got a virus...

[derrick1623]

we ain't talkin bout no stinkin flu here people! i lost every song on my computer, every picture of my blue tint(which btw is gone), and all pics of my dogs puppies at birth, man my luck is in the crapper nowadays! i had to reformat my computer, and now im going through the agonizing pain of re-installs...boo!:mad: :mad: :mad:

 

[BondoBob]

I suppose I need to put my computer consultant hat on and ask the question: what virus and why didn't your A-V program catch it?

 

[derrick1623]

don't know what kind of virus it was, but from the second we got it, it started ******* up our computer. a/v didnt catch it, cause we havent updated it in several m onths. The text of the message said something along the lines off....
Here's a new game
your 1st to try it
hope u enjoy..... or something like that. Everything is gpne! DAmn this sucks, I was ont the phone with dell for 2 hrs. Geez first i lose my tint and then my harddrive in a matter of hours, no fun.

 

[Sir Nuke]

well....I hope if nothing else...there is a lesson to learn.....update your antivirus EVERYWEEK....without fail.

okay..its too late now....just something to remember.

how much music did you loose?

the pics are a Bi*ch too....that really sucks Derrick

another little piece of advice to use for the future....never...EVER, under ANY circumstances.....run any kind of executable file from any source that you didn't specifically ask for....and THEN always scan them before you use them.

I am really sorry to hear about your loss.....I just reformatted a few weeks ago...however I was able to do a complete backup of all my data before we did it....just the install of programs was enough of a pain for me to remember the rest....it took me 7 hours to reinstall all the programs and get the silly thing set back up the way I wanted it.

sometimes lifes lessons are hard ones....and sometimes its takes this kind of lesson for it to stick and for us to learn.

 

[BigBlue]

Even with updates, things can always go wrong unfortunately and a virus can make it thru and screw things up...sorry to hear about your problems Derrick...I know you've had a hard time lately so I hope things pick up.

Just a suggestion that I do....get a burner if you don't have one...you can get them quite cheap...like 100 bux nowadays and then just burn all your important stuff like pictures and favorite music etc onto a few cds....it also comes in very handy if you are ever reinstalling windows.

 

[Sir Nuke]

Even with updates, things can always go wrong unfortunately and a virus can make it thru and screw things up...sorry to hear about your problems Derrick...I know you've had a hard time lately so I hope things pick up.

Just a suggestion that I do....get a burner if you don't have one...you can get them quite cheap...like 100 bux nowadays and then just burn all your important stuff like pictures and favorite music etc onto a few cds....it also comes in very handy if you are ever reinstalling windows.

very true Big Blue....

I did get or I should say my WIFE got a virus in our computer once, it was the pretty part virus....and we had only missed the update by a day or two....fortuantely it wasn't one that destroys data....just a pain in the ass....fortunately for me I have a friend that is a Microsoft certified Tech and she has all sorts of info at her disposal and she fixed us up. :{D

as far as the advice on the burner....EXCELLENT idea as well....we just did that right before we did our complete reformatt....It took me 7 CD's to save all the data and music...but....its there and totally replaceable now.

 

[derrick1623]

all together, i lost over 350 songs, and all the pics i took at carlisle, and all the pics of the mp3, and all my dog's puppie's pics. man this truely blows cock! i even had over 300 objects downloaded for the sims, lost all. it will take about a week to reinstall all the s*** i used to have(cannot replace most of the pics though), and i gauran-damn-teeya i'll be pickin up some cd-rw's this week!

 

[cjstringer]

300 songs? That's nothing. I have over 320+ CD's ripped to MP3's on my drive, plus about 400-500 other songs I have downloaded. Aahh, the wonders of cable modem.
I ALWAYS back up my stuff to CD though. I rebuild my systems about every month or two and live and die by my CDs. I usually make 2 copies in case a CD dies or gets scratched. CD's are cheap. If you shop around, you can get big spools, 50's and 100's for like $3-10. I pay on average about $1 per ten CDs I buy. Look for rebates and stuff. Staples/Office Max, etc., they all have rebates from time to time. I figure at 10 cents a pop, I can even have a few bad burns and still be in the +. I right now have about 200 blanks sitting on my desk. I will be doing a big burn before I go on vacation this week. I like to make sure it's all saved I go in case something happens while I'm gone.
I also use a second physical drive to store data and songs. If I have to rebuild my boot drive and programs, I don't lose any of my files that way. Drives are cheap. Can't hurt to have a spare or two laying around. (Yes, I'm a geek. I have a server in my house also.)
Just my thoughts.

