My phone, laptop, Ipad, tab and desktop are dead, which would I miss the most? If this had been yesterday’s topic I would have told you that I could live without all of those things fairly easily. But as luck would have it, this morning reality hit.
My desktop was infected with the Windows Recovery virus and I completely lost my mind as I realized that my data files were not only at risk but being wiped out systematically. Now mind you folks, I teach computer skills and anyone that has been a client of mine will tell you that the very first thing I always tell them is backup, backup, backup your files. So you would think that the teacher would follow that rule, right?
Wrong. I’ve been swamped lately and I probably haven’t completely backed up in about four months. Sure I moved some stuff to a new Drop Box account and I have some previous versions of my book on a flash drive but nothing complete.
And this morning, disaster struck. I watched as my data files disappeared and the alerts popped up saying critical data error and damaged data sectors detected, etc. And then suddenly I realized that the logo on the Windows Recovery message wasn’t actually a Windows logo at all. It looked very similar, same color scheme and all the warnings certainly looked official, but it wasn’t their logo. Ahh my computer mind kicked in, a virus and I needed to stop it and fast. I launched my Malware Bytes Anti-Malware program but it derailed. I closed it and launched again. While it ran, I called the one person I knew could fix it but got no answer.
It was up to little old me. So through my tears over my missing data files, I grabbed my daughter’s laptop and did a quick search. I tried not to think about all the photos, my novel in progress, my project files disappearing. I found instructions for removing the virus. It seemed doable. I downloaded RKill which by the way is my new favorite program. The pop ups and critical error messages stopped! Malware Bytes was able to complete. I ran a full scan after that. Virus successfully removed. I could breathe again. But my data folders were still empty.
I went back to the instructions and read further, the virus hides your files and they can be unhidden. There was a glimmer of hope. But would it work? I held my breath and watched for several minutes as the program ran on that eerie black screen. And then the message that my files should now be visible. I checked and they were there! I checked again just to be sure it was real. And then I actually cheered out loud.
Tonight I’m backing up my files. So….I guess the answer to that question is I can make it through the day without my electronics, I’d probably miss my phone and laptop the least. But my desktop data files, now those I’ve got to have!
So just a word of warning, watch for the Windows Recovery virus and don’t click okay on something just because it says Windows. I imagine it would have been a lot worse for me if I had clicked okay to anything. Always double-check the logo to make certain that it is actually legit.
Are your files backed up? 🙂
Sounding Off 