Sigh... need help with computer again.

[paste]

Long story short, my laptop got a virus and when I tried system restoring, it said "No restore points have been created on your computers system drive." Weird, because I have system restored many times before and created many restore points... System restore was pretty much my only go-to virus remover up until this point. Not sure what to do now, any help would be nice. Thanks.

Here's what pops up when I try system restoring.

(The red screen in the back is the virus)

 

[Faith Nicole]

tdsskiller
malwarebytes

I see you have malwarebytes, but tdsskiller will get any rootkit that may be re-inserting the bug. (may have to be run in safe mode). Once those finish, it's time to virus clean. I can't see what antivirus you have.

Sometimes it takes a manual deletion of the entry to stop it from loading before you can remove it - safe mode doesn't always work for this. In this case, putting the drive into another computer for cleaning (not as boot drive) or booting from a cd/dvd like UBCD to do an offline cleaning.

I did this for a living for years, I offer remote help. No offense if you decline, I am a stranger on the internet and I would have access to everything in your system. You would see everything I do however.

 

[fdeck]

Does the bug actually encrypt the files?

 

[Faith Nicole]

Does the bug actually encrypt the files?

Typically they don't, always a chance it happens. My experience is that they are encrypted in memory upon load of the virus leaving you unable to properly do anything .. but the actual files are unaffected. Doesn't mean it can't. The plus side is they want you to pay money for the removal (the scam) because the removal is simply the deletion of their program making it easier to remove it yourself.

edit: The virus title displayed uses real encryption - doesn't mean that is the one he has.

 

[paste]

tdsskiller
malwarebytes

I see you have malwarebytes, but tdsskiller will get any rootkit that may be re-inserting the bug. (may have to be run in safe mode). Once those finish, it's time to virus clean. I can't see what antivirus you have.

Sometimes it takes a manual deletion of the entry to stop it from loading before you can remove it - safe mode doesn't always work for this. In this case, putting the drive into another computer for cleaning (not as boot drive) or booting from a cd/dvd like UBCD to do an offline cleaning.

I did this for a living for years, I offer remote help. No offense if you decline, I am a stranger on the internet and I would have access to everything in your system. You would see everything I do however.

Running the Malwarebytes as I type this right now. So far 11 items detected

I'm also currently not running any anti-virus. Actually I have never had anti-virus on this computer and this is the first time in three years something has happened, unfortunately.

Does the bug actually encrypt the files?

I'm not sure but it doesn't seem like it. Computer's running perfectly fine besides the fact that the red screen won't go away.

 

[paste]

I'm still curious if there's a solution to the system restore problem. It still says theres no previous check point or whatever.

 

[Faith Nicole]

If you value your data .. PLEASE .. read up on that virus, it is nasty. If you have the original virus and not a fake you will lose most of your data upon removal.

I'm still curious if there's a solution to the system restore problem. It still says theres no previous check point or whatever.

Not if the virus removed them/made them inaccessible.

 

[paste]

If you value your data .. PLEASE .. read up on that virus, it is nasty. If you have the original virus and not a fake you will lose most of your data upon removal.



Not if the virus removed them/made them inaccessible.

After running malwarebytes and removing the virus, the virus is seemingly gone, I think. Not sure if it's 100% gone though. System restore is still broken though, which is a bit worrisome.

 

[Faith Nicole]

open some of your data, pictures, docs, etc. Make sure they are OK

 

[fdeck]

Granted, it's an "intermediate" computer skill, but you can basically hack into your Windows computer by booting Linux off a thumb drive. What you get is access to your files, to back them up onto some other disk without the chance of transferring the virus. I've used a Llinux distribution called Puppy Linux, which has much of the look and feel of Windows but is effectively virus-proof.

 

[paste]

All documents still intact . I'm not really worried about losing any of my document's, as most of it are silly pictures and I usually never use this computer for anything personal (i.e credit cards, S.S, etc.). Thank's for the help though. I still have a feeling this things still bonker's because system restore has always worked hitherto.

 

[Faith Nicole]

true, but the original version of that virus encrypts the file - any copy would be unusable.

For most malware/virus issues - yep, that works. I typically finish my cleaning from a different boot drive so that no files on the infected drive are active.

