All games and most applications deleted

[MaximusX800]

I wasn't sure exactly where to post this but here we go...

Very Very strange issue I've never seen before

Hello all, I have ran into a very weird problem that I have never experienced or heard of. First off system specs.

OS --------------- Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU ------------- Intel i7 950 Bloomfield @ 4.01Ghz
Power Supply - Corsair 1200W Gold Series
GPU ------------- 2x EVGA 580 GTX SC
Motherboard -- EVGA SLI Classified 3
RAM ------------- 12GB Corsair Dominator
HDD ------------- Two seperate RAID 0 arrays:
2x Western Digital 300GB HLHF
2x Western Digital 600GB HLHX
Western Digital 250GB, non raid only used for page file

Alright so my arrays are partitioned in this fashion, Array 1=2x Western Digital 600GB HLHX, C: 20GB for Windows DIR only, X: 1.07 TB for Game DIRs. Array 2=2x Western Digital 300GB HLHF, T: 100GB for Windows User Profiles, Program Files DIR, AppData DIR, Common Files DIR, and Application DIRs, O: 458GB for downloads and temp files.

I built this PC at the end of 2010 and none of my hardware is problematic currently. I do not have an active anti-virus at all times, normally I will install avast to run a scan and then remove it every so often and I also use malwarebytes. After a few hours of normal usage one day I left my computer on and went to a family memebers house to visit for a few and then when I returned I had uninstalled the GameStop app, in which I used to redeem a steam game key from, because I didn't need it on my pc. After the uninstall I browsed Computer to find that my X: driver had no disk usage. Browsed the DIRs and all the games that where installed, the DIRs where there but all the files were deleted. Also on my T: drive most, not all, of my App DIRs had the bulk of the files missing from the DIR, not all files. Repaired my malwarebytes install ran a scan, no issues. Reinstalled avast, ran a through scan, no issues. The only thing that comes to my mind is that my raid 0 freaked out, but in my understanding, in a raid 0 failure no data is not recoverable. My windows install is fine, re-ran installers for most apps to repair installs, registries where still in tact. I really have no idea what happened or what could of caused this to happen. I have been using this customized windows install for about 8 months now. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[soundguruman]

When you install "free" security from the internet, expect problems.
Despite all the "rave" reviews of "free" security posted here on Tom's Hardware...
The people who have the most problems are the ones installing this "free" software.
In fact, almost "all" computers that I have restored after being infected had Avast and Mal-ware Bites installed, which did pretty much nothing to protect it.
I recently ran 2 scans on a very infected laptop.
Malware bites detected 0 problems. Panda Internet security detected like, 68 problems. Well, despite MB detecting "0" problems, the computer was thoroughly infected.

And so with your choice of security, it's not unlikely that your system was attacked -- and had no defense at all.

Deliberately excluding the antivirus from your system, you are just asking to be attacked. You invited it.

And so, if you like to keep running, install a professional, all in one, antivirus. NOT mismatched security programs.
AND avoid "free" downloads of games and system utilities. This includes: cleaners, sweepers, "fix it" tools, etc...

Google has already warned that more than 80% of free downloads for security are FAKE. It's a lot more than 80%, I can assure you.

Your best course of action now is to save your personal files, wipe the entire drive, and start from scratch. There is no "fix it" utility that makes up for "no security at all."

 

[unksol]

While you should absolutely have antivirus running and it's pretty crazy to run without one, never mind randomly installing/uninstalling for scans (why would you do that? ). Although its unlikely that's what caused it based on what you were doing. Maybe the uninstaller got confused

Anyway, did you at least run a recovery program on the drive? As long as you don't write to it the files should still be intact. Recuva and testdisk are free and work despite the above rant, and easeus has a free trial.


There is nothing wrong with using avast or malwarebytes. They are both very good. As is Microsoft security essentials. No one needs a paid antivirus on a personal computer, and a lot of the big names consistently perform worse than all three of those.

Malwarebytes free is not designed to stop an infection anyway, its there to remove it after and most users don't have the common sense to update it. If your restoring a computer that has it installed all that means is the person may have tried to fix it themselves and had no clue what they were doing. There is no virus that can't be removed with free programs if you know what you're doing.

The 80% fake antivirus programs are just that windows 7 antivirus 2012 crap and its like that are everywhere and do silent/click on me installs anyway. The fakes are always obvious.

 

[Smeg45]

When you install "free" security from the internet, expect problems.
Despite all the "rave" reviews of "free" security posted here on Tom's Hardware...
The people who have the most problems are the ones installing this "free" software.
In fact, almost "all" computers that I have restored after being infected had Avast and Mal-ware Bites installed, which did pretty much nothing to protect it.
I recently ran 2 scans on a very infected laptop.
Malware bites detected 0 problems. Panda Internet security detected like, 68 problems. Well, despite MB detecting "0" problems, the computer was thoroughly infected.

And so with your choice of security, it's not unlikely that your system was attacked -- and had no defense at all.

Deliberately excluding the antivirus from your system, you are just asking to be attacked. You invited it.

And so, if you like to keep running, install a professional, all in one, antivirus. NOT mismatched security programs.
AND avoid "free" downloads of games and system utilities. This includes: cleaners, sweepers, "fix it" tools, etc...

Google has already warned that more than 80% of free downloads for security are FAKE. It's a lot more than 80%, I can assure you.

Your best course of action now is to save your personal files, wipe the entire drive, and start from scratch. There is no "fix it" utility that makes up for "no security at all."

Say what? The engine in Avast free is the same as the paid version and they are still in business after a few decades. You are lost. Don't blame the antivirus app in place of your lack of knowledge.

 

[soundguruman]

There is plenty wrong. People post reports of losing data and crashing with this free software installed. This is just another report out of many many many reports.
It's REALLY bad advice to recommend this free software, cause for one thing...
It don't do squat to protect the computer.

Do you think by now that many people DON'T realize this? We do. Even our computer science college professors are warning people not to use this free software. It's a joke.

The people who are using real antivirus are the people who don't have problems. This free stuff is not recommended.

So no matter how "popular" this junk software is, and no matter how much you love it, it's just about worthless.

 

[Smeg45]

There is plenty wrong. People post reports of losing data and crashing with this free software installed. This is just another report out of many many many reports.
It's REALLY bad advice to recommend this free software, cause for one thing...
It don't do squat to protect the computer.

Do you think by now that many people DON'T realize this? We do. Even our computer science college professors are warning people not to use this free software. It's a joke.

The people who are using real antivirus are the people who don't have problems. This free stuff is not recommended.

So no matter how "popular" this junk software is, and no matter how much you love it, it's just about worthless.

Rubbish. Go look at the million reviews for Avast and AVG and Avira. They are solid. Do you work for Symantec?

 

[Hawkeye22]

There is plenty wrong. People post reports of losing data and crashing with this free software installed. This is just another report out of many many many reports.
It's REALLY bad advice to recommend this free software, cause for one thing...
It don't do squat to protect the computer.

Do you think by now that many people DON'T realize this? We do. Even our computer science college professors are warning people not to use this free software. It's a joke.

The people who are using real antivirus are the people who don't have problems. This free stuff is not recommended.

So no matter how "popular" this junk software is, and no matter how much you love it, it's just about worthless.

I think they all miss certain malware at some point. In the past 5 years, I've had one malware get past avast free. I've had 5 get past norton a/v paid version. The main difference is the experience of the user to recognize malware when it pops up. It's also a big help to have all users have "user" accounts instead of admin accounts to prevent the spread of the infection.

 

[MidnightDistort]

Besides not having money to pay for a paid antivirus software i have had people come to me for PC help and they spend $50-60 for new antivirus software only to run a scan from a free virus scanner like BitDefender or AVG to find viruses that their PAID virus scanner didn't pick up. Not to mention when i did have a paid version of BitDefender sometimes it didn't work right, services stop responding and the like and i decided it's not worth paying for a service that doesn't work. Besides the fact when clicking on links on emails or on sites you don't know could invite viruses that even a paid antivirus may or may not protect you with.

 

[RussK1]

"FREE" AV is "FREE" for a reason.

When you bank, shop, store valuable data, etc... going cheap on protection is not an option.

If someone cannot afford THESE prices they have bigger issues than their computer.

Kaspersky, NOD32, Bitdefender and Vipre are the only one's I'd consider.

 

[MidnightDistort]

I'm not saying that the free virus software is any better but like with most valuable stuff you wanna use common sense about it. Antivirus software is kinda like an alarm system that sounds when someone is trying to break into your car. Instead of buying an expensive security system don't leave anything in plain view that someone wants to steal.

Again it's all about how you use the internet. Clicking on links without knowing whether they are safe usually will invite viruses and downloading programs that haven't been tested or are trusted could pose a threat. And it won't matter if you have the best protection on your computer, your bank & anything that you purchase with a credit card or debit account/bank account records it. You can wipe out all that on your computer but it won't matter because that information is also on the site that you went to purchase from. Your virus scanner won't protect you there, neither the security updates on your computer. It only protects your computer.

Like i said it increases your chances of prevention but the best prevention is to watch what your doing and keep any valuable data off your computer.

 

[RussK1]

@Op

Was the GameStop app installed to the root directory.

Perhaps use can use system restore?

 

[MaximusX800]

@Op

Was the GameStop app installed to the root directory.

Perhaps use can use system restore?

The GameStop app was installed on the T: drive where all my other apps are were installed, and its asked where I would like to install games for itself and I told it in the same DIR as itself but told it to ask for a DIR on where I want them installed anyway. The only thing that kinda makes any sense is that sense I had two games from the gamestop app installed, but installed via steam and origin, that when I uninstalled the Gamestop app it decided to remove those and everything else with it, which doesn't make sense

Thank you all for the comments on my topic. In short I don't agree with the fact that some feel that Avast, because its free, isn't better than paid software. I am an IT professional and I've had to use Avast over our paid AV to remove a virus on our network once. But definitions between different AV software is different in many ways. Hope someone else can put more incite on this.

 

[CDdude55]

"FREE" AV is "FREE" for a reason.

When you bank, shop, store valuable data, etc... going cheap on protection is not an option.

If someone cannot afford THESE prices they have bigger issues than their computer.

Kaspersky, NOD32, Bitdefender and Vipre are the only one's I'd consider.

Would only ever pay for virus protection within a corporate envoironment or if my home data was essential (which it's not, losing everything on my system would have no affect on me financially or personally) and if i needed the extra feature sets.

Malware detection rate tends to be similar whether paid for or not, generally paid versions grant the user more tools which generally are not important for the user that just whats their file system scanned.

 

[RussK1]

Would only ever pay for virus protection within a corporate envoironment or if my home data was essential (which it's not, losing everything on my system would have no affect on me financially or personally) and if i needed the extra feature sets.

Malware detection rate tends to be similar whether paid for or not, generally paid versions grant the user more tools which generally are not important for the user that just whats their file system scanned.

You would think twice if your credit card or bank info were to get stolen by some keylogger. To each his own...