# Viris Killed my



## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Last computer. I despertaly need my pictures of my now gone Angel. A computer person at Dh's work says he cannot find any on the Harddrive. Is it possible that the viris ate everything? Or do I need to find someone else to look at the HD?


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## bignugly (Jul 13, 2011)

Try someone else. There are hard drive recovery companies on the internet you can contact like Hard Drive Data Recovery: Recover and Repair Data from Your Hard Disk Drive Don't know the cost but is an option for you.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Thank you.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

It's pretty unlikely if you've been able to recover other folders and files. They could just be hidden by the virus. Even after it's removed, the files can still be invisible even when you switch on the 'view hidden files', etc. Here's a utility to download and run that fix that and is safe to use:
Unhide Download


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Oh that sounds good! I'll look into it. Thank you.


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## defenestrate (Aug 23, 2005)

Likely, a Unixy type person running the 'dd' command from the right machine could use file information from even deleted files, to some degree. finding a chunk of obviously image data, one would then need to copy the chunks of data which are hopefully not yet overwritten into new files, and the data should in principle be good. If the above sources don't work, someone willing to do a forensic recovery of your drive (not the cleanroom MFM secret squirrel type stuff but mostly whatever is left)is probably out there. I hope another easier option like an undelete util for Windows does it, but if it doesn't, there are other options.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

The unhide program Karen mentioned helps in many cases. I've used it often (at work) when people click yes to anything that pops up on their screen.


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

I'd be very interested to know what virus it was.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

WhyNot said:


> I'd be very interested to know what virus it was.


If I find out,I'll post here.


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## WhyNot (Jun 21, 2011)

ok, I ask simply because it goes hand in hand with what Karen already mentioned. Sometimes particular viruses hide your stuff...sometimes they rename all your stuff and then hide it in a particular place. Although it might be a slim chance, I thought maybe if we knew the name of the virus(es) that caused your issue in the first place, we could research that aspect.

Good Luck!


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

Any good linux os can find your files on the infected HD.
However in many yrs of fixing computers as a hobby, I've never seen a computer HD literally eaten by a virus. I've seen them destroy a boot sector, or mess with vital system files. 99.99999999 of the "my computer got eaten by a virus" problems turned out to be far from it and easily fixed.

I get the occasional one that the owner says "The geek squad said it was dead and ruined" and in about 15 min I have it working again. Most people just have a corrupted OS, or they haven't defragged the drive in 5 yrs, or they have so much stuff installed it has bogged the system down to a dead crawl.

Unless the HD was totally scrambled, your pics are still there. Linux can find them.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

This might be a good time to suggest uploading important photos to photobucket or some other service. Nothing is fool proof but it's nice to have a backup.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

tinknal said:


> This might be a good time to suggest uploading important photos to photobucket or some other service. Nothing is fool proof but it's nice to have a backup.


I have some on flikr,but not many of my Pup. I took many pictures,catching his true beauty was impossible.


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## WhiteStar Acres (Oct 11, 2012)

Thumb drives are now super cheap, and since they are solid state media, you can't scratch them or corrupt them like a CDR or a DVDR. Sunlight (or any light) will over time ruin a CDR/DVDR, as will heat, humidity and other factors.

A thumb drive stored in a safe dry place will keep your media viable for decades.

So also will a solid state HD, but I'd rather buy a couple $5 thumb drives now and then, it's cheaper. I found them on sale not long ago in wal mart or maybe it was costco or target or wherever I was, 8GB drives for $7 each. 8GB is a lot of pictures.

Backups... don't trust an online storage website they are under no obligation to stay in operation or even keep your account and uploaded content.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

7thswan said:


> Last computer. I despertaly need my pictures of my now gone Angel. A computer person at Dh's work says he cannot find any on the Harddrive. Is it possible that the viris ate everything? Or do I need to find someone else to look at the HD?


I would find someone else, but dont blame a virus.. You should of had backups. If your putting important info on a computer it should be backed up and there is only one person to blame for data loss...


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