Computer Virus

[Tigmafuzz]

The other day, I tried to turn on my computer, but every time it would get to the loading screen (with the Windows logo in the middle of the black background and the little bars scrolling in the open space below it) it would shut itself off. Then, when it finally started up and i logged on, all my folders were missing their names, and a bout twenty or so files were missing from a bunch of different folders. I looked it up, and there's apparently a new trojan or something doing this to random people across the globe. There are security patches to prevent it, but what annoys me the most is that I can't see my folders names anymore. Even when I click rename, the naming box disappears again after putting in the name. i took a screenshot and managed to upload it before the last crash. This is the second time I've typed this out, too. Check it out: http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d111/monkey_monkey_monkey_monkey_monkey/so.jpg
What exactly can I do to get the names back?

[Aerith's Knight]

Reformat and next time don't open 257 kB .exe files that have the caption ".... video"

[Momiji]

Attempt to back up what you can and delete your system32 folder format your hard drive.

[Leeza]

I'll move this the the Help Forum.

[Tigmafuzz]

Reformat and next time don't open 257 kB .exe files that have the caption ".... video"

I'm a software programmer. Don't condescend to me as I probably know more about the internet and computers period than you do about how to breathe.


Attempt to back up what you can and delete your system32 folder format your hard drive.

I meant something along the lines of an online software or other downloadable program that can reformat my computers folder view kernel. Every time I use a search engine, my web browser freezes (on firefox, microsoft explorer, netscape, and even a bootleg of safari) until my computer reboots itself again, and there isn't any problem with anything in my task manager that could be causing either problem, so it has to be controlled from another CPU; if I get something to fix my folders (and possibly recover my files, which are disappearing by the minute) I could actually see what I'm doing and then trace where my files are going if they're being sent to another computer, or find out what's deleting them. I have a lot of my files on back-up on a separate hard drive but my most recent files (very important, actually, most of which are irreplaceable and some invaluable) are the ones that seem to be disappearing more often. Could somebody at least google a solution for me? There's gotta be something to help.

[Momiji]

if you're a software progammer, you should know that he's right

*ahem*

And if you can't transfer your important files, I dunno what to say. I've never heard of this kind of problem before, and I doubt that googling it is going to give any good conclusive answers. You're better off calling tech support or something.

[crono_logical]

Being a programmer does not mean being savvy with safe/good web practices and how computers work (rather, Windows) - a few programmers I work with, despite being competent at programming, are good examples of this :p It's like asking CS postgrads at universities to look after the IT infrastructures, it just doesn't work in general :p Throwing random phrases like "reformat my computers folder view kernel" just shows that :p


If your PC's in that bad a state you're making it out it is, it could well be rootkitted hence why taskmgr shows nothing obvious. If files really are randomly disppearing by themselves, you shouldn't even be running the machine in it's current state if you want to avoid more data loss.

I suggest you boot into a safe trusted OS from a read-only medium, e.g. Knoppix or Ubuntu live disks burnt from a working machine, backup everything important to USB drives or another LAN PC, then full reformat the HD and reinstall the OS. It's usually much much quicker than trying to disinfect the machine these days with some of the nasties out there :p


Of course, it could just be something simple like a failing HD or disk controller and we're all being overly paranoid :D

[Crimson]

Before you reformat, if you think it's a virus, you can try downloading Malwarebytes, then scan and delete EVERYTHING it finds.

[Cloud Strife-78-]

Things have happend to me just like that. :grr: