Barbara H. Peterson
There it was. My worst nightmare come true. Well, not THE worst, but close to it. Famine? Nah, I could go a few days without eating and survive. Drought? I can go a day without water. But something more sinister, more insidious was lurking. Little did I know it, but just around the corner, lying in wait like a many headed beast, was the virus that ate Farm Wars. The computer, that is…
It started out just like any other day. Birds were singing, horses whinnying, children dancing, you get the picture. A nice day. I was happy that day…. until IT happened. The unthinkable. The many headed beast lying in wait inside my computer struck! I was in shock. I had been so very careful, or so I thought. Antivirus? Check! Malwarebytes? Check! Spyware cleaner? Check and double check! Blind-sided like a rookie in his first gunfight. There I was – down for the count. Taken out in less time than it takes to scratch and sniff. My computer was a paperweight, and I couldn’t feel my feet.
Lead feet notwithstanding, I jumped to attention and tried desperately to get something to work, then bucked up, girded my loins, and hit the reset button, frantically hitting the F8 key to try and get to what is loosely described as “safe mode,” but should more accurately be portrayed as the filthy, cowardly, Benedict Arnold of computer programs that gave in at the last stand and threw me overboard to wrestle with the sharks. An act worthy of the plank. This virus ate through my computer while in “safe mode.” Enough said about that.
The good news? We’ve got a new computer with a new operating system, upgraded programs, and all sorts of space. Just as I reached my lowest and thought things could not get any worse, friends came through and built us a screaming system. And this system is better than I could have imagined. From rags to riches almost overnight…. well, actually… 13 days, 2 hours, 56 minutes and 37 seconds. But I wasn’t counting. Really… No, really….
© 2012 Barbara H. Peterson
Tags: Barbara H. Peterson, Farm Wars, farmwars, Satire
P.S. Anything is recoverable on a hard-drive!! It all depends on how long it was deleted or infected. If information has been accidentally deleted, it needs to be recovered as soon as possible because windows stores the deleted information in the “free space.” Any time you delete more files, small portions of your “wanted” deleted files may get erased if they occupy the same free space. Time is of the essence to save your critical info. If the computer is no longer running (aka, a “paper weight”), that is good for recovering data because it is not being overwritten.
I typically remove the hard-drive, plug it into a special USB adapter, and access the contents from another computer through the USB. Windows will recognize it as an external hard-drive. If not, there are still ways to recover it, but they are trickier.
If you “Log On” to your computer via a password, this method will not allow you access to “encrypted” areas such as “My Documents” unfortunately. The workaround there is to plug your “newly created” USB external hard-drive into a MAC. Bingo, full access, including encrypted areas!!! HA! Windoze snoozed on that one! ;-)
Barb,
Just some hints:
1) Never give out details about what systems or software you are running on the internet.
2) Look under “Administrative Tools” (windoze only) for “Services”.
3) Disable “Remote Access…”, “Routing and Remote Access”, “Remote Registry”, “NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing”, “Messenger” (not related to Windows Messenger), and “Universal Plug and Play Device Host” services -these allow someone the potential to remotely control your computer or cause other issues. I know, you would think this would be off by default, but nope!
4) Leave “Remote Procedure Call”‘s (RPC) alone as it is a necessary component for windows.
5) Make sure your firewall is on and check what it is allowing in. It’s better to get a free one, like “Zone Alarm” or “Fort Knox”. These prevent intruders, big time!
6) A good anti-virus & firewall, even free ones, should prevent any viruses from being loaded into memory, thereby allowing themselves to re-install repeatedly. They also monitor changes in software, not allowing a virus to get started.
7) I operate full-time under Admin, so no worries.
Viruses can come from anywhere, especially if you have a web site. Hope this helps.
Stay Alert, Stay Alive!
PEACE
After the post it hit me to ask. Do you think their tom-foolery with the weather has caused the jet stream to move to the Eastern European border?
We’ve had a nice warm winter and our water table is full. I’ve been thinking about just seeding wild land too. They keep hollering about a upcoming food crisis. We have tons of wetlands here that would do great with leaks and other plants. It will beat choking out the farmland when there are people to feed. Just let them go wild until the people need food.
The question now is where did it come from and who sent it. I would start with zio-criminals working as partners in race-based crime with msm dinosaurs against all of the Good People of the world. Liars! Liars! Mikes on fires!!
Hey there – buy a Mac.. Seriously..
Hello Barb~
I wondered why I hadn’t gotten emails from you. I too, have had major computer problems that made it difficult for me to do my work as well. After nearly a month, my desk top at home, my lap top and my office computer are hopefully virus free. I have no idea the details and instructions of which your audience advised you to do. My focus and profession is helping people reverse health issues without unnecessary drugs and surgery. Computers are like another issue of which I know little. It would be great to be able to pour some MMS on the system to clear the bugs and viruses that inflict our computer systems and slow us down. Luckily, I have more successes with reversing problems in the hard drives of humans. Glad you’re back!
