possible virus on computer?

[pmh013]

One of my colleagues has lost all the data off his computer.The folder hierarchy is still there, but all the files (which are Excel files) have vanished. They didn't seem to vanish all at once, but in about 2 or 3 chunks. At about the same time the files went missing, the receptionist was backing up those files onto CD (through a peer-to-peer network).On the CD, the folder hierarchy still exists, and all the files are there, but they contain no data, except for one file in one folder. In the files that were wiped, the sheet name has been changed to the file name.We've already updated Norton & run a complete scan, it came up clean. I've told the computer to show hidden files & folders, still not there. I've searched for the files, it's able to come up with the shortcuts from the history, but the shortcuts are unable to find the file.If anyone has any speculation as to what has happened, it would be awesome. Unfortuanately, I'm the tech guru here, but I have absolutely no qualifications to make anyone who is qualified think that I am qualified.

[joatmon]

That's weird, and I don't know why that happenedI know how you feel though, lady at work messed up her puter and I lost a day working on it. instead of using the GUI, she went to a dos prompt to delete files "I thought I was on the A drive when I ran del *.*" id you look for remnants in the temp directories? maybe search for all files modified today, on both systems. maybe it was some weird drag and drop catastrophe, Guess it could be a virus, but it seems like the intenet worms are more popular these days than the basic trash your machine types. And, the mac users will say helpful stuff like, "it's a virus called Windows"

[pmh013]

I did a search for a file that I know to have existed, located anywhere on the hard drive, including hidden files & folder. Nada.Basically, I'm going to chalk this up to "it's not my problem" because I've been asking them to get someone on a computer maintenance contract for about 3 years now, and it still hasn't happened.You've pissed in your bed, you lie in it.

[Jahntassa]

I'd say chances are pretty good it was viral. Either on the main computer, or on the computer over the network. Depending on the virus, it's possible it corrupted Norton before you could update it, thus making it useless..If you can go the "Not my problem" approach, take it. Especially when you've been crying to get someone to do maintenance for you! Hopefully now they'll listen!

[Mr. Poopypants]

Quote, originally posted by pmh013 »One of my colleagues has lost all the data off his computer.The folder hierarchy is still there, but all the files (which are Excel files) have vanished. They didn't seem to vanish all at once, but in about 2 or 3 chunks. At about the same time the files went missing, the receptionist was backing up those files onto CD (through a peer-to-peer network).On the CD, the folder hierarchy still exists, and all the files are there, but they contain no data, except for one file in one folder. In the files that were wiped, the sheet name has been changed to the file name.We've already updated Norton & run a complete scan, it came up clean. I've told the computer to show hidden files & folders, still not there. I've searched for the files, it's able to come up with the shortcuts from the history, but the shortcuts are unable to find the file.If anyone has any speculation as to what has happened, it would be awesome. Unfortuanately, I'm the tech guru here, but I have absolutely no qualifications to make anyone who is qualified think that I am qualified.One of the new variations of the bagel virus (I am pretty sure it was Bagel) carries a destructive payload, one of the first viruses to do so in a long while. If he got that virus, I hope you have a backup of the data.

[pmh013]

The receptionist was backing up his data right when it started to disappear. She got all the files, but when you open them up (they're on a CD), they're empty. These are all Excel files, and the name of the sheet has been changed to the file name.Weird. Well, at least there was another copy from Christmas, so he only lost 2.5 months of data

[Mr. Poopypants]

Quote, originally posted by pmh013 »The receptionist was backing up his data right when it started to disappear. She got all the files, but when you open them up (they're on a CD), they're empty. These are all Excel files, and the name of the sheet has been changed to the file name.Weird. Well, at least there was another copy from Christmas, so he only lost 2.5 months of data OUCH