Anything like this happen to you???

[+opey one]

Users beware!! I encountered a virus through my email and it totally wiped me out. I lost all my documents, pics, music (of least importance), but most importantly lost all my video and pictures of my girls, Lindsey (Noodlehead), Autumn and especially baby Faith (Lulu).

 

I have other video of the older girls, but the camcorder messed up, so I resorted to getting great audio/video of baby Faith at multiple stages (she is almost 10 mos. old).

 

But I lost it all, due to these drasted viruses. Wish dummies like me could be immune to such things that encircle the internet.

 

Oh, well, just figured I'd drop a line and inform my fellow geocachers, since I would hate that something like this would happen to you all, too.

 

If there is anything you all may know to prevent future occurances, please fill me in.

 

I believe the virus spawned from an email sent innocently by a friend of mine and it kept "growing" rapidly, slowly eating my hard drive and backup. Nothing I could do could contain it. Multiple restarts of my computer and go back to earlier dates didn't help. I couldn't even copy any files to disk after it took hold. Slowly my files started deleting until the whole thing shut down and had to get it repaired.

 

Anything like this happen to you????

[+Planet]

I just ran a virus scan and it says the scanner is up to date and no viruses (virii?) were found, but you never know I guess. My computer has frozen up on me a few times lately, but I think that was my fault. Sorry to here about your videos. That's a bummer.

 

Cache you later,

Planet

 

Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right, But Three Lefts Do.

[+Jacksons]

I hope you have or will get a good anti virus prog like Norton,and check every week for updates,its worth the time and money,also consider a firewall like norton

[+opey one]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jacksons:

I hope you have or will get a good anti virus prog like Norton,and check every week for updates,its worth the time and money,also consider a firewall like norton

---

 

Yes, I do have latest Norton antivirus and keep tabs on things like this, but do not know what on earth happened! Oh, well......

[rocketman1]

Is it possible for you to post the name of the virus. If Norton detected it, then you should be able to get the name of the virus.

 

There are a lot of viruses out there that are self executing. There is a voulnerability in outlook ecpress called the mime voulnerability. If you do not have the patch from Microsoft, then you can get a virus just by previewing the message. You do not have to open it, and many do not even have attachments.

 

As well as having good anti-virus software, you have to goto Windows Update every month or so and check for up dates.

 

Take Care

Rocketman1

[+Gimpy]

I run Norton Systemworks 2003 Professional & also paid for ZoneAlarm Pro. But you can download the free version of ZoneAlarm at the bottom of the page here: Zonelabs.com Kind of like a belt & suspenders thing. I have Norton set to make automatic updates for Virus protection, but even then, you're still at somewhat of a risk. But I've been running like this for a long time now, & have escaped the grasp of the dreaded virus mongers. Sorry to hear about your stuff, opey.

 

"Gimpy"

[+opey one]

Really, I do have updated security properties that are currently employed within my computer. Among Norton 2003, I am currently looking for other means of protecting my computer's contents (I have nothing to hide, nonetheless).

 

Windows constantly updates my computer (at my discretion) and I feel I am a "good guy" concerning internet activity.

 

Maybe, in some way, I have encountered something that this and other software cannot protect.

 

No skin off my nose, other than the fact that I have lost personal family oriented material that had a great impact on the way I spend my life with my family (and I lost valuable media of my 10 month old daughter at various growing stages).

 

What a shame that this could happen to a blue collar family with no ties to types of garbage that exists in the world today (i.e. drugs, robbery, murder, TERRORISM.......)

 

Since then, I have an external drive pointed directly to my personal endeavors, with its own security (NVP pro client).

 

To each his own, but we all know that the "Big Guy" is constantly watching you regardless of what security features you are using.

 

 

The rest is up for grabs, since I could care less.

[tatoeba]

It's good idea. An external drive for multiple back ups is a good way to add another layer of protection. I do that once a week for my most important files.

Sorry for your loss.

 

Legendeo is still in Beta!

[+Mr. Snazz]

If you still have the drive, it may yet be possible to recover the lost information - although it may come at a price. There are companies which specilize in data recovery. If you need any help finding one, let me know and I'll check around.

