I need help.. Hacked computer/anti-virus program/photos..

[C.Ann]

Somewhere around Nov. 25th I noticed that my anti-virus program (Trend Titanium) kept going on and off and at that point I believe someone hacked into my computer because all sorts of weird things started to happen and items/programs were disappearing.. Of course it was evening so I could only use the "chat" function at Trend as no one is available by phone on the weekends or in the evening.. For two days I did everything they told me to do and it only made matters worse..

The following Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday, I spent 2+ hours on the phone with them (each day) and watched as they deleted files (without telling me what they were) - installed Internet Explorer 8 (which made my cordless mouse and finger pad unusable when trying to click on links); uninstalled that and installed Mozilla Firefox for my new browser; added programs that interfere with what I can do on my computer; and removed one of the factory installed programs I need for backing up all of my photos on CD's in one particular photo program..

Eventually I was able to get one burner to work (when it wants to) and I have been spending day after day after day trying to copy all of my photos before they disappear completely..

I absolutely hate this Mozilla Foxfire browser - would like to return to an Internet Explorer browser - but I'm afraid to call Trend again for fear that they will mess up my computer even more!!

Any suggestions on what I should do? Call them and hope they can get me back to IE (with my mouse & finger pad working)?

I have paid for their anti-virus protection through April 2012, but I have had so many problems (have had to call & have it reinstalled no less than 6 times since last May), I'm wondering if I should just ditch them?

And if so, is there an extremely good free anti-virus program out there that won't interfere with the programs I have on my computer now?

At this point I'm afraid to do much of anything - other than continuing to try to copy all of my photos to CD's before I encounter any additional problems..

Any suggestions?

TIA

 

[phorsenuf]

Somewhere around Nov. 25th I noticed that my anti-virus program (Trend Titanium) kept going on and off and at that point I believe someone hacked into my computer because all sorts of weird things started to happen and items/programs were disappearing.. Of course it was evening so I could only use the "chat" function at Trend as no one is available by phone on the weekends or in the evening.. For two days I did everything they told me to do and it only made matters worse..

The following Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday, I spent 2+ hours on the phone with them (each day) and watched as they deleted files (without telling me what they were) - installed Internet Explorer 8 (which made my cordless mouse and finger pad unusable when trying to click on links); uninstalled that and installed Mozilla Firefox for my new browser; added programs that interfere with what I can do on my computer; and removed one of the factory installed programs I need for backing up all of my photos on CD's in one particular photo program..

Eventually I was able to get one burner to work (when it wants to) and I have been spending day after day after day trying to copy all of my photos before they disappear completely..

I absolutely hate this Mozilla Foxfire browser - would like to return to an Internet Explorer browser - but I'm afraid to call Trend again for fear that they will mess up my computer even more!!

Any suggestions on what I should do? Call them and hope they can get me back to IE (with my mouse & finger pad working)?

I have paid for their anti-virus protection through April 2012, but I have had so many problems (have had to call & have it reinstalled no less than 6 times since last May), I'm wondering if I should just ditch them?

And if so, is there an extremely good free anti-virus program out there that won't interfere with the programs I have on my computer now?

At this point I'm afraid to do much of anything - other than continuing to try to copy all of my photos to CD's before I encounter any additional problems..

Any suggestions?

TIA

I don't know much about Trend as I've never heard of it before. Do you have a restore point on your computer? If so, I would probably restore it back, get yourself Norton Internet Security, run a whole system scan and proceed from there.
Just curious though, what don't you like about Firefox? I think it's so much better the IE.

 

[dfchelbay]

Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG are free. Can you run the scan and get rid of the virus? Then, restore your computer to a date before November 25th. It might be easier if you buy a portable hard drive, and just transfer all your photos over to it. Then, you will always have it on hand as a back up.

 

[C.Ann]

I don't know much about Trend as I've never heard of it before. Do you have a restore point on your computer? If so, I would probably restore it back, get yourself Norton Internet Security, run a whole system scan and proceed from there.
Just curious though, what don't you like about Firefox? I think it's so much better the IE.

They have my computer so messed up I'm actually afraid to attempt a restore..

For some reason the Firefox seems to interfere with many of the programs that were either factory installed - or Microsoft programs I have installed myself since I purchased the lap top in 2006 with Windows XP.. One is my favorite photo editing program (among others) and Firefox is causing issues with it..

I don't know an awful lot about computers so I foolishly assumed that the techs would know what they were doing and not create new problems every time I called them.. It's so frustrating! I just want my computer to work the way it used to - as well as having all of the programs function properly.. At this point I don't even know if they can replace all of the files and programs they took out.. As for two that they installed themselves, they have to go! One prevents me from even doing a search for topics in Windows in my files..

