Computer help please.

macman

It's most unlikely your data is actually gone, you just can't access it or see it.
Bear in mind that if you do a full reinstall of Windows you will need to reinstall all the drivers etc, and you will lose all your post-installed programs. Very rare for a virus infection to be so bad that a full reinstall is the only solution.
But it's your PC.

cookie_monster

thanks once again macman.

Didn't have that many programs on my computer, only peed off with Itunes as it seems to have lost all my music that was ripped from my cd's and also my pics.

More concerned about my pics on my computer as I had loads of family ones, any idea if anyone might have hijacked these pics?

macman

No virus or spyware steals picture files. What would be the point? All your data is still there if you want it. It's just mucking up your file access in order to sell you some more spyware.
Have you actually done a search for the missing data?

cookie_monster

Nah, didnt search for the missing data, to be honest the way the computer was bahaving was really bad.

Anyway panic over and done a system restall.

Just like a new computer, just needed to know that the virus/spyware was gone.

big thanks macman. I owe you a drink.

macman

What have you actually carried out?
A System Restore is not the same as a Factory Restore, which is not the same as a Reinstall.
You said earlier that you had done a Sys Res and 'nothing happened'. Doing Sys Res will not necessarily remove the infection for very long, as it will be hiding in the restore points.
You still need to run a decent malware program such as Malwarebytes to see what is still there.
I presume you've got your data back though.

cookie_monster

Have done a factory restore.

macman

cookie_monster wrote: »

Have done a factory restore.

Right, that makes more sense then.
Remember you now need to reinstall your antivirus (preferably something better than Norton) and run Windows Updates.

cookie_monster

macman wrote: »

Right, that makes more sense then.
Remember you now need to reinstall your antivirus (preferably something better than Norton) and run Windows Updates.

ok thanks :beer:

shinydoc

Don't forget that IF you do have an infection some can intercept the system restore process and make it useless. You need to disable system restore, reboot, disinfect, reboot, then re-enable system restore, which may mean you have lost all the previous system restore files - the price of infection I'm afraid.

I have to say that I suspect your files are somewhere - have you looked in the recycle bin, just in case they accidentally got deleted. (A profile is just a collections of files in a directory.)

Does the account you are running have local Administrator permissions or just a user?

macman

Too late shinydoc-he's gone for the complete engine change.