9 replies to this topic

[raymac46]

My Win 7 notebook picked up some nasty malware today. Not sure how but both McAfee and Windows Defender were hopeless to stop it. It shut both spyware apps down. It's called "Smart Data Recovery" virus.
I got about 50 read/write errors and hard disk failure notices all at once. Yeah right. How could I boot at all if my hard drive were that bad?
Googling on another machine gave me a fake key so I could "register" the malware and stop  it. Then I rebooted in safe mode and had McAfee do a virus scan and get rid of it. Then I could delete the stupid launch icon and program. Took me about 3 hours to get my Windows 7 install back to normal.
I'm fairly computer literate. Imagine if this crap got on the PCs of my senior citizen "clients" in the neighborhood. Give me Linux. Please.
http://www.2-viruses...t-data-recovery

[V.T. Eric Layton]

That sounds like a variant of THIS, Ray.

By the way, moving this to All Things Windows.

[raymac46]

Well maybe checking the weather in Donetz Ukraine or reading some Euro 2012 coverage did it. That is about as naughty as I get at my age.
What bugs me though is that two anti-malware apps didn't catch it. This sort of scareware is just an annoyance for me but it could make the Web innocent come unhinged enough to pay for a spurious software "licence" that doesn't do anything.

[zlim]

Malwarebytes, the paid version, stops me from even getting to sites that are deemed problematic. You can over ride but I rarely do.

[LilBambi]

I would start here Ray: S.M.A.R.T Data Recovery over at Bleeping Computer. Or wait for Corrine to help.

[raymac46]

OK now thanks Fran. After I got into Safe Mode, McAfee was able to take care of it.

[Corrine]

raymac46, the 2-viruses website you linked to isn't the best source.  The Bleeping Computer link that Fran provided is the most effective for that rogue (and 99.999% of all the rogues).

[raymac46]

Maybe but the 2 viruses site gives pics of what the malware looks like. I was able to take care of it so no worries.
Here's the Bleeping Computer Page for reference. It also shows the screens I got,
http://www.bleepingc...e-data-recovery

The unhide.exe program at Bleeping Computer is excellent to restore all your start menu items after you get rid of the virus. Thanks!

Edited by raymac46, 16 June 2012 - 09:50 PM.

[Temmu]

as zlim said above, not going to the site in the first place is the best defense - but i use something else - the mvp hosts file http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
and as lilbambi said, bleeping computer is a great site, after the unfortunate fact.
but corrine hits the nail on the head every time if you need help!

[LilBambi]

Yes, so true Temmu! Corrine is an excellent malware fighter! Which is why I mentioned BleepingComputer or wait for Corrine.