Just another COMPUTER gripe thread.

**Bigb23** · May-15-09, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by ccbatson

All banter aside..I am very sorry to hear that you are not well Bigb23....best wishes for a rapid recovery.

Thanks, Cc, but the medical structure as we know it, does not allow it now. I have to research pioneer remedies now. Does a mad stone ring a bell ?

ccbatson · May-15-09, 09:18 PM

Mad stone? No bells are ringing for me with that.

cheddar bob · May-15-09, 09:19 PM

There comes a time when you have to give up and reinstall the OS. What about burning the data you need to disk?

ccbatson · May-15-09, 09:21 PM

Not helpful for a current disaster...but a lesson to back up...preferably in 2 ways...optical [[burning), online, and external mirror drives are 3 options.

**Bigb23** · May-15-09, 09:28 PM

Like I've said before - how do you manage all this crap and pay your bills too ? Some people have lost track of the peons that have to manage this shit. ChedderBob can you throw some money my way, or sit back and pontificate on the situation ?

ccbatson · May-15-09, 09:32 PM

Honestly, I believe your only recourse is third party data recovery....it is very expensive as I think you already know.

cheddar bob · May-15-09, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by Bigb23

Like I've said before - how do you manage all this crap and pay your bills too ? Some people have lost track of the peons that have to manage this shit. ChedderBob can you throw some money my way, or sit back and pontificate on the situation ?

If you can't afford the 50 cents for a CD-R to back up your emails and pictures that you want to save, I don't know what to tell you. Okay, maybe I do know what to tell you...Come and get one, I'll donate a disk to you. You already own the OS so you don't need to buy it again. I'm just trying to give you a hand and give you some information on what anyone else would do with your computer in your situation. If you want to get all snotty with the people trying to help you, then fuck you. Sit there with your infected computer and keep bitching about it. I know my computer is clean and virus, malware, and adware free but then again I know what the hell I'm doing. You wouldn't be in this position if you took someone the people's advice here and spent less time bitching about your situation.

**Bigb23** · May-15-09, 09:59 PM

Chedderbob -

I've done everything possible up to this point. Do you have better AV than me ? Maybe. Are we on different sites ? Maybe. Do you do a better job than me outwitting everybody else ? Maybe. What do you know about the Ukrainian hackers that I don't know ? Spill.

**Bigb23** · May-15-09, 10:09 PM

Thanks for the help Chedder - I live a 30 mile round trip from the nearest outlet for anything. You can walk to an outlet, and expouse a hardline. The woods will truly evolope you.

cheddar bob · May-15-09, 10:26 PM

Did you run AVG in safemode?
Try to burn disks in safemode?
Open a command window from safe mode and manually delete the malware and related directories?
Try to update your CD drive drivers from safemode?
Use an alternate burning software[[usually a second one that comes with the machine)?
Change your registry values from safemode?

I find it hard to believe that you have done "everything possible" because if you had done everything possible, you wouldn't still have the problem.

cheddar bob · May-15-09, 10:43 PM

I don't know if it's been addressed in this thread, but probably most importantly, what dial up service do you have?

ccbatson · May-16-09, 10:13 AM

As a personal learning experience, I am currently reburning and backing up my files...triple redundancy. For a few hours and a few pennies, the piece of mind is well worth it.

**Pam** · May-16-09, 03:07 PM

Bigb- can you afford tequila? Maybe Ched Bob can make a house call.

cheddar bob · May-17-09, 04:01 PM

I was pretty close to telling him to drop the thing off to me and I'd fix it just so he'd quit bitching about it. I can't promise I could save the data, but I could reinstall the OS, and get updated spyware, antivirus, and patches installed. There's a better than even chance, however, that after about a year of him not updating the AV and patches that he would be be starting another thread about his infected computer. Oh, well I don't give to charities, so I guess it wouldn't kill me to do something altruistic.

ccbatson · May-17-09, 06:02 PM

Saving the data is the only issue of importance. Anyone can reformat and reload the OS.

**Bigb23** · May-17-09, 06:05 PM

[QUOTE]that after about a year of him not updating the AV and patches that he would be be starting another thread about his infected computer.I played every game out there. I'm really tired of not paying enough to maintain a computer system. So $120 dollars a year for minimal coverage is acceptable. Thank you enablers.

**jcole** · May-17-09, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by ccbatson

Saving the data is the only issue of importance. Anyone can reformat and reload the OS.

Number one, that's not true, not anybody can reformat and reload the OS. I've met plenty of people who have screwed it up and had to have someone who knows how re-do it.
Number two, I think Cheddar is indicating that he would also be able to download all the updates to Windows, the AV, the anti-spyware, etc, which is something that BigB can't easily do because he is on dial-up.
Number three, saving the data isn't primary if you don't have a PC to put it back on because you couldn't accomplish numbers one and two

ccbatson · May-17-09, 06:07 PM

By maintaining, do you mean backing up? Or antivirus/malware/spyware measures?

**jcole** · May-17-09, 06:15 PM

[quote=Bigb23;20893]

that after about a year of him not updating the AV and patches that he would be be starting another thread about his infected computer.

I played every game out there. I'm really tired of not paying enough to maintain a computer system. So $120 dollars a year for minimal coverage is acceptable. Thank you enablers.

What is costing you $120 a year to maintain your computer?

ccbatson · May-17-09, 06:17 PM

That is the same question I was wondering about..you put it better than I did though Jcole.

**jcole** · May-17-09, 06:31 PM

I think he's referring to the anti-virus, anti-spy, etc updates, but there are many easily obtainable for free. There are several good free anti-virus programs, AVG being one, and anti-spy, ie Spybot, Ad-aware, Malwarebytes. Windows comes with a perfectly serviceable firewall built in. The updates for all of these are also free. Window updates themselves are also free, unless you request a CD from MS, and then they charge you a nominal fee. Once you purchased Windows, Office, etc, you don't pay for another license until you buy a new OS or Office Suite.
I guess he may also be talking about the cost of internet connectivity, and there isn't much anyone, Mac or PC user, can do about that.

ccbatson · May-17-09, 06:32 PM

Do the backup...then the rest is low anxiety stuff.

**jcole** · May-17-09, 06:43 PM

If he does a back up on a malware ridden computer, all of the backup will also be infected, so when he puts it back, he will be reinstalling infected files. He needs to have the PC up and running in proper, non-infected order and THEN put his files back, running them through perfectly updated anti-malware programs. And then only if everything goes well will he get his data back without reintroducing the same malware

Stosh · May-17-09, 07:38 PM

Here's a link to a free dialup service, I use it when I'm up North, quite servicable. They also have numbers downstate too as well, I believe.
http://www.dialinfree.net/?page=home

I did send an antivirus program to you Bigs, did you get it?

cheddar bob · May-17-09, 07:42 PM

[quote=Bigb23;20893]

that after about a year of him not updating the AV and patches that he would be be starting another thread about his infected computer.

I played every game out there. I'm really tired of not paying enough to maintain a computer system. So $120 dollars a year for minimal coverage is acceptable. Thank you enablers.

What costs you $120/year?