Bad day

[aly]

I am soooo mad, I can't even express it. I have gotten a computer virus that wiped out 3,096 files on my comp. It outrages me that people waste their time writing these hateful things and trying to spread it around to everyone's computers. I am just so upset. I lost pictures of Dessi, Harley, Julius, plus Reece, Lolly, and Shiloh. I also lost all the banners and pictures I made that I didn't have backed up on webshots. Lost all my music files, all word files, most txt files, etc etc. This is just blatantly WRONG. I had been working on something for the shelter. I was doing breed descriptions of EVERY dog breed. I had all of the frequently asked questions about each breed and was putting answers with them. I had spent about 40 hours doing it already and wasn't even halfway through. Now I lost it all.

I did tell the shelter today that I am going to adopt Lolly though. I just told them to give me another week or two so I can watch her with Shiloh some more.

[tatsxxx11]

Oh Aly, oh no. Not you!!! All of your beautiful work, gone. But those pictures; especially of Harley, Julius and Dessi. I am speechless, AND in tears for you. All of your shelter work. Aly, writing all those breed descriptions; answering all those FAQ's. That's tantamount to a thesis. Was any of it saved onto a CDR or diskette? Had you printed any of it out yet? I hope you have most of your pics on film negatives. Pictures are irreplaceable. I don't know what to say, except that I'm so, so sorry. It's not quite as bad. But I lost months of work on my final college paper through my computer. I've learned since then to either copy every page of truly important work, or save it on a disk. People like this truly deserve the severest of punnishments; it is nothing less than criminal-as in jail time!!!!!!! I know the thought of starting over on your work is daunting. Try and take it a little at a time. I wish I could help you! I'd write volumes for you. Just ask me; HONEST!!!!!

I know it must dampen your otherwise happy news. Lolly has a home! :) I want to feel so happy for you and her. I hope that the status quo is maintained and she stays on her best behavior so that you can keep her FOREVER!

Oh Aly, doesn't it seem sometimes the most wonderful, special, people get the biggest tests in life??? I know Logan has some wise words about that!

If I can help you in any way with the paperwork end of it, (I'll write the lab description :D) anything at all, let me know. And again, I'm so thrilled for Lolly. I know you're terribly stressed right now, and I hope the new adoption won't be too much for you. Lolly couldn't find a better home.
Love, Sandra

[ July 28, 2001: Message edited by: tatsxxx11 ]

[ July 28, 2001: Message edited by: tatsxxx11 ]

[ July 28, 2001: Message edited by: tatsxxx11 ]

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Hi Aly, I can't tell you how sorry I am that happened. I would be mad too. Some people just don't care how much work and time and effort that is put into doing the kind of work you do. There are some Lunies out there.
If I can help you with giving you a description of the Schnauzer breed, just let me know I will do my best. The most tragic thing is losing all your photos. Well let me know if I can help you anyway.
Jackie

[lizbud]

Aly,
Have you taken your hard drive into a
computer store to have it checked out???
Tech Support where i work says the files
never really disappear (they are in-there)
but just not accessable through normal
methods of access.
If you have already done this.. and the files cannot be restored ..i am truly sorry.

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Spencer, I think that special place is very appropriate.

[Sudilar]

Oh Aly, how horrible. I feel for you! All that work!!!! I can't express how bad I feel!

On the other hand, I am so happy for you and Lolly!! That's great news!

[Rottieluver45]

That`s horrible I feel so sorry for you!!

[3-greys-and-a-mutt]

Aly, I feel your pain!
A few years ago, Gateway (yes the computer company) sent me an update diskette, and the diskette also contained a virus that wiped out EVERyTHING on my computer. It took over a month before the technicians at Gateway were able to even get my computer to recognize a boot-up disk again!
Needless to say, my current computer is a Dell... I will never get a Gateway product again, and I try to spread the word...

[ July 28, 2001: Message edited by: 3-greys-and-a-mutt ]

[aly]

Thank you all for your words of encouragement. It took me 5 hours to get the virus off my computer and another 5 to get things in working order again. I lost so much, its unbelievable. The thing that I hate is I kept meaning to burn everything to CDs for backup but I've been so swamped lately :( I guess I learned my lesson. This has been more frusterating than the chernobyl virus I got 3 years ago (even though I lost EVERYTHING in that one). The worst part of this one was the hateful hidden messages I kept finding :(

lizbud - I couldn't restore my files because the virus actually overwrites them. So I was staring at them but there was no way to ever get them back since they were overwritten...frusterating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3-greys - Ack, I've never really liked Gateway but wow, I can't believe that happened. I'll spread the word too.

[lizbud]

Aly,
I am so relieved that all was not a total
loss.(All your work files and all your pics)
Have you identified the virus(worm) yet??
i have McAfee virus scan and it works so far,
but it always needs updated for the latest
virus clone...
Please ignore any 'hateful messages'.
THOSE PEOPLE need to GET A LIFE..and yes
there "otta be a law' for spreading these
destrutive viruses.

[Daisy's Mom]

Aly I am so sorry. You are too wonderful of a person to have this happen to you. Try to concentrate on the good things in life: Lolly is staying with you! Hurray!

[Logan]

Aly, I just hate what has happened to your computer, what a mess! I'm not going to trash Gateway though because in the year and a half we've had ours, we haven't had a single problem. I'm knocking on wood right now too!! And I've had nightmares with Compaqs and Dells that I have had with my work, so who knows! I currently have an IBM Thinkpad for my work computer, and couldn't be happier with it either. Sometimes, I think they just fail, no matter where they come from.

I wish you lots of luck. Hopefully since you have posted so many things here, and probably other "public" places, you can recover a lot of your precious photographs and banners.

Wish I could help you...but I don't think you would want my "technical" help. :eek: It would be a sad, sad thing.

Logan

[RachelJ]

This just isn't fair. What a waste that people who are smart enough to figure out how to do these things aren't using those skills and abilities for accomplishing something with a useful purpose. What they can't destroy is what a wonderful person you are...someone who is going to prevail despite her set-backs and tribulations.

I've got my fingers crossed for you and Lolly and Reece and Shiloh becoming one big happy family.

[AdoreMyDogs]

Aly I am so sorry this had to happen. I know how aweful those things are, as I often have to rush to eliminate the viruses when the users at work get them on their computers. Can you tell me which virus it is? And do you have the latest Norton Anti Virus by chance and have you updated your virus definations recentlly? I would like to know so I can prepare myself and the users if it's new and Norton does not have it protected yet. Yes people are very sick to get a kick out of all the damage they cause. It's that type of person I hope to never have the misfortune of meeting.

But despite all the loss, there is reason to celebrate. Lolly has a home, and with you to top it off. Lolly is truly a lucky dog, she is in the best possible home. Congrats to you and to your new dog :)

[Freckles]

Aly, this is awful. But it happens more often than we like to think.
I do backup, sometimes,but not as often as we all should. And suffered because of it.
I use Norton AntiVirus and check for updates whenever I hear of a new virus, or every five days, whichever comes first. There was an update this morning.
I recently bought a Gateway (my fifth computer since 1983) and love it. On #4, I copied my data files to CDroms. I learned the hard way it's best to copy them as "archive", not "read only". Then I just copied them onto the Gateway, and I still have the CD as backup.
Good luck on getting your data back together. You'll have a new copy of the Name/Pets list soon.

Aly, I cannot believe this happened and wiped out so much. I am so sorry. Like in my e-mail, let me know if I can help in any way. With this technology nowdays, this distance between shouldn't be a problem and we can find a way to help you. I can type pretty good :)

Spencer - You seem very very computer savy. What is a CD-RW. Is that just an external cd burner? We saw those at Best Buy out here for less than $300... like $89-200. So, the CD-RW must be different. I don't have one but today I have been inspired to back up all of my work to floppy right now! I have a dell computer but I am having issues... not dells fault - at least I don't think it is.

Aly, good luck sweetie. Everything will work out just fine. You have HUGE support system here. And YAY for LOLLY!!!! I am so glad she is staying :D!

