System Recovery?

[Guest]

Hello,
Hopefully I am succinct, and clear on what I am about to say.

Today, my system crashed, or I thought it did. I tried to boot my
computer in safe mode, because I wanted to remove a virus and reinstall
Norton Anti-Virus. Apparently, the worm or trojan disables Norton and
renders it unusable. On the Symantec website, I was told I had to
reboot in safe mode and turn off system restore until I removed the
virus with a removal tool provided by their website.

But when I tried to reboot, it didn't work, it wouldn't even let me go
into windows. The computer informed me, in a command prompt setting, to
either boot normally or go to last workable configuration. But Windows
wouldn't boot--AT ALL. Nor would it let me go into safe mode--NOTHING.

I went ahead and did a system recovery by pressing F10 before I boot. I
was informed that all my files would be deleted...especially since I
couldn't get into windows and I turned system restore off. Before I
rebooted.

The system restore worked and was able to get back into windows and I
thought everything was gone--all 50+GB of files and data...apparently
not. Most of the stuff is still here. I think all of it is. Even the
amount of space available is still the same number as before the system
recovery. I had two separate user profiles, and there is a folder with my
name
on it, but it says: "C:\Documents and Settings\ Marcus Young is not
accessible. Access is denied." I did a Norton Scan and I can see the
names of my files in that folder, that I cannot access. I see my
favourites and everything, plus it's still taking up the 30GB of memory
as it did before recovery. Those are my files. When I tried to set up
another profile to log in--I typed in my name and the icon that I had
put in there 2 months ago automatically came up.

Everything else is here and accessible--even my Emule programme and the
files I downloaded from that software that very morning.

How can I access my folder: Marcus Young? All my projects are in there.

Thank you so much for you help.

Have a happy Memorial Day weekend as well.

Regards,
Marcus Young

 

[Guest]

At PC start-up,tap the F8 key,select safe mode,enter xp as administrator.In
XP
collect youre files/folders,send to youre account (my documents),of
choice.....

 

[Rock]

Hello,
Hopefully I am succinct, and clear on what I am about to say.

Today, my system crashed, or I thought it did. I tried to boot my
computer in safe mode, because I wanted to remove a virus and reinstall
Norton Anti-Virus. Apparently, the worm or trojan disables Norton and
renders it unusable. On the Symantec website, I was told I had to
reboot in safe mode and turn off system restore until I removed the
virus with a removal tool provided by their website.

But when I tried to reboot, it didn't work, it wouldn't even let me go
into windows. The computer informed me, in a command prompt setting, to
either boot normally or go to last workable configuration. But Windows
wouldn't boot--AT ALL. Nor would it let me go into safe mode--NOTHING.

I went ahead and did a system recovery by pressing F10 before I boot. I
was informed that all my files would be deleted...especially since I
couldn't get into windows and I turned system restore off. Before I
rebooted.

The system restore worked and was able to get back into windows and I
thought everything was gone--all 50+GB of files and data...apparently
not. Most of the stuff is still here. I think all of it is. Even the
amount of space available is still the same number as before the system
recovery. I had two separate user profiles, and there is a folder with my
name
on it, but it says: "C:\Documents and Settings\ Marcus Young is not
accessible. Access is denied." I did a Norton Scan and I can see the
names of my files in that folder, that I cannot access. I see my
favourites and everything, plus it's still taking up the 30GB of memory
as it did before recovery. Those are my files. When I tried to set up
another profile to log in--I typed in my name and the icon that I had
put in there 2 months ago automatically came up.

Everything else is here and accessible--even my Emule programme and the
files I downloaded from that software that very morning.

How can I access my folder: Marcus Young? All my projects are in there.

You need to take ownership of the files and folders. See this link.

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308421

At this point you are lucky. Normally a system recovery with an OEM
recovery process is a destructive one, and all data/programs are lost. It
even cautioned you about this, so it's surprising you can still see files.
Might be a good time to read up on exactly how the recovery process works
for your system

More importantly though, if the data is so important, why don't you have a
backup? You suffered a malware problem but there are any number of things
that can happen which lead to data loss. For example what if the hard drive
died?

Always have a full and complete backup of important data. This should be on
media external to the system. A 3 1/2 inch hard drive in an external hard
drive enclosure connected by USB, Firewire or eSata is a low cost backup
medium.

There are a variety of tools for backup. I suggest you get a drive imaging
program such as Acronis True Image Home, version 10 to image the drive(s) to
his external hard drive.

You should never have to face permanent data loss.

 

[Guest]

First of all, Rock:

Thank you for the stern advice.

You are absolutely correct. I should have never put myself in such a
position.

I am more surprised than you were when I saw all the files here. It was
really strange. Everything is here.

There wasn't court documents or anything, just music, pictures, and my
website links. Nothing dire.

When I upgraded my Norton--and I did a final scan about 12 hours ago, you
wouldn't believe what I found: 3 Trojan Horse, 2 W32 Beagles, and 8 other
worms and viruses. It was like a roach infestation.

I will do as I'm advised and get make a report.

Thank you for all your advice, Rock.

And to you too, Andrew.

Regards,
Marcus

 

[Holz]

Hopefully I am succinct, and clear on what I am about to say.

Next time post before you delete.
go to bartpe and download follow the instructions for creating pe cd, so
you can boot and pull your files out before you lose them. And try to
backup your files, it helps.
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

 

[Holz]

How can I access my folder: Marcus Young? All my projects are in there.

Oh yes, and I forgot
right click over the folder you cannot access, got the permissions tab and
take ownership then give your self full rights.

 

[Rock]

First of all, Rock:

Thank you for the stern advice.

You are absolutely correct. I should have never put myself in such a
position.

I am more surprised than you were when I saw all the files here. It was
really strange. Everything is here.

There wasn't court documents or anything, just music, pictures, and my
website links. Nothing dire.

When I upgraded my Norton--and I did a final scan about 12 hours ago, you
wouldn't believe what I found: 3 Trojan Horse, 2 W32 Beagles, and 8 other
worms and viruses. It was like a roach infestation.

I will do as I'm advised and get make a report.

Thank you for all your advice, Rock.

And to you too, Andrew.

<snip>

You're welcome. Sorry if it sounded stern, I wasn't intending it to be so,
just trying to point you in the right direction to avoid this in the future.
Good luck.