All documents still intact . I'm not really worried about losing any of my document's, as most of it are silly pictures and I usually never use this computer for anything personal (i.e credit cards, S.S, etc.). Thank's for the help though. I still have a feeling this things still bonker's because system restore has always worked hitherto.

excellent, means you had one of the fake ones. I'd still run tdsskiller though.

 

[paste]

Granted, it's an "intermediate" computer skill, but you can basically hack into your Windows computer by booting Linux off a thumb drive. What you get is access to your files, to back them up onto some other disk without the chance of transferring the virus. I've used a Llinux distribution called Puppy Linux, which has much of the look and feel of Windows but is effectively virus-proof.

Lol this is way over my skill level. I may be on par with my mother when it comes to computer-ish stuff. I had to look up what Linux was but the first couple lines gave me a headache. How do you guys understand this stuff? At least when I got into bass playing I could somewhat keep up with the jargon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

 

[paste]

true, but the original version of that virus encrypts the file - any copy would be unusable.

For most malware/virus issues - yep, that works. I typically finish my cleaning from a different boot drive so that no files on the infected drive are active.




excellent, means you had one of the fake ones. I'd still run tdsskiller though.

You mention in your first post that either malwarebytes or tdsskiller would get the job done, but use tdsskiller to get the root of it out. So is tdsskiller just a more competent version of malwarebytes? And is malwarebytes completely obsolete compared to tdsskiller? Just asking because I don't want to download two programs that are pretty much identical. Computers slow enough as it is.

 

[Faith Nicole]

hah, that's why I mentioned UBCD, it has a windows environment.

Like anything else though, you spend enough time on it and you just know it. I've done service for over 25 yrs. Currently a network admin - I got out of the service business.

 

[Faith Nicole]

You mention in your first post that either malwarebytes or tdsskiller would get the job done, but use tdsskiller to get the root of it out. So is tdsskiller just a more competent version of malwarebytes? And is malwarebytes completely obsolete compared to tdsskiller? Just asking because I don't want to download two programs that are pretty much identical. Computers slow enough as it is.

no, completely different purpose. A rootkit can be installed to 'drop' malware into a system. Malwarebytes can remove what it drops, but cannot remove the rootkit - although it may sometimes detect it. Recurring detection after a clean would indicate a rootkit.

you do reboot and run another scan after it says all clear - yes?

 

[fdeck]

Lol this is way over my skill level. I may be on par with my mother when it comes to computer-ish stuff. I had to look up what Linux was but the first couple lines gave me a headache. How do you guys understand this stuff? At least when I got into bass playing I could somewhat keep up with the jargon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

Wow, I'm a long time Linux user, and that description was over my head.

It might be something to play around with, when you're not in crisis mode. Linux is an operating system that's intended to be extremely flexible and configurable for different uses. Folks have gradually created versions of Linux that install on a regular PC and emulate much of the look and feel of Windows or Mac.

Why bother? There are a number of reasons why people are interested in Linux despite its being much less popular than Windows or Mac:

* A distaste for commercial software.

* Security. Linux is virus-proof, but runs on regular PC hardware.

* Versions of Linux that provide modern functionality and reasonable performance on older hardware. I'm typing this on a Dell notebook that's nearly a decade old, running a version of Linux called "Lubuntu."

* The majority of Web servers run Linux, for the security and configurability reasons given above.

* Linux is free, meaning that updates are also free.

Anyway, that's all a diversion from the thread, but hopefully just a bit of interesting info. I've also got two Windows computers in the house, so I'm not a fanatic. I use Linux pretty much the way most people use Windows, to get things done without looking under the hood.

 

[paste]

Virus proof sounds nice. I'll check it out some time.

 

[ridethespiral]

+1 Linux. OP's experience is the top reason I switched over to using Ubuntu. Not saying you should switch over but I personally had a hell of a time keeping up with remaining spyware or virus free with windows. It was even worse having my younger sister use my computer, she never failed to infect it.

The downside to linux is many programs are strictly developed for windows or mac, and are closed source.

Just my two cents.

 

[ErebusBass]

Paste, what have you been doing lately to get all these viruses? If you truly have been virus free for three years with no AV software and now you've had at least two major problems, you may want to change your browsing habits.