Nasty Virus

[Sailor Steve]

I downloaded the wrong thing this morning, and my computer is paying for it. First it installed one of those "Your computer has problems. We can fix them" messages, which took me forever to get rid of. Now all my desktop work and icons are gone, but if I try to make a new shortcut for, say Explorer, it asks me if I want to replace the old one. But the old one is gone, or at least I can't see it. Now I've found that my 'Favorites' folder is empty. But when I tried to set Subsim as a favorite again it told me that it can't because it's already there. But I can't see it.

A System Restore didn't change anything. Also missing is all my Ship Names works since February.

Any ideas beyond simply recreating everything?

[Jan Kyster]

You're not using Microsoft Security Essentials?
Recommended! http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/secur...s/default.aspx


Here's a link to Microsoft Security Scanner and how-to:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/W...computer-virus

Generel tips:
http://www.removevirus.org/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial101.html

Once clear, scan your backups as well.

But the "Also missing is all my Ship Names works since February"-part makes me wonder why you haven't backed up such stuff much more frequent. DVD's are next to free these days...


Good luck though!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Jan Kyster

You're not using Microsoft Security Essentials?
Recommended! http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/secur...s/default.aspx

Yes I am. It got by anyway, and MSE politely warned me that my hard drive was compromised.

Thanks for the other links. I'm going over them now.

As for backing up my work folders, I have a copy in My Documents and another on a flash drive. I seem to have forgotten to rewrite them this time. On the other hand I downloaded my own April file, and it won't take long to reconstruct my work files using it. It's just annoying is all.

[the_tyrant]

ok, so first of all, you will have to back up your files
don't try to back up your files using the infected system

burn yourself a copy of this:http://www.ubcd4win.com/

boot into windows pe, and backup your files from there

after that, you can try to remove the virus yourself
or hire an antivirus company to do it for you
or just format the drive and reinstall the system

[nikimcbee]

Sorry to hear about that Steve? One thing you could do is get you a set of hard drive cables to USB and plug the infected HD in two a second computer and scan from there. You can also move your non-infected files off the drive.

[kiwi_2005]

Ok all might not be lost. Here's a quick fix if you have the same nasty malware virus. Some Malware hides your files they are not gone deleted just hidden from view.

First get rid of the malware using malwarebtyes program.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/ latest version is 1.50.1

Or unless you killed it with some other program good enough, open up any folder then in the menu go Tools - folder options - view. Then in the 'Hidden files and folders' check the 'Show hidden files and folders' box. Click the apply button below then the 'Apply to all button' up top. Applying to all means every folder will do the same, could take a while to complete.

Might not work if its more nasty than just hiding your stuff but worth a try.