Hp pavilion g7 - restore

[carol clark]

Hello,
My laptop was hacked into on February 11 of this year, with a listening program installed and general chaos in operating functions. The restore function appears to be blocked. The hacker is evil - I have been receiving threatening photos and transfer to very dark websites which I would never look for. HELP. I might add I am not very computer literate. carol

 

[inzone]

At this point you may have to take drastic measures and delete your OS and reload it. If your laptop didn't come with a seperate disc for repair or the OS then it has that in a hidden partition on the hard drive.
However to be perfectly honest with you I woudn't trust anything on that computer at the present time and I would get in touch with customer service and request a cd be sent to you with the OS on it and reload the OS from the disc. Because the computer was hacked you don't know the extent of the damage. I would also get a better antivirus and internet security program and also get a router. All of these things will help in preventing a similar incident from happening again. You will also have to change all you passwords if you haven't done that already and when typing in passwords on a computer always use the virtual keyboard. It's in the start menu in accessories and the ease of use folder and it's called on screen keyboard , by useing it a keylogger will only record mouse clicks and not the actual letters. You will also need to keep better security habits and protect your information.

 

[dodger46]

Easiest initial fix is to try to restore to Factory Settings as inzone suggests, it only entails tapping F11 when you power on and follow the on-screen instructions. If that fails then the only recourse is to format the drive and start from fresh...you'll get plenty help with that from Tom's if needed...

 

[carol clark]

At this point you may have to take drastic measures and delete your OS and reload it. If your laptop didn't come with a seperate disc for repair or the OS then it has that in a hidden partition on the hard drive.
However to be perfectly honest with you I woudn't trust anything on that computer at the present time and I would get in touch with customer service and request a cd be sent to you with the OS on it and reload the OS from the disc. Because the computer was hacked you don't know the extent of the damage. I would also get a better antivirus and internet security program and also get a router. All of these things will help in preventing a similar incident from happening again. You will also have to change all you passwords if you haven't done that already and when typing in passwords on a computer always use the virtual keyboard. It's in the start menu in accessories and the ease of use folder and it's called on screen keyboard , by useing it a keylogger will only record mouse clicks and not the actual letters. You will also need to keep better security habits and protect your information.

Thanks for your most helpful response. I am following your advice. I'll post if it works. Here's hoping.