COMPUTER GENIUS
Before we begin I would like to thank those who have stopped at Computer Genius and let me know someone actually reads these articles. The feedback is greatly appreciated.
Recently we have had several units brought to the shop, after the owners tried to repair symptoms of malware by reinstalling the operating system. Usually by the time they are brought into the shop the computer has been restored to factory settings, and all the music, photos and documents have been lost in the format. This leaves the owner, or the husband, in a panic wondering if we can recover their lost wedding photos, or the 2500 I-tunes.
Fortunately there is light at the end of the tunnel. With the correct software, data can usually be recovered from an accidental format or deletion. The part you have to remember is STOP. Do not attempt any additional repairs, the more you work on it the more you overwrite the information you are trying to recover. Step 2 is write down what files you have lost and want recovered. Don’t just say “Everything in my documents” it doesn’t work that way. We need to know what type of files you are looking for. They can be Word documents, photos, such as Jpegs, tiffs and Bmps or QuickBooks backups. And be prepared to spend some time sorting the information recovered.
One customer wanted Jpeg’s recovered and had to go through close to 12,000 recovered photos to find the ones she was looking for. Point Number 2 is if your computer is showing signs of virus and malware don’t wait for it to shut down completely before you take steps to repair it.
Once again before things get too bad, STOP.
Disconnect from the internet. Run your virus and spyware and see if anything is discovered. It always helps if your pattern files are up-to-date. Many times when running a scan with the owner’s software, we find the virus or spyware files to be over a year old or never updated at all. You might as well not have any protection at all. Remember you have to be proactive, very few virus programs work without input from you; either downloading the latest virus pattern files, or initiating the scans. Some of the most infected units we see have expensive antivirus programs installed that have never been updated and manually scanned.
We are always at your service when things get out of control, so don’t let simple things grow into big problems when all it takes is a little time and effort to stay on top. Stop by Computer Genius say “Hi” and let us know how we can fill your computer needs. 622-6006.
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