windows recovery and i cant get rid. i tried system restore but it says it has no restore points. my desktop and some folders are gone.

aarrgghhhhhhh can anyone help? 🙁

Spybot search and destroy and SuperAnti spyware.

Done!

tried that 🙁

What’s it doing any messages?

I used this lot on a USB stick (i.e. downloaded on a clean PC) to clean a colleague’s laptop recently. Seemed to do the trick:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Tip-Use-CD-or-USB-stick-to-clean-up-malwareinfected-PCs/1300465661

do i just click the link and it starts?
is there no way of a system restore even though it says no restore points?????? arrrrrrrrrrgghhh

keeps saying hard drive failure and another says ram is **** or something

Click here, click download then install

http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/20864-superantispyware_portable_scanner

Seatools will test you HD http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

There’s a one on crucial site for testing RAM.

tony, bear in mind that all of those warnings you are getting are fake; there’s nothing wrong with your laptop other than that it’s infected with the “windows recovery” rogue. your desktop and folders etc are all still there; the infection just hides them but you can recover them all!
system restore will be unusable though; you need to use malwarebytes (and superantispyware, to be safe!).
read this carefully, follow it and you’ll be sorted.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-windows-recovery

That’s what I suspected Xherbivorex but he’s said nothing about the messages ‘windows recovery’ virus normal comes out with.

Edit: Oh seems I’m out of touch with errors it reports.

Good call Xher.

this happened yesterday to mine.
on another computer, simply download some malware software onto a usb. Then plug it into your laptop and run a full scan.

Rkill, MBAM. Herby’s link explains this in detail.

And, for god’s sake people, update your machines.

Windows update, Java, anything made by Adobe. You can even automate most of that with Secunia

Thank you for the explanation, Xherivorex, my wife’s laptop did the same last week with the addition that it refused to connect to the Net saying a new IP was needed. I guessed it was malware so disinstalled Norton, and installed AVG and Spybot which brought the system restore back to life. That allowed a restore to before all the nonsense stazted (which solved the IP problem). Nice to have confirmation of what the problem was. A warning then, Norton does not stop it.

And, for god’s sake people, update your machines.

I remember you saying this before Cougar, I’ve set mine to update automatically now!!

Been fine for ages, Ta

And, for god’s sake people, update your machines.

Windows update, Java, anything made by Adobe. You can even automate most of that with Secunia

Amen brother!

If you don’t change your computing behaviour and properly protect your machine ( good anti-virus/firewall/Secunia ) then cleaning up your PC this time is just pissing in the wind.

Oh, and there is a good chance that your PC is now sending out the sort of spam that everyone finds so annoying.

It’s really frustrating. It won’t help with zero-day stuff, but a large number of infections take hold through exploits that have been patched for months. For example, the Slammer epidemic that levelled half of the Internet a few years back, that had been isolated and patched for six months before the worm was written. The patch which would’ve prevented Code Red had been out for a month, and if you still need convincing then just look at Conficker:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker

Conficker broke in November 08. “Conficker has since spread rapidly … with more than seven million government, business and home computers in over 200 countries now under its control.” The vulnerability it exploits was patched in… anyone…? Bueller? October 2008.

Patch your damn computers, or switch them off. (-:

mate, you and i both know we’re pissing in the wind trying to convince the vast majority of people to keep up to date with patches and so on!

My wife’s machine was no doubt typical of a company/public service computer in that it had all the usual M$ software and Norton. She was actively discouraged from messing with it or adding things. Only when it wouldn’t do anything at all did she give me carte blanche to install whatever would make it go again. The tax payer will no doubt go on paying for Norton for as long as she has the machine despite the fact I’ve removed it.

And then they go “well, I was only downloading some porn off bittorrent, and I haven’t updated my computer since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and I don’t understand how this happened. Microsoft is crap, isn’t it.”

Get in the sack.

it had all the usual M$ software and Norton.

I appreciate that this is an unpopular standpoint, but there’s nothing wrong with either of those companies’ products that setting up correctly wouldn’t fix.

Yes I know I’ll get severely flamed for suggesting this, can’t all be the same in this mortal realm though. Where choice exists [and doesn’t cost a penny] why not explore it?

Give Ubuntu a try sometime, you don’t have to get rid of windows and I’m not saying you should

Whilst viruses exist for Linux, there are less of them and Unix-like systems tend to be harder to compromise

Many people are afraid to try because windows is so heavily ingrained and dismiss an alternative despite having ever tried it. To those who say its too difficult. Its not difficult, its like anything it requires some patience and learning, how many things can you do in this life and put 0 effort into?

Yes various people will now try to pick holes in what I’ve said. This talk always opens a big fat can of worms.

Nearly two dozen posts! You’re late.

So if Norton is so great why did a computer with fully paid up Norton, all scanner running and automatic updates each time the thing was connected to the Net have something over 200 nasties that Spybot found and another 50 or so that AVG signalled, one of which it can’t remove because it’s so embedded in the operating system? I Googled the viruses and they were classics that have been around for ages.

TBF, it’s not bad advice. You can try Linux from a USB stick without installing anything (which has to be its killer feature). If you like it, great.

I just get a bit bored of the same drum being beaten, is all. There’ll be an Apple evangelist along in a bit too, no doubt. Is there anyone, anywhere, who when given this recommendation goes “Linux? Wow, I’d never heard of that…”

If you have precious folders it might be prudent to get the Hdd out so you can recover later? then look to chuck new hdd in. If you get up and running at least you can use data recovery to get files back (disk drill or similar) I had the same thing with a couple of mates pcs, booted into safe, avg got rid of them. All done. A couple of extra options anyway.

Its not difficult, its like anything it requires some patience and learning

You’re trying to punt the linux learning curve at people who haven’t even learned to enable Automatic Updates? Good luck.

So if Norton is so great why did a computer etc blah blah

You want me to speculate on a computer I’ve never seen, based on vague anecdotal information and a complete lack of details other than the name of a company who have made hundreds of products over the years?

Ok then.

Perhaps it was an old version of Norton. This is more common than it should be in corporate environments as major upgrades are horsework.

It was probably badly configured. It’s rare to find it optimally configured anyway, and the fact that you’re (stupidly) running a home solution in a corporate environment (otherwise it’d be Symantec AV, not Norton) would further imply that there’s no central configuration being done by IT, in which case all bets are off.

Norton is an anti-virus product, not an anti-spyware product (or at least, Norton AV is, which is what I’m discussing; the new versions pertain to be anti-spyware products, but they’re not mature yet). Therefore comparing it to Spybot, a dedicated anti-malware product, is disingenuous.

An infection could have specifically targeted Norton and nobbled it. This gets more common as you look at bigger products; the smaller companies are less likely to be directly attacked by a virus author because there’s fewer copies installed.

AVG found things which Norton didn’t, because you ran it after Norton. This doesn’t mean that it found more infections than Norton, just different ones. Had you been running AVG first and then removed it and installed Norton, you’d likely have had similar results. Malware specialists recommend a variety of disinfection tools for this very reason.

You reinstalled an AV solution. Had you uninstalled Norton and then reinstalled Norton, you might have had similar results.

No AV is 100%. Whether you found fifty infections or fifty thousand doesn’t have any bearing on the effectiveness of a given AV product; it only takes one to slip through the cracks, and once the system is compromised then it’s game over. Perhaps it was something Norton didn’t recognise; perhaps it did recognise it and the user overrode Norton’s suggestions because they really wanted to play Elf Bowling and her mate had emailed it to her and he’s a copper so it’s bound to be safe. Once an infection takes hold it can take out your protection and then sit there happily downloading dozens of other nasties which in turn can then do the same thing and they multiply like bacteria.

That’s off the top of my head, I could probably come up with more theories if pressed but I CBA.

I never said Norton was “great,” incidentally. I just think it gets a bad press which is largely undeserved. Personally it wouldn’t be my first choice of solution, but it’s alright so long as it’s configured with a bit of care, which 99 times out of 100 it’s not.

Oh, and,

My experience of public service computers are that it was probably several years old and hadn’t seen a Windows Update since it was built. That’s like leaving all your doors and windows open and then when your bikes get nicked complaining that your burglar alarm didn’t work.

… which was my original point. (-:

over 200 nasties that Spybot found

Thinking about it, doesn’t Spybot flag up advertisers’ cookies as malware? That’s your 200 ‘nasties’ right there, they’re called false positives.

#notes not to take a blind bit of notice of anything Cougar ever writes about computers#

I use adaware, spybot, pc tools spyware doctor, and avg anti virus software all free to down load, and they do their stuff.

Strangely clicking on cheshire west and chester website , i get an aol popup saying the site is infected and best wishes if i want to connect

#notes not to take a blind bit of notice of anything Cougar ever writes about computers#

More fool you then. It was a bit of an extended rant but a quality rant at that and correct afaik.

But you don’t know do you Leffeboy, unless you’ve hacked my wife’s computer and found what’s in the virus vaults.

Many people are afraid to try because windows is so heavily ingrained and dismiss an alternative despite having ever tried it Linux is only of any use to geeks

There, FTFY 🙂

(Speaking as a geek who installed several different distros for different things and fettled them, then gave up for desktop use cos it was just pointless)

Btw, Cougar is to PCs what iDave is to exercise physiology 🙂 Although seriously, full respect to Cougar for tirelessly responding to EVERY PC problem thread with excellent and patient advice.

What a hero.

notes not to take a blind bit of notice of anything Cougar ever writes about computers

OH NOES!!

But you don’t know do you Leffeboy

Given that you’ve not given us any information at all, that’s hardly surprising.

full respect to Cougar

Bless you, thankyou. The cheque’s in the post. (-:

+1 full respect to Cougar

I’ll take PP gift thanks 😉

If you read my posts you’ll find all the information you need, Cougar. You’re not very good at interpreting what you read and see on the television though are you. Remember your perceptive comments when concerns were first expressed that that the Fukoshima atom plant was in a dangerous state after the tsunami:

ZOMG NUCLEAR REACTORZ R EXPLODIGN IN JAPAN ITS CHERNOBBLE ALL OVR AGN WONT SOMEINE THINK OV TEH CHILDREN?!

I’m really, really starting to hate our media services. Bunch of scaremongering, lying bastards.

The media were being honest and subsequent events showed they were in no way scaremongering. You, however, went off on a rant without stopping to consider the information being provided, just like your post above.