Avoid a Computer Crash Meltdown
First the crash and then the meltdown: It was a dark and dreary evening on Friday, June 19, 2006 (Can you hear the creepy horror music playing in the background?). I did something I tell my kids not to do. I, Wendy Merritt, downloaded a piece of software from a website that I didn’t know (bad, Wendy).
Why you shouldn’t always believe your anti-virus software: My premium version AVG showed the site as safe. I called a friend who uses another anti-virus and hers also said it was a safe site (later she revealed that it was actually listed as an unsafe site…oops!). Anywho, I downloaded the software against my better judgment. YIKES!
After downloading I ran the programs install and immediately started getting those dreaded virus/trojan pop-up windows…they just wouldn’t stop coming. AVG acted like it had removed the threats. I went ahead and ran a full pc scan and ran a trojan scanner for extra protection. I had to restart for them to take effect.
duh, duh, duh dunnnnnnn
Blasted! That was the last time I would see my pc. I lost a dear friend on that fateful day…LOL Don’t worry, my kids have already told me to get a life…I have one, it’s just on a pc…
My pc would never recover. I caught the virus win32/virut (which attacks every single .exe file on your hard drive), trojans psw.generic7.nll, generic13.bkqn, clicker.zyb, downloaderagent2.etg and clicker.z0c. These were just the pieces that AVG didn’t remove. Who knows what else there was in there. And all this because someone enjoys being a jerk! Virus and Trojans are only malicious….they serve no other purpose.
WAIT! It gets worse (I know can you believe it?)
Because the hard drive had no operating system anymore I could not remove my files the conventional way. I had to run to the store and purchase three things: a Black Widow, a Seagate Free Agent Desk External Drive and an HP a6720Y computer. I purchased this cool little beast called Black Widow (Best Buy retails it for $56.99, I took in a printed price comparison and got it for $34.99, you can use the iPhone App Save Benjis or use one of their demo computers to do a price comparison in the store). Here’s how this little beauty works: You remove your hard drive from inside the pc and dock it in the Black Widow. Then it connects by USB to another PC. I did this on an old PC that wouldn’t be such a big deal if it got infected also. To my horror the Administrator files were locked – Access Denied – I called my super smart geeky brother for advice. He said, “Wow! Wendy, I have never seen this. You have an “advanced problem.” Oh, great, an “advanced problem”…LOL
Hang in there…I’m almost to my point…
Here is how I retrieved my inaccessible files from that hard drive. I had to put the hard drive back into the original pc. On my other pc (the working one) I downloaded Ubuntu and then burned the operating system to a CD (make sure to follow the burning directions so it will work correctly). I rebooted the crashed pc, hit ESC to enter the bootup menu and told it to boot up with the CD ROM drive. Ubuntu was now the pc’s operating system running from a CD, not Windows. This stripped out all the Windows garbage that was locking my precious files. I copied all my files and settings manually, one by one to an external hard drive I also purchased.
Now none of this would have been so earth shattering if I had backed up sometime in the last 4-5 months. But, since I had not…I was having a meltdown.
I had to manually install all my files and settings piece by piece on the new HP a6720Y pc since it was not from a nice and neat backup file. Plus, I had to learn Vista since I had been working on XP. I bought Vista for Dummies with a free DVD (Yes, my kids harassed me about watching a Vista DVD…LOL). I gotta say…I’m really liking Vista!
Here’s how you can avoid a computer crash meltdown:
- Back up your files and settings. You can even let your pc manage this for you by visiting START / ALL PROGRAMS / ACCESSORIES / SYSTEM TOOLS / BACKUP
- Use either a network hard drive or local USB/Firewire hard drive to store your back up files. For smaller files you can use a CD, DVD, USB memory stick, your iPod or SD Card
I bought a Seagate Free Agent Desk External Drive – This is one smart and cool piece of technology. With this device I can also sync files between computers. This way I don’t even have to have some long drawn out back up happen. Although, I will be doing one of those too onto a network hard drive. (Best Buy retails it for $163.99, I took in a printed price comparison and got it for $119.99 or you can use the iPhone App Save Benjis.)
- Always have a virus software operating on your pc
- Keep your virus scanning software up –to-date
- NEVER download anything from a site you don’t know and trust
- To avoid personal meltdown keep a bottle of Xanax near your pc just in case…just kidding
If I can do it! You can do it too! Celebrating Texas country living, down home cooking, family life, figuring stuff out and being a stay-at-home moxie mom computer geek.
Blessings,
Wendy Merritt
The Moxie Mom
XXO (A kiss on each cheek and a hug)
If you enjoyed this article get updates via my RSS feed.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Loading ...
Twitter Comment
Checking out: Avoid a Computer Crash Meltdown [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher