need help to recover lost files after virus

guys, i need help, my external hdd has gone a virus, after that i cannot view my files that were stored before my good friend attached my external drive to his virus made laptop, now i cant view my files and cant be seen when i open my hdd via pc. is there any way i can recover and view the files in my hdd? the memory usage is still there and i can still view my files via advanced system care check disk. please help, thanks

 

any idea what the name of the virus was?

if you have connected your external hard drive to your clean computer and tried to open the infected drive there is a risk that the virus (depending which one it is) could of automatically transfered onto your clean computer.

what antivirus and firewall do you use and is it upto date?

once you answer the above questions we can advise more but you could try this first to make sure it hasnt infected your computer.
unplug external hard drive.
reboot computer and press F8 continuously to go into safe mode and then run a full antivirus scan.
if it clean then
turn off. plug external hard drive into computer and turn on pressing F8 again to get into safe mode and run another scan including the external drive.
then report back.

 

As long as the drive shows up in disk management or Computer, you should be able to get to your data. Make sure you select the "View Hidden Files and Folders" option; often times, a virus will apply the Hidden attribute to all data, making you think it's gone.

 

okay the virus is like worm with something.

have tried safe mode and full scan plus another safe mode boot and full scan with my external hdd attached.

im using the advanced system care utility 2013 with antivirus it was recently updated this year.

when i plugged the hdd, virus was already scanned and quarantined. after several scanning the virus was not detected anymore.

there are still memory in my hard drive and when i run a full scan again to my hdd, my files are being scanned, but whenever i open the hdd from My Computer, i can't see any files whatsover.

can you guys advice if i can use some sort of recovery tool? or any suggestions?

 

You should not need a recovery tool, because it sounds as though your data is still there - it's just not visible. Did you select the "View Hidden Files/Folders" option I recommended? I also don't recommend using Advanced System Care for your anti-virus. It's up to your preference, of course, though I would suggest using a different anti-virus program.

 

Here is the biggest problem he programs it and yet he can't help you remove the virus? What kinda friend is that? I think the friend of yours is the one that should fix the problem as the friend is the one that made the virus made laptop should have the knowledge of the virus data to kill the virus. I think that friend isn't really a friend in my playbook of friends. I think your friend is more damaged goods then a friend is to put a virus on your external HDD.

 

I don't think that's quite what OP meant. But if that is the case, reaversedge, then I should hope your friend can help you (perhaps I misunderstood).

 

If all else fails, Download and create a live CD or USB stick for ubuntu Download Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu the boot from the Ubuntu media. plug in the USB drive once Ubuntu loads into memory (do not install Ubuntu -see try before.... in the link). click on the button that looks like a folder to access the files. It will look very similar to this

 

Thats the sad part guys, this friend of mine is old, he just asked me to copy some files on his pc, well clearly he's not aware of what his pc has a virus or not, so i have no choice, its my mistake on my end, but i want to rectify this as i can, can you guys recommend me a good antivirus? Bdw i have MS silverlight also

 

Did you try what Prostar suggested? Also, Silverlight is not an AV, Security Essentials is Microsoft's Antivirus. Josea's suggestion of Linux should also work.

 

ok just did Prostar's advice, it popped up files that i dont even know that existed, something like .DAT file, but it didn't showed my current files anyway i did the hidden folder thing several times but to no avail my folders are still not shown

 

Then you can try Josea's suggestion, use a ubuntu flash drive and check if you can see the files. You can use unetbootin to make said flash drive.

 

If the friend can't help or can't come to realize their problem you need to remove the HDD and make it a external USB drive and use another well secured computer with virus detection updated and scan that ext USB HDD now to see what and where the virus is hiding. That way being ext HDD and not main HDD it won't allow the virus to do whatever it wants to do and at least that way you can find and detect what kind and how to get rid of it. That at this point in time is your only real solution to removing the virus before rebooting the HDD again to working condition.

 

reaversedge: You can use the Linux Live CD JOSEA mentioned, or you can create a copy of Hiren's Boot CD and use Mini Windows XP. This will allow you to have access to an operating system, without booting into your corrupted Windows OS + account.

You can also try this:

1. Boot Windows normally.
2. Open a command prompt (click Start orb, and in the search field, type: cmd, and then press enter).
3. In the black command prompt window, type: net user Administrator /active:yes
4. Log out of your Windows account (Start > Log off).
5. Now log into the Administrator account

Go to your hard drive from within Computer and see if you can find your data within the Users folder. If not, reboot into Safe Mode and enter the Administrator account again to see if it shows up there.