computers. Not guaranteeing anything but I have had a lot of success. I don't want to be paid; maybe just to watch and learn your magic. I'll pm\call you. And, sorry for the virus. Congrats on the new rig. Nice!
 
That's a generous offer Kim. To the OP and others - a good site for step-by-step help in removing computer nasties from Windows is bleepingcomputer dotcom.
 
flyinion said:
In addition to the AVG recommendation, Microsoft's latest (and now free) AV program has been getting rave review around the techy geek websites that I hang out on. I actually got rid of my very good ESET software last January and switched to the MS product full time on all my computers. Virus, Spyware & Malware Protection | Microsoft Security Essentials
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Interesting...I'll have to check it out. I'm not too confident in alot of MS products. Although I must say their new window's phones are sweet.
 
Can you boot into safe mode?

If so, you will be able to retrieve your files. Ive never once in my life encountered a virus that deletes your personal files, maybe make it so you cant access, but never delete.Virus makers then to design to make life miserable lol. Alot of them nowadays are fake antivirus scanners that say your infected and want you to pay to remove the non existent viruses, stealing your cc info.
 
I concur that the MS Security Essentials is a good product, and it's free.
 
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