 

[enry]

Outlook XP does a good job at securing email. It completely prevents any and all type of executables as attachments. And it completely disables scripting in e-mail. You need a reg hack to work around the security of Outlook XP. Personally I almost never run a virus scanner and I can't recall when I last got a virus. But don't take my irresponsability as an example. Get a virus scanner leave it running in background, it sucks up resources but it's worth it.

kbyeeeeeeeeee

 

[Sir Nuke]

Derrick, cjstringer brings up ANOTHER good point....and its something I have done since the very first computer I ever got....get a SECOND HARD DRIVE!! they are cheep!!! use it to store all data files on.....that too has saved my ass more than once.

 

[manuel]

why would you have so many songs? i mean, do you ever listen to all of them? i mean i know you listen to them when you first download them, and for the first few days, but after that initial point do you listen to them again? boggles the mind. i have like 50, at most, mp3s from which only maybe 10 i hear often.

 

[norman]

Derrick,

Something else you can do is to partition your existing hard drive, or any others you get, into sections. This will allow you to store your data on a section. The partitions will get their own drive letters and can be used just like a CD or other storage device. Keep your programs and o.s. on the C drive and if you have to reformat your C drive or reload your operating system your data will be there.
Not that I speak from experience or anything but if you do this and have to reinstall your o.s. it is pretty easy to format your entire hard drive and wind up loosing everything. You have to be careful. I have both the CDRW and partitions. I keep adding pictures to re-writable disks and also store them temporarily on a partition. One good program to do this is partition magic. Version 7.0 (I believe there may be a version 7.01) works with all Windows o.s. including XP. It is GUI based and is very easy to use and understand.

 

[cjstringer]

why would you have so many songs? i mean, do you ever listen to all of them? i mean i know you listen to them when you first download them, and for the first few days, but after that initial point do you listen to them again? boggles the mind. i have like 50, at most, mp3s from which only maybe 10 i hear often.

I travel a lot. Popping in music and just putting a disk on random you get to listen to a TON of music you haven't heard in a while. Yes, some people think you are weird as you cruise to Young MC and Boo Ya Tribe, but it brings back some fun memories, and I still listen to most all of them. I can have all the music I like on about 10 CDs. It's nice.

 

[cjstringer]

Derrick,

Something else you can do is to partition your existing hard drive, or any others you get, into sections.

Partitioning works, but it's not a good solution for virus problems. Viruses usually (from my experience) scan the entire drive and like to attatch to files that you wouldn't normally expect, but I have not yet run across one that will run to a second physical drive. Might have something the to with the fact that I put my seond drive on a different board channel, but it has worked well for me. I have my main drive and my burner (CDRW) on one channel and my secondary drive and DVD on the other. I use to use a board with 4 board connections, so I put each on their own channel. It was a sweet ABIT BX133RAID, but Abit has turned to s***, so I would never recommend them to anyone ever again. (Bad experience with a different board being replaced 5 times and still not working)
Anyway, Just my thoughts. I know people that use partition magic, but it is still a b***h when you have to reformat.

 

[Sir Nuke]

why would you have so many songs? i mean, do you ever listen to all of them? i mean i know you listen to them when you first download them, and for the first few days, but after that initial point do you listen to them again? boggles the mind. i have like 50, at most, mp3s from which only maybe 10 i hear often.

Manual....I have a friend that is a real music NUT...he has over a thousand (1000) Cd's that are ready for play.....NOT MP3's he collects them...some are store baught and others are ones that he made (burnt) and reproduced the covers with photoshop...and in some cases made his own custom covers. I can't even begin to tell you how many spools of CD's he has that are all MP3's....just about anything you can imagine....if I am looking for something...its easier for me to ask my buddy if he has it....everything he has is all cataloged....its unreal. its just his thing.

Norman....even if you partition your main drive and keep all the programs on certain drives and only the OS on the C drive...IF you ever formatt the C drive...you still have to reload all the programs as they lose their association with the OS......not to mention the things CJ just mentioned....

I too have my Hard drives set up on diferent channels like you...and it works fine.

 

[norman]

I agree SirNuke, it is still a pain and you do have to reinstall the programs. The only thing I was thinking of is using the partitions for data only. The safest is definately burning the pics, songs and data to a cd rom.

cj,

I just built my 2nd PC with a Giga-Byte board and it is working great. It is an GA-7DXR+ with RAID built in, and USB2.0 controllers also. Can't complain at all. I did try a SOYO Dragon+ and could not get it to boot to save my life. A co-worker purchased the same board and had the same problems. We both sent them back for the Giga-Byte and am not sorry we did.

 

[derrick1623]

actually some GOOD news for me?

my roxio works now, i can actually back up stuff now, when we got our dell, it never worked. and my power button works on demand now, used to have to push it in. ok


now, what do i put onto cd-rw's and what do i backup on disks, or does it matter, i've never backedup stuff before, but i have to learn now, cause this virus s*** is NEVER gonna take me down again!!!