Jack said:
It went back to 2003 because I seen Notron antivirus 2003. And as
for the rest of your undermining question. Forget about them. I was
ther at his house WHEN I DID THIS, not him. AV was called Threat,
Mcafee expired 1 month ago, and do you have to keep posting the
same reply??
Well - I did it twice because you did not answer any of the questions. They
were pretty straight forward and you did leave out the details I requested
that might assist people in helping you fix the problem.
I know you are probably frustrated, but there was nothing wrong with the
questions I asked or how they were asked. You may be 'sensitive' right now
because something is messed up and you feel obligated to fix it. I get
that. However - it doesn't change your situation and with the right
information - someone might be able to help you. You did not provide it and
I pointed that out and asked you what needed to be asked. Nothing more. If
you took it as attacking you, "undermining" you, you were mistaken due to
your likely state of panic over what happened.
Now - Norton AV 2003 appearing is strange - but not proof the system got
'restored' to a previous state/back to 2003. It may have been poorly
uninstalled - Norton has a tendency to stick around - especially the older
versions like that - thus Symantec/Norton made a tool to cleanup their own
messes:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Norton-Removal-Tool-for-Windows-2000XPVista/1169144666/1
Were any files lost? In other words - what files from My Documents,
Desktop, Internet Favorites, etc are missing - if any? Or is this just a
case of the old AV re-appearing?
If all the files were lost and C:\Documents and Settings\<username> for your
dad's account is not there - likely someone (you I suppose from the
information we now have) did a OEM-based system restoration process -
bringing it back to the state it was in the day it was purchased (or
there-about.) The chances of recovery of much of anything without just
recreating/reinstalling is pretty slim in that case - as things were written
over.
If the files in C:\Documents and Settings\<username> for your dad's account
is there and the other programs are still the same - things might not be
that bad. Just use the Norton Removal Tool from above and get Avira AntiVir
or eSet NOD32 - AV only (those two are good, first one free...) installed.
I pointed out the backups because it is the basic thing EVERYONE should do.
Computers are one of those rare things where everything actually important
to someone (unless they just love the hardware) can be backed up to external
media in case something catastrophic occurs. Unfortunately - most people do
not think about that until after the fact and then they get a bit touchy on
the subject. I even gave you a viable solution that should be put into
place no matter the outcome of this.
*shrug*
Doesn't bother me - I was just trying to help. I realize you might be a
little worried, a little concerned... But it's just a computer.
