PC Question HELP

[glen]

We think we have had a virus

Opened lap top yesterday, we had lots of folders on the desktop and they appear to be there but they are all empty! we have restored the data and backdated it to 3 march but they have not appeared in the folders they have been on since last year so should be there? we dont use it for banking but do have some accounts paypal play.com etc. cleared all history in internet settings on thursday including user names so not sure if data has been hacked what they would get. think may be a virus got in on saturday not sure. does anyone know if the pictures, word docs etc would still be on and if so how would we find them? we run virus check and it said it found 2!

Glen

[Liam]

Originally Posted by glen

We think we have had a virus

Opened lap top yesterday, we had lots of folders on the desktop and they appear to be there but they are all empty! we have restored the data and backdated it to 3 march but they have not appeared in the folders they have been on since last year so should be there? we dont use it for banking but do have some accounts paypal play.com etc. cleared all history in internet settings on thursday including user names so not sure if data has been hacked what they would get. think may be a virus got in on saturday not sure. does anyone know if the pictures, word docs etc would still be on and if so how would we find them? we run virus check and it said it found 2!

Glen

Possibly spyware or virus. If you can download spybot and run it ,preferably in safe mode, and see what results you get. That's for a start anyway but there are some on here who work in the IT sector and may be able to offer more help. Hard to diagnose when you don't have the laptop in front of you. Sure you will get it sorted.

[kbekl]

depending what antivirus you have run a boot time scan so all files are acessible to the antivirus best to repair them just in case any of the boot sector has been modded, i know avast antivirus has this and is free even if you want to just down load it for the scan and then remove it, and i would say as above run spybot first get all the crap out befor running the boot scan.

do you have a firewall ?

[4x4_Gav]

Avast Anti-Virus is also a good free virus software to download and run ALONG SIDE SpyBot.

[kbekl]

Originally Posted by 4x4_Gav

Avast Anti-Virus is also a good free virus software to download and run ALONG SIDE SpyBot.

i have used avast for the last 8 years and i have never had a virus yet on all the pc's i have had i find it better than most paid av's and probably the best free av

[Timbo_1975]

I'll add that if you are running XP SP2 or 3, Vista, or 7, that Microsoft's own Security Essentials is both free, does what it says on the tin and as good as Avast / Avira and the like.

[clivvy]

Originally Posted by Timbo_1975

I'll add that if you are running XP SP2 or 3, Vista, or 7, that Microsoft's own Security Essentials is both free, does what it says on the tin and as good as Avast / Avira and the like.

agreed, im currently running it on test, and its a very good peice of software, even if it is from Microsoft.

[glen]

We have Avast now

When you right click on the folder and open properties size on disk is they 580 mb 6.303,030. bytes but it says folder empty when you open.must be some were in the PC.

Glen

[clivvy]

Originally Posted by glen

We have Avast now

When you right click on the folder and open properties size on disk is they 580 mb 6.303,030. bytes but it says folder empty when you open.must be some were in the PC.

Glen

so, these folders, they are on your desktop correct? is that were they were orginally? what type of files did they contain, pictures, music??

you can do a search of the entire drive, just use *.jpg for images, for example, or *.mp3 for mp3 files for example, there are lots of other file types you may have, but thats a starting point to locate your files. You may have some corruption in windows perhaps, so you can try doing a system file check. Click start, RUN, in the RUN box type SFC /scannow, a black box should pop up to indicate its running. It will check all your windows system files, and if it finds problems, will repair.

anyway, give that a quick bash.

[paulp]

when you click into the file or open there is a window that pops up and should contain the files.

on the bottom of the window there is a drop down menu, click on the arrow and select all files, they may be set to excel or word or something ;ke HTML files.

a system restore could default the files

if they are there that should open them

good luck paulp

[glen]

We have been told this could work what do we think is it worth a go could it do any more damage

Click Start.

· Type “cmd” on the black search field.

· Right click the CMD icon and click Run as Administrator.

· Now, go to the driver which was infected by the virus (D: for instance) and enter the following commands: attrib –s –h *.* /S /C

· Click Enter to recover all your hidden files and folders.

Glen

[ClanWolf]

That code seems to check out for Windows 7 and Vista, basically retrieving files & folders from being hidden, in effect.

http://www.webtlk.com/2011/02/23/how...-simple-trick/