[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

Garh those stupid computer virus that hackers have been throwing around since last week always infect me. Last week I suffered from the system tool virus and today the "winows diagnostic" virus affected my computer. I followed these steps
http://www.myantispyware.com/2011/03...gnostic-virus/
The virus seems to have gone but now all the files in "documents" and programs in c file have gone. Including pictures. Omg please someone help me. Anyone know how to retrieve files after this nasty thing has been removed?

All I did was go to yahoo and was infected immediately. be careful people. last week i got infected by going to facebook.

[Zippy]

go to a help forum like cybertechhelp or pchelpforum. An expert will talk you through how to rid the virus(which may well still be there) and recover files. You may need to use a file recovery program.

A few years ago I had to retrieve 250gb of files on an external drive and it was a nightmare. Thousands of files and they came back without their titles...just file01, 02 etc. But some recovery programs do recover the files with their titles intact.

[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

Thanks Zippy I will try that. Ugh, I hope I can retrieve everything.

[Stacey.]

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by Ithinkiloveyoutoo

Garh those stupid computer virus that hackers have been throwing around since last week always infect me. Last week I suffered from the system tool virus and today the "winows diagnostic" virus affected my computer. I followed these steps
http://www.myantispyware.com/2011/03...gnostic-virus/
The virus seems to have gone but now all the files in "documents" and programs in c file have gone. Including pictures. Omg please someone help me. Anyone know how to retrieve files after this nasty thing has been removed?

All I did was go to yahoo and was infected immediately. be careful people. last week i got infected by going to facebook.

Its unlikely that either yahoo or facebook actually infected your computer. It is possible though that opening your browser or actually surfing those pages triggered an inactive or dormant virus already residing on your computer.

Download a decent anti virus program, free ones like AVG or malwarebytes are okay, or look at Trend micro, Kapersky etc and download the limited period free trials for either. Install one then update it and let it scan and remove problems.

As for your missing files, go into windows explorer or the start menu and search for a file you know was there. Your virus(es) may have simply changed explorer settings so that all your docs are classed as hidden folders. They may still be there.

If however you have mucked up in the manual removal of a virus, you may have deleted them from registry menu, you could try a registry cleaning and repair tool, such as Ashampoo, there is a link for a free download of that somewhere on this site - use the search facility. However there is no guarentee of being able to recover them if you have.

[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

Originally Posted by Stacey.

Biaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!

Originally Posted by Shasown"

Its unlikely that either yahoo or facebook actually infected your computer. It is possible though that opening your browser or actually surfing those pages triggered an inactive or dormant virus already residing on your computer.

Download a decent anti virus program, free ones like AVG or malwarebytes are okay, or look at Trend micro, Kapersky etc and download the limited period free trials for either. Install one then update it and let it scan and remove problems.

As for your missing files, go into windows explorer or the start menu and search for a file you know was there. Your virus(es) may have simply changed explorer settings so that all your docs are classed as hidden folders. They may still be there.

If however you have mucked up in the manual removal of a virus, you may have deleted them from registry menu, you could try a registry cleaning and repair tool, such as Ashampoo, there is a link for a free download of that somewhere on this site - use the search facility. However there is no guarentee of being able to recover them if

Please don't scare me like that.

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by Ithinkiloveyoutoo

Please don't scare me like that.

Sorry if it scared you, but better to be ready for disappointment. Forewarned is forearmed.

Hopefully the malware you have/had has simply changed some settings.

For XP go into windows explorer, highlight Local disk(C: ) then on the top menu click on tools, in the drop down menu click on folder options then in the box that opens click on View make sure there is a tick or dot in the box that is beside Show hidden files and folders. if you have had to put a marker in there click on apply and then ok

Hopefully that will restore your My Document files and folders back into sight.

[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

Originally Posted by Shasown

Sorry if it scared you, but better to be ready for disappointment. Forewarned is forearmed.

Hopefully the malware you have/had has simply changed some settings.

For XP go into windows explorer, highlight Local disk(C: ) then on the top menu click on tools, in the drop down menu click on folder options then in the box that opens click on View make sure there is a tick or dot in the box that is beside Show hidden files and folders. if you have had to put a marker in there click on apply and then ok

Hopefully that will restore your My Document files and folders back into sight.

YES! I did that last step and everything is back. Thank you so much! Though every file has something like ^$ in front of it and everything is sort of blurred. Is there a way to fix that aswell?

[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

...uuh oh-in the start>all programs menu none of the programs are back. No basics like paint and programs I installed.

[Angus]

Do you have a system restore on your computer? If so, you could try restoring to a date and time when your computer was running okay.

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by Ithinkiloveyoutoo

YES! I did that last step and everything is back. Thank you so much! Though every file has something like ^$ in front of it and everything is sort of blurred. Is there a way to fix that aswell?

It sounds like whatever infected your computer has changed those files to hidden and archived files. Or the removal process you have used has. Is the symbol ~$ file name ?

Try system restore like angus suggested if that doesnt work you may have to highlight each file and right click on it and untick the hidden boc, apply and ok. You could also try a free undelete program like Norton etc.

