Disaster strikes - virus has hidden or deleted user files

[Roger]

So I ran across a virus or malware that looks like it deleted all my desktop files and everything for my regular user account. Which is bad, because it looks like while the user account is still there to log into, it is nowhere to be found on the HD. The desktop for that user and all associated files are gone. My admin account is still there ( I don't ever work from this account) and nothing is missing from it, but of course I do all my work from my limited account. I have a bad habit of saving things to the desktop, and I thought I had done a backup recently but did not.

 

I suspect this bit of crapware or whatever it was has just hidden the files, but I can't say for sure. It was one of those "your system is infected, click here to scan with Dr. Blah" type things (and I didn't click it, but didn't stop it from pooching my system up good).

 

I'm on my lunch break right now and thought I would post to see if anyone has any ideas? I'm trying to do a bit of research so when I'm off later tonight I can hopefully fix this mess.

 

I don't think I have lost everything, I hope not anyway. I should be able to recreate things if I have to, I have backups of my models but am not looking forward to rigging them again. I need to set up a separate data partition to save files to that gets automatically backed up to something on the "cloud" or something along those lines.

[Roger]

Well for once there is good news and no bad news. It was what I expected, this thing makes you think all your personal files have been deleted. I found a program online that applies a fix to unhide all hidden files (except OS files):

 

http://techlogon.com/2011/06/07/folders-an...idden-by-virus/

 

So, I owe this guy a beer at some point

 

Now I can spend my vacation next week working on new stuff instead of redoing old stuff.

 

I have upgraded my AV, and have backed things up to my external HD. What backup strategies do you guys use? I was backing things up to a thumbdrive but now have too much data, and am not sure how comfortable I feel using something like Dropbox.

[Xtaz]

I'm glad that you "found" your files...all my cybernetics life is in the cloud, except renderings (images and movies). I am a customer of Dropbox, which serves me well, since I use multiple computers, tablet and smartphone. I also work with an external hard drive which I backup applications, tutorials, renders, or things that doesn't need to be shared across the network.

[Darkwing]

I had a virus very similar. It made it look like everything had been wiped and was prompting me to buy this softare that looked like "official windows security software" which it wasn't. Fortunately I googled it and found this unhide thing, but it was a nasty bug and even though I was able to unhide my files, ultimately had to reformat my drive. That was maybe 8 months ago.

 

Now of course I'm on my mac, so I used Time Machine to back up my files to an external HDD. I only ever use DB for sharing files amongst people working on projects with me (ie Red Squad). I don't use it for any permanent back ups, but I do like it. It takes away all the hassle of those annoying file uploading sites like mediafire.

[mouseman]

I have an external 2TB drive.

 

Warning: do NOT use Windows 7 Home backup. (Windows Pro might be okay.). It only backs up files with certain extensions.

 

I am using FBackup. I like that it archives files in a ZIP file, which means I wouldn't necessarily need that program to get access to the files.