How we spent our New Year’s eve (and part of New Year’s Day):
- AM: Fetched Ethan to daycare and came back home.
- I had some last minute online purchases to be done with offers expiring Dec 31, so got that settled immediately.
- While on the PC, a virus error message appeared at the bottom right of my computer screen, informing me that a trojan had been detected, and asked if I would like to clean it up. Looked like a legitimate message, so I hit ok.
- The next screen prompted me to register for and subscribe to an anti-virus software called Rapid AntiVirus, if I wanted to have the trojan cleaned up. Of course I hit no.
- The next thing I knew, I was faced with the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)!
- Restarted the computer and noticed that there were a couple of icons on my desktop related to porn that I had not downloaded! Immediately deleted those, and the BSOD greeted me again!
- Informed hubby that PC had some problems, so he started running some diagnostic tests, which took like forever!
- I started cooking lunch, but my mind was definitely not on the stir-fry chicken with broccoli, onion omelette and spinach with wolfberries soup. I was already on the verge of tears when I thought about losing all the photos we had painstakingly taken during our recent Christmas vacation! They had already been downloaded and I had already deleted all the photos from the SD card. With no backup, the only copies were in the computer’s hard disk! I prayed and prayed that our hard disk will be restored to its original ok state as soon as possible.
- My hubby then discovered that all photos and files could be viewed while entering safe mode in the PC. It was a major breakthrough, and we made plans to somehow copy those photos out.
- 2:15p.m. – I went out to collect my dry-cleaned trench coat, and at the same time, visited a nearby electronics outlet to purchase an 8GB USB flash drive. In safe mode, our theory was that the drivers might not work, but the USB port probably still worked.
- Came back home, but hubbs was still running all the memory and hardware tests. At about 6:00p.m. all tests passed, and we proceeded to copy the photos into the thumb drive. Left the copy running and went out to fetch Ethan.
- When we came back home, we discovered that the copy was still ongoing, but later on the PC rebooted itself, much to our confusion.
- Resumed copying photos and files, and then transferring them to the laptop. 8GB ain’t a lot of space to begin with, I’ll say!
- At the same time, I logged in with my laptop and searched for references to Rapid AntiVirus, which I discovered, horror of horrors, that it was a fake anti-virus rogue spyware program that maliciously tricks PC users into thinking their PC was infected! I can’t believe I fell for it, being the very careful person I am when it comes to PC viruses and stuff. I found plenty of advice and instructions for the removal of RapidAntivirus, and also plenty of *personal opinions* on how this virus had wrecked computers everywhere. In the end, I decided to follow the instructions on Rapid AntiVirus removal by downloading the Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware software or MBAM.
- Since our home PC could not access the internet in safe mode, we had to copy the downloaded exe to the PC desktop and run it from there. It was already close to midnight then, when hubby started the MBAM scan. It detected a lot of threats, but even after we removed them, Mr BSOD still decided to show up. Aaargh!!!
- Hubby then ran the scan for all profiles on our PC in safe mode, and then rebooted and ran the scan in regular mode. This allowed all the newest updates to be applied.
- And finally at sometime after 1:00a.m., we welcomed the New Year heaving a sigh of huge relief, knowing fully well that Rapid AntiVirus was gone for good.
A good night’s sleep beckoned and the New Year too! Happy New Year one and all!
Oh by the way, we are looking at getting an external hard drive now… 🙂
Little Miracles
Our Journey of Love
aaaah the bsod, the bane of PC users 😉 hoping to get an external drive myself at the next pc fair.
happy new year too…
The Giddy Tigress says: I’m glad that’s behind me 🙂 Happy New Year to you and your family!
Get one! You won’t regret it. 🙂
I’ve had mine for almost 2 years now. It sure is handy.
Happy 2009! 😀
The Giddy Tigress says: Yep, we sure will… soon!
I had this experience sometime in August last year. And yeah, I was kicking myself about it too, cos I’m normally such a careful user!
Get a nice big external hard disc drive… I just gifted myself a 2.5in 320GB drive for X’mas. Hehehe.
The Giddy Tigress says: Wow, that’s a nice TOY for yourself. I detest that virus immensely.
Happy New Year Joyce and family!!
The Giddy Tigress says: Happy New Year to you too!
Get a Mac to prevent those viruses once and for all! 😛
The Giddy Tigress says: Yep, that’s what I heard too….
I really hate these trojans and viruses. They waste so much of time, effort and even money! I guess this is a lesson to all of us to be even more careful and to keep regular data backups. I use a Mac at home but I don’t believe that it is immune from viruses… Just that the risk is lower.
The Giddy Tigress says: I definitely learnt my lesson.
Never trust free stuff! Happy Belated New Year!
The Giddy Tigress says: But it wasn’t even free to begin with!
Happy New Year to u and your family Joyce!!
The Giddy Tigress says: Happy New Year to you and your family too, Sue!
bugger, way to start a New Year. well, i am glad everything went well. 🙂
The Giddy Tigress says: Yep, we are glad too!
thats what i did! got an external HDD coz i have got too many 8G pen drive and they are still not enuff for my photos!
The Giddy Tigress says: We are so gonna get one soon!
This post was the most difficult read for an IT-idiot like me! Good thing Pete and yourself are tech-savvy. I would have said “yes” to every pop-up button! Anyway, glad you had a “HAPPY” new year indeed!
The Giddy Tigress says: Thanks Paik Ling…
Goodness me! That was a horrible way to end 2008 but think of it this way – you started 2009 on a clean slate 🙂 Happy new year GT!
The Giddy Tigress says: Yep, you got that right, PB! Happy New Year to you!
Reformat loh. Windows mah.
The Giddy Tigress says: Reformatting is not a problem if we had a backup of all those precious things to us.
I hear you…that *&^%$#@ Fujitsu Lifebook I got + Windows Vista is still giving me a hard time.
But I think (fingers crossed) I’ve found THE IT guy who’s gonna make me smile againnnnnnnn
Get a Western Digital external hard disk. I’m using that to backup everything now that I’m IT-department-less 🙂
Gonna get myself a hard disk upgrade too as the price is low now.
You should be able to get many IT goodies in the US of A!!!
The Giddy Tigress says: Hey, thanks for the recommendation!
Happy New Year 🙂
aiyoh…thanks for writing abt this…i would have fell for it too i think :I
i hope you managed to copy out all the photos?
anyway HAPPY NEW YR 2009! =)
The Giddy Tigress says: Yes, do keep a look out for it, it’s vicious, I tell ya. And yes, all the photos are safe and sound…in fact you can read all about our trip in my son’s blog here. Happy New Year to you!
happy new year! no more porn for 2009! hahaha
The Giddy Tigress says: Happy New Year!
I always admire IT geek. When are you going to intro your HB to me ah? happy new year!
The Giddy Tigress says: Funnily enough, my hubby is in the engineering line, not IT 😛 We’ll get the introductions done when we meet, okay?
Yup, external drive is the way to go. I plan to purchase one too, very soon.
Where are my manners? MERRY CHRISTMAS, and thank you for the lovely card you sent; all the way! How thoughtful, muahh!! I will dedicate a blog post to you for that 😀
The Giddy Tigress says: You are most welcome, my dear…and I am honored to be dedicated a blog post to. Happy New Year!