Internet Security Issue

A

Acolyte2

Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
329
I have a big problem that happened over the weekend. I discovered that I had a virus on my laptop, and then discovered that my anti-virus subscription had expired. No major problem, I just downloaded some software to fix it. The product? Norton 360 Internet Security package, for $US 130. Not cheap. After downloading and installing the program, I removed the virus and 360 restarted my laptop. Thirty minutes later, my machine was booted, but I had not been able to open a single file. I rebooted and the same problem occurred. I could not reboot and open a file in under 30 minutes. After some research on the Internet, which required rebooting and starting IE, also a very slow process, I discovered that this is not an unknown problem. I uninstalled 360, for which I had paid so much, and the machine is now fine. Except that my flash drive, with 4 exams that my students were supposed to be sitting in a couple of weeks, is totally cactus. I can't read or write anything from / to my flash drive. I can't even reformat it.

(A) Does anyone know what is going on?
(B) Buyer beware!!!!!!!!
 
The newest versions of Norton actually get pretty decent reviews. On my Windows boxes, I'm running either Avast (free) or Kaspersky (free after rebates). Both work well, especially if you use some common sense on the Internet.

Acolyte, I'm wondering if Norton is trying to fix the virus issue. Have you tried booting in safe mode? When you first boot your computer, a screen should come up telling you to press a certain key to boot into a menu, safe mode, etc. In safe mode, your OS is running in bare bones mode and all the extra stuff, including the virus, should not load. You can run Norton and have it do a full system scan in safe mode to see if it finds anything.
 
If you don't use your laptop for games or software that doesn't have a free counterpart, seriously consider using a less virus prone operating system, such as Ubuntu. I promise you the switch will be painless, and with a live cd, you can try before you install it.

Feel free to PM me, and I'll help you find alternatives to the software you use.
 
I may actually move over to a Macintosh for my next machine. I really need to run Microsoft Office and some mathematical software called Matlab, which has Windows and Mac versions. That may affect other OS's.

Cheers, Acolyte.
 
Back to your problem. I assume you mean a USB flash drive.

Boot into Widows safe mode with networking. Check your flash drive. If the files are there, email them to yourself.

If not, download Ubuntu aand burn to a CD. Boot to the CD and choose run from CD (no need to install Ubuntu to hard disk. Insert and check your flash drive. If there, copy files to floppy or CD.

If these don't work, post more and we can help you get your files back.
 
Just a note here re: Norton. The Feds have suspended of it's use on all their equipment due to ties to the Chinese (state sponsered hackers anonymous) government. Just a thought.
 
fivefold said:
Just a note here re: Norton. The Feds have suspended of it's use on all their equipment due to ties to the Chinese (state sponsered hackers anonymous) government. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Do you have a source for that information?
 
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