[Rob]

System restore is the best way to make sure you have rid of the virus, make sure you have suitable antivirus and firewall installed.

Do a search for AVG and ZoneAlarm, i use both and works well.

[Shasown]

Never rely on system restore to remove a virus, it doesnt, it may put some some files and installations back into a pre infection state depending which restore point you use but the virus will still be present and possibly active on your computer(if nothing else it will be contained inside your CAB files).

The only effective way to remove malware is to use an antivirus program or to manually remove the virus and all infected processes and files.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Shasown

Never rely on system restore to remove a virus, it doesnt, it may put some some files and installations back into a pre infection state depending which restore point you use but the virus will still be present and possibly active on your computer(if nothing else it will be contained inside your CAB files).

The only effective way to remove malware is to use an antivirus program or to manually remove the virus and all infected processes and files.

Restore to a date before you had a virus and then run a clean on the PC and i'll think you'll find it will be fine.

[Zippy]

Originally Posted by Rob

Restore to a date before you had a virus and then run a clean on the PC and i'll think you'll find it will be fine.

No. System restore should actually be shut down before the process of removing a virus. All restore points erased. Then you clean the drive and re-enable system restore.

System restore can create copies of infected files and then when it is used in future can re-infect the computer. It's not a tool for virus removal.

[Claymores]

Originally Posted by Zippy

No. System restore should actually be shut down before the process of removing a virus. All restore points erased. Then you clean the drive and re-enable system restore.

System restore can create copies of infected files and then when it is used in future can re-infect the computer. It's not a tool for virus removal.

Yup - any sensible virus/trojan will copy itself to boot, no matter if you set your machine to 2010

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by Rob

Restore to a date before you had a virus and then run a clean on the PC and i'll think you'll find it will be fine.

I think you will find that doing "a clean" with a decent anti malware program is just as effective.

[Claymores]

Originally Posted by Shasown

I think you will find that doing "a clean" with a decent anti malware program is just as effective.

And there are excellent sites where if you join the forum, someone will take a look at the dump of your registry and tell you what you need to do. Is that not still the case Terry? I had a particularly pernicious one a few years back and got helped thru the process without spending diddly squat - is this still the case?

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by Claymores

And there are excellent sites where if you join the forum, someone will take a look at the dump of your registry and tell you what you need to do. Is that not still the case Terry? I had a particularly pernicious one a few years back and got helped thru the process without spending diddly squat - is this still the case?

Indeed however most decent anti malware programs will clean and repair if installed and updated correctly.

Instructions on some of the forums can be quite complicated and editing the registry is a bit iffy if you dont understand what you are doing. It only takes a / or a : to be missed or a space entered incorrectly and you could end up deleting most of a hard drive.

[Claymores]

I'm a bit naiive and just have Macafee full Security Centre and do dodgy sites without a care. Our IT people recommend it, our Emergency Planning Officers insist on it on their machines - I've never been troubled by external attcks since I've had it.............it's expensive but worth it for the lack of hassle. Not an issue I know much about but I just trust what people say.

Correct Terry????

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by Claymores

I'm a bit naiive and just have Macafee full Security Centre and do dodgy sites without a care. Our IT people recommend it, our Emergency Planning Officers insist on it on their machines - I've never been troubled by external attcks since I've had it.............it's expensive but worth it for the lack of hassle. Not an issue I know much about but I just trust what people say.

Correct Terry????

Yep Its not bad, but its not the best in my opinion.

Trend Micro Internet security Pro is probably the best value for money anti malware for me that is. The new titanium is pants, uses cloud technology and unless your computer and internet is top bollocks and all singing and dancing will slow down to the speed of an amstrad 1512.

I got both for nothing - sussed an algorythm for serial number generation, try enough of them and you will get a valid in date licence number.

After that probably Kapersky then Macafee, Malwarebytes etc. Norton comes well down the list close to AVG

[Claymores]

I'm not the best with things Tel - my Dell XPS gaming laptop broke after I spilled Irn Bru on it - hahahahahaha -typical Scottish twonk

Now I'm on the fast desktop which is Windows 7 and doesn't allow little things like my cracked form-filler. Pisses me off no-end. That was only an example, think I need a 2nd hand laptop from ebay so I can use all my my cracked software!

[Claymores]

BTW Tel - I only ever took private mails on the broken laptop and never had the desktop configured. So on day 1 I only had addresses from people mailing-in and lost your's so far. Email me that I'm a dim cvnt so I can capture yer address back bitter!

[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I ran Malwarebytes. It erased all the viruses it found. But now in the start>all programs all programs are empty. Old files are still blurry, and have ~$ in front of them yes, but I actually found that the original copies are also there, named as normal.

I wanted to try system restore as you suggested but after reading that it can created copies of infected files I am reluctant. :?

I'll try that Kapersky one to see if it collects anymore viruses. I had AVG before but it slows everything down so much I removed it. :/
Meanwhile I better start backing up stuff because I can't lose my programs.