How to recover the files damaged by virus?

[Guest]

I had a virus (SysDref) on my computer (running Windows XP), that I managed
to delete. But lots of my files show 0 size and I cannot used them anymore.
This include files from different folders mostly my data files.
The files are very important for me and I have to find a way to recover them.

Any idea how to recover them. I appreciate your input.

Nathan

 

[ANONYMOUS]

If the files are damaged then unless you have made backups, you have no
way of recovering them.

The file size of 0 indicates that all the info/data from the file has
been deleted by the virus and so you have to take this experience as a
"deep learning curve" to backup all important files from now onwards.

You should also download a free anti-virus program (even if you have a
commercial one already on the system) which runs permanently without the
risk of expiring!! Comercial programs normally expire after one year
and you may foreget or decide not to spend any money to renew them.
Free programs protects you in the meantime!!

hth

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I had a virus (SysDref) on my computer (running Windows XP), that I managed
to delete. But lots of my files show 0 size and I cannot used them anymore.
This include files from different folders mostly my data files.
The files are very important for me and I have to find a way to recover them.

Any idea how to recover them. I appreciate your input.

Nathan

Here are a few tools that let you recover files:
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz (has NTFS undelete tools too)
http://www.runtime.org/ (GetDataBack - has a trial version)
http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/filerecoverysecdownload.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

However, I doubt that they will be of much use. If you keep
important files on your PC then you must modify your habits
in order to keep them safe:
- Be very careful of the web pages you surf and the stuff you
download.
- Do not open EMail attachments that look suspicious.
- Install a good virus scanner.
- Back up your important files regularly to an independent
medium. A 2.5" disk in an external USB case makes for
a low cost and highly effective backup medium.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I had a virus (SysDref) on my computer (running Windows XP), that I
managed to delete. But lots of my files show 0 size and I cannot
used them anymore. This include files from different folders mostly
my data files.
The files are very important for me and I have to find a way to
recover them.

If the virus has deleted the contents of these files you are out of luck.
Have you no backup of them?

I'm sorry to have to tell you this after the damage is done, but for the
future, you need to realize that you are *always* vulnerable to things like
a hard drive crash, user error, nearby lightning strike, virus attack, even
theft of the computer, any of which can cause the loss of anything or
everything on your drive. As has often been said, it's not a matter of
whether you will have such a problem, but when. That's why it's imperative
that you always have a current backup--stored externally to the computer--of
anything you can't afford to lose.

 

[Guest]

I had a virus (SysDref) on my computer (running Windows XP), that I managed
to delete. But lots of my files show 0 size and I cannot used them anymore.
This include files from different folders mostly my data files.
The files are very important for me and I have to find a way to recover them.

Any idea how to recover them. I appreciate your input.

Nathan

I had this same virus. Lost all my data files. I thought I was backing up
when I put them on another physical SATA drive. This virus deleted everything
on every partition on both drives. You need to back up to CD or DVD to be
safe.

Does anyone know of good data recovery software. GETDATABACK didn't help but
EData Unerase got some files back but all over the place. I had maybe 10
video files total on one drive. Seems the software split them up because now
I have about 50 and nore of them work.