I'm sure the shelter saw this coming for miles :)

[Albea]

Aly:
I'm so sorry this has happened to you :mad: You work so hard, it isn't fair. Those people who spend their time creating virus should be incarcerated together with the ones that abuse animals. Put them away and throw the key :mad:
Besides backing up your files and getting anti-virus software, have you though about buying something like "NetBarrier"? Is supposed to be one of the best programs to stop intruders into your computer. I use it in a Power Mac but I'm sure is also developed for PCs and it's not very expensive.
Give big hugs and kisses to the babies. :D
Love, Alicia

[3-greys-and-a-mutt]

Just to clarify, so that everyone doesn't think I'm upset that my Gateway system got attacked by a random virus: my Gateway computer was a great system until some blankety-blank idiot from Gateway sent me a virus on disk, which my computer didn't recognize and stop. I wouldn't be so upset with Gateway, but for the fact that they have some really vindictive and nasty employee who purposely sent me a virus, and then, to top it off, their help-line technicians were not competent enough to get my computer back online for over a month. :rolleyes:
Hmm... thinking back, I probably could have sued them for the loss of almost five years of data, but at the time, I was in college, approaching final exams, and I only wanted my computer up and running again!
Sorry to bring this up again, I just didn't want anyone to think I was spiteful and holding a grudge against the Gateway company without due reason!

[Pam]

Aly I am probably the least computer savvy here. If it wasn't for my husband and son looking out for me I would have been wiped out long ago. My husband updates the virus software on my computer constantly and I have recently had two messages appear on my screen that told me to not open two specific e-mails and to delete immediately due to them containing viruses. Some people have nothing better to do than create misery for others. How very pathetic. :( Worst of all is that it happened to you, one of the most caring and kind people I have had the pleasure to "meet" (well sort of....hehe). :)

[aly]

Thank you everyone. I feel a lot better about it all today. I guess I know that I won't be getting the pictures back and there's nothing I can do about it. It was my fault for not backing them up. I actually had them backed up but when I got this new computer, I overwrote my backup cds when I was transferring everything over. I can't believe I never made another backup :(

Angel, your email was so sweet. Thank you so much :) You are wonderful. With everything you're doing and you still offer to help. And thanks everyone else who offered to help me :D I'm so glad I found this site. :)

Everyone go look under the Funny pic topic. Shiloh went and layed down by Lolly and Lolly didn't move away. She just kept one eye open while she was sleeping to watch the cat. HEHE!

[Rottie]

Oh Aly, I'm so sorry. That is so awful! When you have time, please give us some more info on the body of the message, name of the attachment, etc. so we won't have to go through what you did. That's so horrible what people will do to just be mean. :mad:

[Karen]

I have gotten several virus-message a day for the past couple weeks. They always say something like "I have included this file to ask for your advice." There is always an attached file, with different file extensions, and different file names. The message comes from a different person every time, but unlike normal viruses (actually it's a worm) it culls email addresses from the persons computer to use as a sender, so I can't even email the person back, as the return address is probably not the person it came from.

Fortunately, I am on a Macintosh, and this virus can't affect me. The real lesson for everyone, though, is don't open attachments unless it is a file you have been expecting.

And DO make back-ups of everything regularly.

[ July 29, 2001: Message edited by: Karen ]

[Stenograsaurus]

Oh, Aly, I'm so sorry. I know a little of how you feel. I've been without a computer for about 4 weeks now all because of a virus. It completely destroyed everything. The lady who tried to fix it had never seen anything like it. When she purchased a new hard drive and put that in, it destroyed the new hard drive too. I, too, lost everything. I wonder if it was the same virus? I don't know what my virus was though because someone was checking their e-mail on our computer. It wasn't even our virus!!! I know how frustrating it was for me and I wasn't working on as much stuff as you were. The worst part though is the pictures. That's what you'll miss the most.

On a happier note, Hooray for Lolly!!! She definitely looks like she belongs there.

Hey Spencer,

Thanks for your info. I really appreciate it. I have heard that outlook express is bad when it comes to carrying viruses. My friend downloaded the e-mail client Calypso for that reason. It works much better an is supposedly safer in that respect. Calypso works with OE so you don't change e-mail addresses or anything.

Keep enlightening us with your wisdom Spencer :D! It is always welcome :)