Help virus has deleted my docs??

wookie66

Hi

Can anyone tell me is it possible for a virus to delete various documents (word excel jpegs mp3) and a subfolder

I have just noticed some of my docs have disappeared, didnt see any evidence of a virus eg slow running machine

Is there any way that these docs can be recovered? I checked in my recycle folder and some music files appear there but no trace of the other docs

Any advice is appreciated - I am running Win7 with the standard security settings and no specific anti virus software since find they slow down my PC eg McAfee

Cheers

santer_2

It could happen, and a bit more likely with nothing to stop the virus from getting on to the PC

Run Eset Online Scanner

You get the option to auto uninstall after running it

http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner

Then consider installing an anti virus programme

aerostar

It probably has made your files hidden, so download unhide.exe and run it, this program will make all files that have been hidden show again. Note it can take some time to run, so BE PATIENT.

available here http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe

Good info Here

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic405109.html

How to show hidden files

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial62.html

spannerzone

Yeah I agree with the above... a friend of mine got infected the other day and it made all his files hidden.... as well as his own account folder although he could still log into his account... unticking 'show hidden files' under the folders 'tools>folders options>view> then going to the user account folder which is now visible but greyed out as it's still set to be hidden (but you just told Windows to display hidden foldes), right click to untick 'hide files' cured the problem once the infection was removed.

The infection also unticked the options to display recycle bin, network icon, my computer icon and some others.

It was one of the infections that gave a fake virus scanning window as many many people have suffered of recent times and making all his pics, docs and other icons all hidden looked like a disaster but turned out quite easy to fix once the infection was removed, files unhidden and then a general clean up for good measure.

He used Virgin's antivirus (McAfee ?) which said it removed it but may not as we then ran Malwarebytes which seemed to find and remove the 2 trojan infections.

macman

Get a decent fre AV program, such as Avira, Avast or MSE-they will not slow down your PC, unlike McCrapee.
If you run with no AV at all then you can hardly be surprised if you are infected.

nickj_2

and of course back up your documents and anything else that's important to you

John_Gray

nickj wrote: »

and of course back up your documents and anything else that's important to you

And additionally, perform regularly a disk image copy to an external device (external hard disk? DVD?) using the free version of Macrium Reflect, or the chargeable versions of Shadow Protect or Acronis TrueImage or Macrium Reflect.

aliEnRIK

Not running av software in this day and age is not wise in my opinion

Download MALWAREBYTES (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
Open malwarebytes and goto UPDATE and click 'check for updates'. After its updated goto SCANNER and click PERFORM QUICK SCAN then click SCAN
Remove everything thats found (needs to be ticked)
Post the COMPLETE log here AFTER youve deleted everything it finds
If anything was found then do the exact same but run a FULL scan


reboot

Download HIJACK THIS (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/
Click MAIN MENU then DO A SYSTEM SCAN AND SAVE A LOGFILE(Takes seconds) then post the log so we can see whats running
(do NOT do anything else with Hijack but scan and post the FULL log)
If you get a message that you cant write to the hosts file then Press the SHIFT key, and whilst holding it RIGHT CLICK and select RUN AS (admin)

wookie66

Great advice and have now managed to unhide my documents. As advised by other members the virus had in fact hidden these documents

However although i can see them and open them. when viewing in my documents folder they appear greyed out. Any idea how i prevent them from appearing greyed out?

Cheers

blue_monkey_2

Have you done what aliEnRIK suggested, my husband had this and followed these instructions. Make sure you run Malwarebytes regularly too.

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Not running av software in this day and age is not wise in my opinion

Download MALWAREBYTES (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
Open malwarebytes and goto UPDATE and click 'check for updates'. After its updated goto SCANNER and click PERFORM QUICK SCAN then click SCAN
Remove everything thats found (needs to be ticked)
Post the COMPLETE log here AFTER youve deleted everything it finds
If anything was found then do the exact same but run a FULL scan


reboot

Download HIJACK THIS (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/
Click MAIN MENU then DO A SYSTEM SCAN AND SAVE A LOGFILE(Takes seconds) then post the log so we can see whats running
(do NOT do anything else with Hijack but scan and post the FULL log)
If you get a message that you cant write to the hosts file then Press the SHIFT key, and whilst holding it RIGHT CLICK and select RUN AS (admin)

wookie66

Sorry - jumped the gun a bit but all resolved now that i have used the software as per aliEnrik advice

All docs fully visible now.....another satisfied MSE member!