Foolish
Boring post, but I’m freaking out!
Last week, avidtvfan (Marissa) posted that she had gotten infected with a virus that was propagating to her friends on AIM. I use a Mac, so the risk of me being infected was rather small, but you know, I’d been hearing rumors about some files starting to affect macs now that they’re becoming more popular and all of that… And my computer has been running slower than I remember, so I went looking around the internet, found reputable AntiVirus software (Sophos Antivirus for those who are curious)… Ran it, and it found two viruses and promptly deleted them! Yay!
Or no. Today, I open my mail program (Eudora), start downloading my mail and notice that one of my filters isn’t working–my school email is ending up in my Inbox rather than the handy dandy mailbox I’ve created. I go to hand move it–and discover that the entire mailbox is gone. Poof. It’s not anywhere on my hard drive. Um, this is three entire years of email communication. Lot of it junk, but there were also pictures from my classmates and their kids or emails that Chris and I exchanged while he was in Ghana.
Or most important: registration information and PASSWORDS for all of my residency applications. Gone. Just like that.
I checked the log and sure enough: Virus: ‘W32/Bagle-HTML’ detected in Julia Durrant:Users:jcd1013:Documents:Eudora Folder:Mail Folder:ms2006/Content/Embed0004/ReScan/Content
Deleted infected file
See that “Documents:Eudora Folder: Mail Folder:ms2006” bit?–yeah it deleted the entire folder. My preferences (as I have since discovered) are sent to be automatically deleted. And it ain’t in my trashcan.
Peachy. Just peachy.
Any Mac users (or computer whizzes) out there who might have an idea of how I might retrieve my files? Anyone? Bueller?
ETA: After talking with my dad (he’s my personal computer guru) and searching around apple.com and discovering that I could spend over a hundred dollars (!!!) on software and probably not get anything back and “next time you should make a backup of your mail” it hit me. Back up. I made a backup of my mail sometime ago. Pulled out my CD–Nov. 2004. Then I went and looked on my school’s email program–and my messages from November 2004 and onward were present. So I didn’t lose my mail. I’ve made it more difficult for me to find a message, but it’s all there. I think. *wipes brow*
Thanks for all of the advice, my beloved flist! It really helped me know where to even start looking. *BIG GIGANTIC HUGS*
Warning: file_get_contents(http://bjorks_defender.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
Crap, Jules!!! 🙁
Ugh!
You know I know nothing about Macs, but I just did some QUICK research, and there’s this thing called VirtualLab that retrieves deleted files. I have no idea if it’ll work, or if the free download will provide the capability, but you could take a look at it. Here’s the link: http://binarybiz.com/vlab/
And, darling, switch that auto-delete preference! That’s crazy talk!
*GINORMOUS HUG*
Warning: file_get_contents(http://bjorks_defender.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
Take a look at this page too:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/software/eudora/sav.html
Warning: file_get_contents(http://bjorks_defender.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
Also… on my PC, usually before I do a virus scan and/or delete “quarantined” files, it makes a backup of my drive, so I can retrieve the data as it was before that. If your computer did that, you can still retrieve it… look at the virus program and see if the “help” section says anything about a backup copy, maybe?
*bites lip*
Warning: file_get_contents(http://shyspotlight06.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
🙁 That sucks. I’m so sorry, Julia!
Have you tried looking in your trashcan? I found the same program (the first one) that Becka posted, so hopefully that works? I also found some programs where you have to pay [too much] money…
Apparently that virus is from an email that you recieved, I think. Don’t open any emails that have the subject lines as “Re: Thank you” or “Re: Hello”? I’m not sure.
It hasn’t been fun…
Nope, it wasn’t in my trashcan, I think it just wiped it from the hard drive. And that program cost $120 dollars to undelete files, so….
Eudora downloads and opens attachments pretty automatically, but since it’s a Mac, I’ve never ever worried about it–I just find the file and delete it, because 99.9% of the time it doesn’t affect my computer–all of the execution is programmed for Windows. I just worried about passing one on to you Windows users if I had gotten one from the AIM bug. So I did the sweep and it found the one message in my mailbox that I hadn’t deleted and wiped everything away. Grrr.
Oh well, I’ve found my mail in other places. I guess I’ll be okay.
Warning: file_get_contents(http://notarysojac.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
My wife had pointed me here, in fear that her Eudora mail files would disappear too, or as a cautionary tale concerning backing up. I am very happy that you dodged this bullet, even if just by fortuitous circumstance.
This was a problem with the big-name antivirus packages too – Norton/Symantec and Virex. Eudora’s mailbox folders are each a single standard text file and if they found a virus signature within one it would delete the entire file, as you sadly found with Sophos too.
Eudora has been a Mac & PC standard for ages – I recall vary happily using the pre-1.0 version in the very early ’90s as a welcome relief from whatever the mail system was on the Lab’s VAX cluster… – and the PC versions understand and handle viruses in individual messages within the mailfiles. *sigh* Once again, Mac support as an afterthought…
Unix (ie: MacOS X) is pretty unforgiving when you actually delete a file – as opposed to just moving it into your Trash.
Warning: file_get_contents(http://bjorks_defender.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
Annnnd… if none of that works, you can contact a professional and/or tell me how I can help to at least help you track down that residency information you need. That’s all gotta be out there, and two people looking for it will find it all much faster….
*hopes something she’s said is helpful*
You’re amazing and wonderful and awesome, and that 42 year old had better stand back, because I’m claiming you first as mine!
See ETA. The crisis has been diverted. Mostly. But I’m not checking for viruses ever again. 😛
Warning: file_get_contents(http://literati555.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
Aw, I’m so sorry!
I don’t know much at all about macs…but I do understand how awful it is to lose things like that. I hope very much that you find it in perfect condition. *hug*
And…I don’t know if it works the same for macs, but if you can…Google has this program called the Google Desktop search, you can download it for free, and it’ll search your entire computer for any keyword search, I believe; much better than the normal computer searches… Maybe it got sent…some weird place on the hard drive/trash somehow? *shrug*
*crosses fingers for you*
Google Desktop’s only for Windows. 🙂
But thanks for the advice and sympathy–I understand that you’ve also been going to through the computer woes. I hope it goes better with you too!
Warning: file_get_contents(http://literati555.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
Ahh, I should’ve known. Heh.
*non…computer-savvy…but even less “mac-savvy”* 😛
Thanks!
I’m glad you found the backup! Smart! 😉
Warning: file_get_contents(http://avidtvfan.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
Oh dear, Julia. That’s awful!