 

Sorry to hear of your loss

[+opey one]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mr. Snazz:

If you still have the drive, it may yet be possible to recover the lost information - although it may come at a price. There are companies which specilize in data recovery. If you need any help finding one, let me know and I'll check around.

 

Sorry to hear of your loss

---

 

Sure didn't know that! I figured, once you lost it-- it's gone forever. How about that. Sure, I'd love to get at least one item back. Sure appreciate the help

[+jollybgood]

Wow! That's terrible.

 

Never had a problem like that. One of the advantages of being on a MAC. Only virus I've ever encounted is one of the macro viruses associated with WORD files but they're easily detected.

 

Jolly R. Blackburn

http://kenzerco.com

[+Sissy-n-CR]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jolly B Good:

Wow! That's terrible.

 

Never had a problem like that. One of the advantages of being on a MAC. Only virus I've ever encounted is one of the macro viruses associated with WORD files but they're easily detected.

 

Jolly R. Blackburn

http://kenzerco.com

 

Don't let being a less popular computer give you a false sense of security. The Amiga was even less popular than the Mac, yet virii were rampant with it.

 

CR

 

[+geospotter]

First, I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

 

Mr. Snazz is right. You might still be able to recover your files. For the images I would try Digital Image Recovery (free download). It will search out and recover JPGs (I don't know about other files) even if you have reformatted your drive. I use it for Smart Media cards and it is great. Check it out and see if it will work on your drive. If not, try others.

 

For email I use Mail Washer (shareware) from Mailwasher.net. I allows me to preview my email on my ISP's computer BEFORE I download it with my email program. The best part is I can BOUNCE the email back to the sender saying it was undeliverable. It also keeps a blacklist of addresses. I check all of my email this way prior to starting my email program. Not only does it help to prevent an attached virus from getting to my system, I've also noticed a considerable drop in Spam!

 

geospotter

[+opey one]

quote:

---

Originally posted by geospotter:

First, I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

 

Mr. Snazz is right. You might still be able to recover your files. For the images I would try Digital Image Recovery (free download). It will search out and recover JPGs (I don't know about other files) even if you have reformatted your drive. I use it for Smart Media cards and it is great. Check it out and see if it will work on your drive. If not, try others.

---

 

Great news!!! I used the above DIR and success!! Well, for the most part. I have recovered almost all of the pics, but still trying to navigate the video aspects. Thanks for the help, all

[+Criminal]

Something many do not know: If your email program, outlook or outlook express, is set up with the "preview pane" SOME email viruses open right there in the pane without giving your anti-virus a chance to prompt you (open/don't open).

 

The first email address in your book should be a fake, like this one: *Warning for name and

 

My 2 cents

[Team Dragon]

quote:

---

I am currently looking for other means of protecting my computer's contents

---

 

CD burners are cheap now, as are the disks. DVD burners are getting there but the cheapest are still ovr $200 with disks running $10 or so retail.

[+Mopar]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Team Dragon:

CD burners are cheap now, as are the disks. DVD burners are getting there but the cheapest are still ovr $200 with disks running $10 or so retail.

---

You need to do some more shopping around! Depending on the format, etc, DVD media can get down as cheap as $1 a disk in bulk.

 

Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.

[+Mr. Snazz]

I'm using CDs currently for longterm and zip200 disks for daily offsite storage of active work.. I'm planning to get a DVD burner for higher capacity storage (fewer discs to re-copy every 365 days.

 

I'm also planning to get a firewire/usb2.0 expansion card, and a firewire chasis; this allows you to put like one of those 120gb hard drives in and then hotplug it on your system. So I can hotplug it without shutting down, copy *all* my files to it, then take it with me when I leave for work. In case of fire at home, my critters will be crispy, but my data will be safe.

 

Card is about $99 (if you buy from OrangeLink) and iirc the chasis is about $60.

[Buttons Brigade]

I ALWAYS back up my documents folder onto CD's on a regular basis. Also, I have my hard drive partitioned so that the D drive contains My Documents folder. I also have my outlook messages and quicken stuff on there. So if my C drive is wiped out, I can FDISK, Format, reinstall - anything without a hitch and have all my docs still there. Of course, well-written virus can wipe it all away easily but it's 1 more hurdle.