Thanks for the reply though.. For now I think I'm going to go and see if I can get that one burner to work so I can continue to try to save my photos.. I'll check back later on..

 

[DVC-Don]

I recently had an "internet search redirect" virus on my desktop. It would redirect from the site I had clicked on in google to sites selling things. It also blocked me from updating my anti virus systems. I had to get the Geek Squad to come and do a home visit to clean it up. Took the tech about an hour and a half. All good now.

 

[Jedana]

DH recommends MalwareBytes and Spybot. He hates AVG with a passion.

On our computer, we run the Microsoft Security Essentials, MalwareBytes and Spybot. Also all popups and redirects are blocked.

 

[dawson5]

C. Ann instead of trying to burn them off, what about trying to move them to a flash drive or portable hard drive? Maybe even uploading to something like shutterfly or google/gmail/picasa? Get them stored and just reformat.

Long time ago I had Trend PC-cillin, at that time it was pretty good. We lost the key for updating and I switched to AVG. You might have issues with other programs, sometimes they don't play nice together and you might have to uninstall one to install/use the other.

 

[Praying Colonel]

DH recommends MalwareBytes and Spybot. He hates AVG with a passion.

On our computer, we run the Microsoft Security Essentials, MalwareBytes and Spybot. Also all popups and redirects are blocked.

My 1st thought was MalwareBytes, as well. Download it from another computer onto a USB drive, then install and run on the infected computer (which has been disconnected from the Internet). Hopefully it will stop the bleeding long enough to get the data (photos/docs) off the infected computer.

Then reformat and reinstall--that's the only way you're going to have 100% certainty that your machine is again secure.

 

[Wadecool]

OP, we had McAfee and hated it! I had it removed and installed Microsoft Security Essentials and have not had any issues since.

 

[Magic Mom]

They have my computer so messed up I'm actually afraid to attempt a restore..

For some reason the Firefox seems to interfere with many of the programs that were either factory installed - or Microsoft programs I have installed myself since I purchased the lap top in 2006 with Windows XP.. One is my favorite photo editing program (among others) and Firefox is causing issues with it..

I don't know an awful lot about computers so I foolishly assumed that the techs would know what they were doing and not create new problems every time I called them.. It's so frustrating! I just want my computer to work the way it used to - as well as having all of the programs function properly.. At this point I don't even know if they can replace all of the files and programs they took out.. As for two that they installed themselves, they have to go! One prevents me from even doing a search for topics in Windows in my files..

Thanks for the reply though.. For now I think I'm going to go and see if I can get that one burner to work so I can continue to try to save my photos.. I'll check back later on..

If the burner isn't working, why not take other posters' advice and put the photos on a flash drive?

 

[Tozzie]

They have my computer so messed up I'm actually afraid to attempt a restore..

For some reason the Firefox seems to interfere with many of the programs that were either factory installed - or Microsoft programs I have installed myself since I purchased the lap top in 2006 with Windows XP.. One is my favorite photo editing program (among others) and Firefox is causing issues with it..

I don't know an awful lot about computers so I foolishly assumed that the techs would know what they were doing and not create new problems every time I called them.. It's so frustrating! I just want my computer to work the way it used to - as well as having all of the programs function properly.. At this point I don't even know if they can replace all of the files and programs they took out.. As for two that they installed themselves, they have to go! One prevents me from even doing a search for topics in Windows in my files..

Thanks for the reply though.. For now I think I'm going to go and see if I can get that one burner to work so I can continue to try to save my photos.. I'll check back later on..

See if you can do a system restore using a date prior to November 25, then I would get a different anti virus, I use norton, I had an issue with my computer last year , I started in in safe mode, installed norton got rid of the virus and then did a system restore. I don't know what Trend is but they shouldn't have to remove programs to clean up a virus.

 

[phorsenuf]

They have my computer so messed up I'm actually afraid to attempt a restore..

Well, it can't get any worse then it is now, right?

For some reason the Firefox seems to interfere with many of the programs that were either factory installed - or Microsoft programs I have installed myself since I purchased the lap top in 2006 with Windows XP.. One is my favorite photo editing program (among others) and Firefox is causing issues with it..

This part I don't understand. How is Firefox interfering? Are these all online programs? If it's just regular software installed I don't see how they would interfere. If they are programs that are intertwined with being online did you check for add-ons or updates through Firefox?

