My Desktop has died

Last night I was forum hopping when Avast game me a warning of a malicious url, within seconds it had shut down my computer for it never to return again.

I have lost a considerable amount of unbacked up photos (to update my backup was a job to do in the next two weeks off work !) including some that are totally irreplaceable.

Some spreadsheets I have are stored on a memory stick but all my outlook contacts are lost too.

How do you back up your computer and what antivirus do you use?

Re: My Desktop has died

Hi Wonda isn't there anything you can do, system restore or something.
I don't actually deal with these things, my son gave me my PC and laptop and set them up for me, I just shout if there is a problem.

I have AVG antivirus and something else I think, nothing to back up really my photographs are stored on a host site as well as my old PC and my son has copies

I hope you can sort something out, Antibrown and Azz are good with PC stuff .

Re: My Desktop has died

I always use McAfee- I run a full scan and go into systems tools and use the quick clean up regularly. No problems so far but I'll touch some wood for luck now that I have said that.

Re: My Desktop has died

All might not be lost Wonda. Something similar happened to me a while back and I ended up having to take my laptop into a PC shop. It cost me a bit, but they removed the virus, trojan, worm or whatever it was (I had 16 of the things in my system). It was all sorted out and I got everything back. Perhaps this will be the same for you. I had no effective anti-virus and so I bought the Norton one. I had been lucky for a long time without proper protection, but when I thought I had lost all my stuff I was so cross with myself. I don't think I would risk it again.

Re: My Desktop has died

I also give my son a shout when anything is amiss with my Mac so I'm afraid I can't offer you any suggestions, Wonda...

I hope you can get it sorted and you're able to retrieve your photos, good luck!

Re: My Desktop has died

When turning the computer on while it's starting up keep trying to press F8 - sometimes that will let you start up in safe mode, then you can choose 'safe mode' and see if that lets you boot up - if it does save all your stuff to a cd or dvd.

Re: My Desktop has died

This happened to me in May with a nearly-new laptop and it was a viral Trojan that caused the problem. Although I worked in IT rectifying this was daunting so I immediately went to System Restore and "went back" to a point where my laptop was OK.
I then went to CCleaner and ran the lot then Malwarebytes which found and isolated the trojan (do Malwarebytes and CCleaner in Safe Mode!).
Unfortunately in my case the virus had hidden or maybe destroyed 60% of my files (never could find them) on the laptop but photos I had backed-up on a stick.
Also everything that I had on the laptop I also had on an ancient PC so although 2 months of stuff disappeared, it was simple to replace my programs, spreadsheets and charts.
One or two things I never managed to fix but I didn't really need them, however, using Microsoft FIX-IT I regained two non-functioning programmes!!
Hope this helps. stevmk2

Re: My Desktop has died

I also use AVG and I store all my Photos on a Site called Photobucket. You can make your Albums totally private if you wish. (I did) then I can access it from any Computer. I also still have my first Laptop, I tend to store things on there too, I seldom use it but it's a great storage device lol. I also run the C.Cleaner weekly and every now and again I do a Virus sweep with Malwarebytes
Hope you can retreive your stuff........there's a lesson to be learned here.

Re: My Desktop has died

Wow! where do I start?
Maybe from the post by Azz but if you are not very much into computer technology it may seem like a daunting task. It is'nt if you follow instuctions that people advise plus NEVER hit the DELETE button unless you know for definate what you are deleting, not what you THINK you are deleting.

Have you tried what Azz suggests?

The main thing before anyone starts using a computer on the internet is to learn about preventing the loss of files, photo,s etc by 'backing up'.
This is easy if you save your files,photo,s etc to a external disc or memory stick and not on the computer it self, preferably both so that if one fails the other is still there. A Computer is a stupid machine and it only does what it is told by outside forces(us) and you know how stupid we can be at times.
It may take a few seconds longer to store things or retrieve them but it saves a whole lot of heartache.

Never never trust a computer.

Next you have to have a reliable anti-virus program, I use Microsofts security essentials and Avast, plus a 'Firewall' and some program for cleaning your computer of malicious software, Ccleaner, Malwarebytes as stevmk2 suggests. At the end of the day after visiting to the internet run the programs so that the next time you visit the internet you have a clean start.

If there is something that you dont understand GOOGLE it and read about the item.

Awaiting your response to the suggestion fromAzz.

Re: My Desktop has died

Thanks for your responses, at the moment i cannot get my pc to talk with my screen, so i cannot get into safe mode or ask it to do anything. The screen comes on then goes into sleep mode, within about a minute of sparking it up.

I have Avast, malwarebytes and spybot S & D , it was Avast that tried to block the url but in the end my computer shut down.