Virus..

[.Batzarro.]

I know a few of you saw this thread from a spam bot talking about a virus that was hitting comps recently. Well, it hit my comp.. HARD. It hit it last night and whenever I tried to bring up any virus/adware scanners, the virus would act like it was the scanner. Had me pretty much on lock down on for most programs.

Long story short, I had to reinstall everything.. Losing nearly 45GBs of data. Including videos, music, WIP WORK, pics, nearly all my Mugen stuff from the past half year or so (chars, stages, everything), ect., ect. I lost just about everything from the last month or two when it comes to WIPs.

I usually backup all my important stuff monthly but it just caught me at a bad time. Won't be getting Adobe back for another 2-3 weeks. So, pretty much little to no spriting 'til then as I'm not use to any other program for that. -__-

So, yea.. This all happened last night and I just got some stuff working (like my wifi) again about a few hours ago.

Side Note: If anyone has links to some great free adware, spyware, or virus programs, that'd be much appreciated.

[Vitamin]

How exactly did you get the virus?  Did the bot somehow infect the thread it posted in?

[.Batzarro.]

I don't think there's any way to infect a thread, is there.? Anyways, I really have no idea how I got it. I hadn't downloaded very much for the last month or so and it just came out of nowhere.

[Vitamin]

I would recommend these programs:

symantec endpoint protection (not sure if free)

Malywarebytes Antimalware (free)
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

spybot search and destroy (free)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

[Spidermew]

I like Ad-Aware, it was recomended to me by a man who designes computer chips for missles

http://www.lavasoft.com/

[ATiC3]

I would recommend these programs:

symantec endpoint protection (not sure if free)

Malywarebytes Antimalware (free)
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

spybot search and destroy (free)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

To be honest.. you can just torrent symantec endpoint protection.. I did, because I was furious that there wasn't a fully compatible version for Windows 7 when I went to get it... ...

[Orochi Gill]

Symantec are fearmongers
Also protip: external harddrives

[ATiC3]

Yeah... that would work too, for backup purposes...

This is the best rated 250gb external hard drive on newegg.com... I was thinking about purchasing this as well...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148407&cm_re=250gb_external_hard_drive-_-22-148-407-_-Product

[Vitamin]

My external hard-drive is 350gb, but it cost less than the one Atice posted (because I know a few people in the right places), but it's still a good price. 

But if those spyware scanners don't pick up anything, there is also these small scanners:
ATF cleaner
Un-hackme
I used these two to get rid of the virus that hijacked my google searching.

[KPT25]

Spybot is so pro on detecting spyware and malware in general...is awesome and easy to use
Regarding antivirus,i personally use Avira Free

[DARKTALBAIN]

Hey bro, I really am sorry to hear that anyone lost all their stuff in a virus attack. I've been there & I know it sucks.

As for the external drives. I got a terrabyte drive on sale for $100

[.Batzarro.]

I do have an external HD. Just, as I mentioned, the virus caught me at a very bad time. So much lost. -___-

Anyways, thanks for the recommendations, guys. I'll be trying out Spybot and Ad-Aware. Before this I was running Avira and I HATED it. It came with it's own pop-ups which would really slow down the comp at times and took forever to fully come out.

[Sasuke-kun]

As for the external drives. I got a terrabyte drive on sale for $100

I also recomend it.
It might look too expensive at first but...
Is like a guardian angel for every important files you got in your HD.

[nick09]

You should also burn a live cd of ubuntu. You can boot into the cd and access the hard drive to backup your data to a external HDD.

Also the 1TB drives are now worth the cash. Just don't let them drop or take too much damage. This WD external HDD is selling for about $90:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136469

Ubuntu download:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

[Ohsky]

backup weekly at most, even more often if you have real interesting things to keep on your hdd. Hope you learn from you mistake 

[elee0031]

I would recommend these programs:

symantec endpoint protection (not sure if free)

Malywarebytes Antimalware (free)
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

spybot search and destroy (free)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

I believe it was about a month or two ago I was web surfing and got the stupid Windows Vista Guardian Malware crap. It leeched onto a few sites I was trying to find some videos on. You need the Malywarebytes to shake it off your PC/Notebook. Vista Guardian looks like a PC Scan telling you, you have a virus on your hard drive. In actuality you don't, it makes you buy there stupid software to remove the program. It actually bipassed my Norton, although I didn't have Malware protect at the time.

You didn't have Norton or Avas? I think everyone at this University uses AVAS as it's FREE anti-virus program. I had gotten Norton a few months earlier through eBay, so I didn't find out about Avas until my friends comp crashed or had a virus.