I don't know an awful lot about computers so I foolishly assumed that the techs would know what they were doing and not create new problems every time I called them.. It's so frustrating! I just want my computer to work the way it used to - as well as having all of the programs function properly.. At this point I don't even know if they can replace all of the files and programs they took out.. As for two that they installed themselves, they have to go! One prevents me from even doing a search for topics in Windows in my files..

What are the programs they installed? maybe someone here is familiar with them and could advise. As for the programs they took out, what were they? Do you have the software for them still so you re-install them or were they programs you downloaded? I'm not sure what they could have installed that would prevent you from doing a windows search.

Thanks for the reply though.. For now I think I'm going to go and see if I can get that one burner to work so I can continue to try to save my photos.. I'll check back later on..

Like other said, scrap the burner for now and just use a flash drive. Much easier and faster.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

An external hard drive will be your best bet; Not only can you back up your photo's but you can do backups of your computers hard drive so in the future you do not have to worry about losing everything.

If you are not in a position to get an external hard drive right this minute, instead of trying to burn everything to disks I would save all your photos in a zip folder and email them to yourself (preferably to an email you can access on any computer...hotmail, gmail, etc).

Once you have your photos taken care of please do a system restore to sometime before November 25th.

And I highly doubt it is Firefox causing your issues, I would guess it is the virus itself that is causing all your problems.

 

[Tink9721]

I use Norton. It's not free but it works. I run a quick scan every day(takes less than a minute) and a full system scan every couple of weeks. I'm really careful about it now since a few years ago I got a really bad virus on our home computer. I couldn't even get to my desktop. My only option was to do a system restore and it did something weird and I lost ALL of my files and pictures I never got anything that bad on my old laptop but I took it to Best Buy because it wasn't charging and my mom paid for them to back everything up onto an external hard drive just in case. When they gave me my laptop back, it was charging fine...but nothing else worked I couldn't get to any of my files and it took about 10 minutes to turn it on. Then they wiped the hard drive and it was fine after that. I was sooo glad I had everything backed up. Now with my new laptop I run virus scans all the time and back up my files every few weeks. It's really important now because not only do I have all of my pictures on here, but I started college this year and all of my notes are on here too. I'd be in trouble if I lost those

 

[willowsnn3]

DH recommends MalwareBytes and Spybot. He hates AVG with a passion.

On our computer, we run the Microsoft Security Essentials, MalwareBytes and Spybot. Also all popups and redirects are blocked.

Our company owner insisted we use AVG on our work computers. We all hate it. I can't access the DisBoards when I log on with Mozilla Firefox.....Have to use IE.

 

[crazelion]

Free Anti-virus I would use AVast, AVG, Avair. I would download Malwarebytes and run that in safe mode and see what it finds. I would also run Superantispyware free edition also. This should clean up your system a lot.

You can install IE yourself on the computer.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I use noadware and love it. I forgot to install it on this computer. I have something happen that I need to get fixed. Has anyone experienced someone taking your windows? They installed a fake windows on it. I can still use the internet. This is one weird thing I never encountered. But once I get it fixed, I will install no adware.

 

[DVC-Don]

OP, we had McAfee and hated it! I had it removed and installed Microsoft Security Essentials and have not had any issues since.

With my internet search redirect virus, it had gotten through the Microsoft Security Essentials. I'm now using Webroot.

 

[C.Ann]

Thanks for all the great suggestions.. I will take them all into consideration.. Right now I don't have a flash drive and although my DD's family has an external hard drive, we were told by a computer tech that if I pull my stuff off - and combine it with theirs - the virus (if that's what I actually have) will infect all of their files as well..

So for now I just have to use the burner I have - when it's cooperating.. Once the photos are off the computer, I'll deal with the other issues later.. My photos are the most important thing to me - and I never should have allowed them to build up to the number that I currently have - before backing them up.. That won't happen again! Lesson learned.. I load any photos on to my computer (once it's fixed), if I can't burn them that same day I've self-imposed a one week limit on myself.. I won't even say how many photos I have on this computer - it's embarrassing..

I'll check back in later.. For now it's back to fiddling with the photos..

 

[beaucoup]

I agree with all the wonderful suggestions you have received here.

Restore. Restore! RESTORE! RESTORE!
Drive to Staples & pick up an external hard drive today & back up photos to that!
MalwareBytes
SuperAntiSpyware
Firefox - no problems.

AVG brought my computer to a crawl for some reason when we tried it. Didn't like that.

Do those things then report back to let us know how they went.

Anyone in the house that can help you? Teenage granddaughter? Son-in-law? Daughter?