I knew it! Glad your back in the fight again!
Did you hear about the VT Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act that was introduced Feb. 1 2012 by Rep Kate Webb of Shelburne VT yet?
Judicial Watch came out with the 2012 election integrity Project today too!
Last Tuesday I became a delegate for Ron Paul at our County Convention. He got alot more delegates than the presstitutes are saying. I share my results with there campaign in MN. For as loped sided for Santorum as the vote was it was equally loped sided for Paul for delegates. Most of Santorums support left before nominating delegates! I think they just wanted to see that Mitt and Newt lost! lol
Glad your back Barb
I have been missing you and looking all over for farm wars this week. I was completely unaware of your viral plight. I’m sincerely glad you are back. On notes other than computer problems, does everybody know the USDA has reassigned the growing zones charts. This part of montana used to get arctic weather but this winter has been 2 growing zones warmer! I understand the magnetic poles are shifting and magnetic north has shifted 20 degrees north west into siberia! So, are we starting a seed liberary? Soon I’ll be growing bananas and coffee!
Oh no! I hope she is doing better now. Will get in touch.
I recommend you get Hiren’s boot cd and keep it on hand. I have had the virus. I had to return the hard drives to factory original shape and reload. You can save that paper weight for a back up. Hiren’s brings your computer up in dos.
Barb,
As soon as I get my vet. paid off I will make a respectable contribution. I almost lost Molly, and did not have vet medical insurance on her, which I always thought was ridicules until now. I’m interested in more details of your new setup by email if you have time. Great to have you running again!
OldDog
I don’t know how it happened, amicus. One minute I was responding to an email and then all of a sudden, there it was – System Check – taking over the screen and controls. I didn’t click a link, and was in the middle of typing when it hit.
I will check out this info, Anglo, thanks! My friend partitioned my hard drive and put Acronis on my system. This is supposed to mirror my hard drive and back everything up on the partition so that if I get hit again, I can be back up in no time. He runs Linux too, and I definitely want to check on that. I am staying away from Google too and using IxQuick or StartPage.
Comment for Lisa (7:28 am). Sorry Lisa, that isn’t correct. A virus infects the Operating Systems of (mainly) computers running MS-Windows; it does not simply infect “User Accounts”. We wish that could be so!
But, what you have written still has great merit if we can just tinker with your emphasis. Most computer users make the mistake of logging-on, every day, to their Administrative Account. In other words, they have on their computers only 2 accounts, both of which are the MS-Windows defaults: the Administrative Account (which you are forced to create when you start using your PC), and the Guest Account.
This means (as I think you are implying Lisa) that any rogue file (or a hacker connecting through your IP connection) could immediately enjoy full “administrative rights” to most people’s whole computer.
The answer is quite simple. Immediately after you have initially set up your computer, you really should create another ‘normal’ User Account, and set it up (if you are using MS-Windows) with “Power User” rights (i.e., not full Admin Rights). This will then be the safer log-on identity to use for your day-to-day use (i.e., running your installed applications).
In which case, in order to tweak any setting on your computer in the future, you would first have to log out of your Power User account, and then log back in via the ‘default’ Administrative Account. Inconvenient yes, but far-far safer in the long run.
But, as I commented earlier. An even safer option is to dispose of MS-Windows completely by installing Linux and running your computer as a “free-person with a soul”, and not merely a Corporate Slave running your computer with the permission (licence) of Bill Gates and Co.
Make sure you add another user to the new system, because when you can’t log in to your administrative account, you CAN log into the “other user”, and therefore bypass certain infestations. Glad to see you made it back, we need Barb and Farm Wars!
Hi Barb, sorry to hear you got bugged.
any idea what?
i did hear a warning a new virus is hitting via emails and it isnt needing a click a link open a file to do damage.
Really glad youre back and going strong;-)
Great news that you are backup. :) with sense of homour exercised.
It’s hilarious how insecure our machines are, open 24hrs a day with back doors a plenty just waiting for anyone that can use them to walk in.
Did you get the IP it came from or it was sending to?.
get peerblock and add it to the list.
Well done Barbara. Your calm determination and clear thinking got you through. But please consider shifting out of MS-Windows (either entirely, or by making a separate partition) in order to run your PC on a Linux O/S instead. There are several Distributions available now. And they are all free and all solid. You can even run some of the smaller (more compact) “Distros” of Linux direct from a CD. Now isn’t that cool! Just type “Linux Distros” into your search engine (preferably not Google, which we should all boycott) and see what comes up. If you choose to run both O/S (Corporate vs. Open Source) using separate partitions, you can then make your choice every time you boot your machine. It is very easy.