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"Windows-7-Recovery" virus?
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| pmoisse |
Howdy
Last night my computer caught what I suspect is a virus.
Out of nowhere, the fan started running at max speed for minutes at a time (only had firefox open), then I get a pop-up saying that the RAM was overheating, the hard drive had failed, and that I should run the diagnostics in the pop-up.
The pop-up looked sort of official but I didn't trust it. I turned off the wireless and ran a virus scan but it came up with no hits before it stalled at 90%. It also covered a lot of ground REALLY fast (unusual). I went looking for normal folders on the desktop and they were gone, as was my ability to open firefox or IE.
I gambled and ran the diagnostics in the pop-up, and i ran what looked like a half-assed de-frag. Then told me that if I wanted to fix all errors I had to buy something, which obviously a scam. I haven't turned my machine on since figuring I didn't want to allow it to dig deeper or things up any more
Has anyone seen or heard of this before? The only data I care about are my pictures. Can I just take the hard drive out and get a shop to pull the data off of it then wipe it?
Thanks |
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| VAR |
ouch!
copy your pics and reformat please |
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| Redd |
| quote: | | I gambled and ran the diagnostics in the pop-up |
Nice gamble. Get the name of the "diagnostics", google it + removal. Also check for rootkits. (http://www.techsupportalert.com/bes...ner-remover.htm) This is what is making your antivirus return nothing and shuts down your browsers.
Be patient, I spent like 4 hours removing an infection like this from a computer. He did exactly the same as you. On the bright side, when you've already gotten to the point where the pop-up starts nagging you, you're ed. It is however very rare that this comes out of "nowhere". |
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| KilldaDJ |
my gf had that sort of problem on her laptop, as Redd rightly pointed out, once it starts to nag, you know its rooted deep.
i managed to google the symptoms on a separate machine and clean it but it was a pain in the arse, going into the registry, msconfig, booting from USB sticks, all my best efforts etc
to save time and hassle, i would probably boot a livecd, grab all your on a USB thumbdrive, port it to a clean machine and flatten the infected machine (might be an ideal oppertunity to upgrade your OS or w/e)
:) |
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| Domesticated |
| I'd advise you to format, too. I got a virus similar to this about four or five years ago. It overworked the CPU so much that the fan shut down, all the internal components melted and I had to buy a completely new computer. |
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| Redd |
| If you format you're a . |
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| VAR |
| quote: | Originally posted by Redd
If you format you're a . |
well, taunt aside, it comes down to this;
you can spend hours trying to fix it, with a second computer for research. but in the end it will not be completely gone until you securely wipe your drives.
so, as with everything, what is the cost to benefit ratio? |
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| Domesticated |
| quote: | Originally posted by Redd
If you format you're a . |
I try to format once a year anyway. It just keeps your computer running well. |
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| Redd |
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
I try to format once a year anyway. It just keeps your computer running well. |
I'm just being a dick, but yeah that's what all computer illiterates do. |
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| VAR |
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
I try to format once a year anyway. It just keeps your computer running well. |
+10 |
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| Redd |
| quote: | Originally posted by VAR
well, taunt aside, it comes down to this;
you can spend hours trying to fix it, with a second computer for research. but in the end it will not be completely gone until you securely wipe your drives.
so, as with everything, what is the cost to benefit ratio? |
You are right about spending hours trying to fix it with a second computer. You are wrong about it not being completely gone, unless you're talking about magnetic "residue" on the physical drive.
Cost to benefit ratio really depends on how much stuff you got installed and how much time it would take to reinstall it after a clean. A lot of people get into trouble when formatting because of drivers and other software for their peripherals. |
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