Harddrive vanished and freezes

Diss27 · Jan 6, 2015

Ok, so I think I've been naive! I downloaded a song from a website, and just as I clicked it I noticed it was an exe. file named the song title!
Nothing happened, or so I thought!

Now I cannot see 1 of my 2 drives (one of which is partitioned so looks as if there were 3 hds in My Computer)
Very occasionally the drive shows up, but when I try to access it my whole pc freezes indefinitely.
I have the same issue with running AVG (when the lost drive is there/showing I try to scan it!)

I really cannot afford to format the drive, I'm a musician and files are one of a kind etc. I cannot reproduce my music so I really hope this is salvageable.

Thank you in advance
Diss

OS: Windows XP
2 x HD (1 is partitioned)

Solandri · Jan 6, 2015

Turn the computer off immediately. Will add more info as an edit.

Edit: This sounds suspiciously like you got hit by crytolocker or some variant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

The drives disappearing and reapparing, and the computer freezing may be because the computer is busy encrypting all your files. It will then ask you to pay (usually $500) for a key to decrypt your files.

You will have to find someone with another PC. Remove your hard drives, install them in the other PC, and see if your data is still there and accessible. If it is, then make a backup ASAP. (A 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive costs $15. There is simply no excuse not to have one for weekly backups.)

If this is something like Crytolocker and the files are already encrypted, then I'm sorry, there's nothing you can do without thousands of years of supercomputer time. Turn the computer back on to let it finish encrypting, then pay the criminals to get your files back. Or if you want to do the moral thing, eat the data loss and refuse to pay them. Paying them just encourages more people to create this type of malware.

beakieman · Jan 8, 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28661463

Solandri :

Turn the computer off immediately. Will add more info as an edit.

Edit: This sounds suspiciously like you got hit by crytolocker or some variant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

The drives disappearing and reapparing, and the computer freezing may be because the computer is busy encrypting all your files. It will then ask you to pay (usually $500) for a key to decrypt your files.

You will have to find someone with another PC. Remove your hard drives, install them in the other PC, and see if your data is still there and accessible. If it is, then make a backup ASAP. (A 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive costs $15. There is simply no excuse not to have one for weekly backups.)

If this is something like Crytolocker and the files are already encrypted, then I'm sorry, there's nothing you can do without thousands of years of supercomputer time. Turn the computer back on to let it finish encrypting, then pay the criminals to get your files back. Or if you want to do the moral thing, eat the data loss and refuse to pay them. Paying them just encourages more people to create this type of malware.

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Harddrive vanished and freezes

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