A client of mine came across this little animated spoof. Ironically as it may seem, this is essentially what may happen in the case of a virus intrusion. I know because I have witnessed many times, a computer that seems to be working just fine, but upon reboot, it doesn't see the drive at all. When I get this to my bench, sure enough, there is virtually nothing left. But how can this happen? Quite simple when there are so many "active scripts" running on the computer. This is why the need for such spyware programs as Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy (also available from my website HERE). As well, I have complimented my arsenal with Spyware guard and Spyware Blaster which do a good job in disallowing certain spyware elements to get on your computer period!
Another thing that should be done is a random "reboot" of your computer. Since I have pretty much educated my clientele to "leave the computer running so that it can do the scheduled maintenance in the middle of the night". This is all well and good, but then because the computer is running so well, there appears to be no need to reboot and this might be the case for weeks on end. However, then for whatever reason, possibly installation of a new program that tells you the computer must be rebooted, you go ahead and do the reboot only to find a black screen with a flashing cursor and nothing else. Now it gets on my bench and, although it is very rare, there is nothing left! Running such programs as Emergency Recover Pro can find the resulting files from a partition that has been dismounted. How does this happen? Active scripting from those script kings that we call Hammers!
This doesn't mean we should be turning off the computer after we are finished using it either, since that would eliminate the ongoing updates and maintenance schedule. The solution is quite simple. Be aware of what is going on on your computer. Know when the scheduled tasks are to take place and monitor their activity. For example, if you are running the spyware scans as your last command before heading off to bed, be aware of the day. If it is Thursday night, then realize that you will probably be getting a full virus scan at 3:30 or 4am in which case you should check your antivirus status in the morning making sure that the "full virus scan" was completed successfully. Any time you see something that appears not right, contact your tech. If you are reading this, then there is a good chance that would be me! In this case I would, if possible, connect via remote control and see if everything is doing what it is supposed to. It is called PREVENTIVELY MAINTENANCE... and if you are a client of mine, you will be happy to know that this is a FREE* service. Why the *? Because I do have caviates to this. Obviously if I find a problem I am going to attempt repair. This problem, depending on the severity of it, means I may be connecting to your computer for a few nights in order to get it done, however if the problem is quite serious and requires immediate attention, and the fact that I have been able to connect and fix the problem remotely, of course I am going to do this for you. This does mean however, that I am now turning all of my attention to this problem, and all computers on my work bench that I have been working on, will not get any attention. This means you are getting 1:1 work ratio and that requires payment.. how much? Well lets just say, since I have not had to remove your computer and I can get the job done, it will not work out to a 1:1 payment and in most cases is more like 3:1, of course this depends on the length of time it takes to fix. As with all of my existing clients, they know that I never would charge more then 7 hours to fix anything because quite simply, I can built and entirely new computer from scratch in that amount of time!
Best thing you can do is keep yourself educated on things like this.
