A bad day...............

[Captain]

Yesterday was a very bad day!!!

I guess I should feel lucky. My bad day didnt involve anyone getting hurt, or worse. Just my computer!

I opened up an e-mail supposedly from a friend.....turned out to be some kind of virus program that quickly ran through my hard drive, eradicating all of my files. I lost most of my pictures, my art work,photoshop stuff, documents, links, contacts, everything! I literally sat here and watched this "thing" rip through my system and I couldnt do anything to stop it. It happened very quickly. I turned the machine off after maybe a half minute or so of trying to figure out what was going on, but by then it was too late.
I'm told I might be able to recover some of this, but I doubt it? I turned the computer back on, and it wouldnt even start up, as some of the windows programs were also attacked. I had to reboot everything, so I'm betting when I did that, whatever was left was lost?

Really maddening thing is, I have all the antivirus programs, etc, installed and up to date. Whatever this thing was, it not only disguised itself as someone elses e-mail address, but got past everything!!!

I had a lot of things backed up on disc, but I hadnt done a back up in quite a few months....Never do that again!

Sorry to cry on everybodies shoulder here.

[toys2cool]

I feel you bro,it's happened to me a bunch of times

[BlackKnight]

wow... sorry to hear that Clayton...
So whats to prevent this ?... If you get one,.. hurry up & shut everything off ?.. or just shut the main pwr off ?.

[livnxxxl]

Bummer deal dude. I cannot stress backup enough. I have backups of backups. I would much rather be safe than sorry. Invest in a external drive if you do not already own one. They are great for storing data. Also great for transporting from PC to laptop or what have you. Best of luck to you if you should decide to try and recover your data.

[thomasjo_2093]

Bummer deal dude. I cannot stress backup enough. I have backups of backups. I would much rather be safe than sorry. Invest in a external drive if you do not already own one. They are great for storing data. Also great for transporting from PC to laptop or what have you. Best of luck to you if you should decide to try and recover your data.

Exactly. You are only as good as your last backup. I backup my stuff every night without fail. You just never know what may happen. Are you sure that your virus software is configured properly. Even if it is up to date if it is not set properly bad things can happen.

John

[cjefferys]

Sorry to hear it man, that really sucks. Was it an attachment that you opened? What was the subject title of the email?

[thunderbolt]

I keep getting emails from me. I just delete them right off, why would I email myself?

[Bill]

One of these days I'll find a guy that made a virus. I'll make sure he remembers it.

[Seeker]

Yeah that just ****es me off. Why some folks get their jollies using their skills to mess up other people.

Yeah your friggan good with computers... Why dont you do something constructive with it.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

That's awful, I'm really sorry.

[Captain]

Thanks folks.

I have to get a computer expert over to see if anything is recoverable. I did find some of my pictures so all hope is not lost.

As for the virus itself, it was in an email from a friends e-mail address. The subject just said "Hello"??? Funny thing is, I checked with this guy and he hasnt sent me anything lately, nor has he himself had any similar problems.

My computer is an HP with the personal media drive bay thingie..I plan to buy one of those soon!!!

[Mikey]

If i'm remembering right, a virus was going around a few years ago that would go into your address book and send emails on it's own (from your address) to your friends.
This even went around the Museum a few year ago.
I think it was everybody who used Outlook Express

[palitoy]

One of these days I'll find a guy that made a virus. I'll make sure he remembers it.

Oh hells yes, I could finally use some of the stuff I learned. If anyone came to help, you just say "he makes computer viruses" and they'll likely join in.

[Bill]

It'd be worth the gamble; I doubt anyone would convict.

[cjefferys]

As for the virus itself, it was in an email from a friends e-mail address. The subject just said "Hello"??? Funny thing is, I checked with this guy and he hasnt sent me anything lately, nor has he himself had any similar problems.

My computer is an HP with the personal media drive bay thingie..I plan to buy one of those soon!!!

Was there an attachment in the email that you opened? That's usually the culprit. I'm suspicious about any attachments and don't open them at all unless someone is telling me they sent me one and what it is.


I have an HP with a bay like that too. But drives that are compatible with those tend to be more expensive, and from what I've heard, can be a bit noisy. You might want to check out some external USB hard drives too and do some price comparisons. External drives are a good idea though, especially if you have a lot of files you want to protect.