SAD :(

[Deleted User]

so so sad. i got a ransomware from out of nowhere. So first i was working on a school project when suddeny my entire pc did a refresh and my files magically changed their extension. So i rebooted in safe mode, and my local account was locked! my password was not working, no matter how many timed i tried. so i decided to wipe the entire drive using diskpart. and i converted it to mbr, and set boot mode to legacy, and re-installed windows 10, but i lost windows 7. I lost all of my school work and my mario head videos. So im now here, restarting everything. Thanks windows defender. Thanks ransomware, thanks microsoft.

EDIT: IT TURNS OUT THAT EVERYTHING WAS IN DROPBOX!!! (I DONT KNOW HOW I DID IT BUT ALL OF MY WORK IS SAVED!!!)

 

[Mythical]

so so sad. i got a ransomware from out of nowhere. So first i was working on a school project when suddeny my entire pc did a refresh and my files magically changed their extension. So i rebooted in safe mode, and my local account was locked! my password was not working, no matter how many timed i tried. so i decided to wipe the entire drive using diskpart. and i converted it to mbr, and set boot mode to legacy, and re-installed windows 10, but i lost windows 7. I lost all of my school work and my mario head videos. So im now here, restarting everything. Thanks windows defender. Thanks ransomware, thanks microsoft.

Next time you can take the drive out and plug it into a different computer to try and backup your files before you reset (using a sata cable)
sucks you got a virus though

 

[Uiaad]

Sorry I couldn't resist

 

[Reynardine]

so so sad. i got a ransomware from out of nowhere. So first i was working on a school project when suddeny my entire pc did a refresh and my files magically changed their extension. So i rebooted in safe mode, and my local account was locked! my password was not working, no matter how many timed i tried. so i decided to wipe the entire drive using diskpart. and i converted it to mbr, and set boot mode to legacy, and re-installed windows 10, but i lost windows 7. I lost all of my school work and my mario head videos. So im now here, restarting everything. Thanks windows defender. Thanks ransomware, thanks microsoft.

Aw man, sorry to hear that.

Try to keep a backup of your files on a different hard drive, cloud backup, USB drive or SD card next time. Nothing else you can do, really.

And be careful about clicking on and especially downloading and installing random things from the internet.

 

[Uiaad]

I'll just add my two cents. An antivirus is not meant to be used as a catch all, you are the one that's responsible for downloading stuff and making sure its from a trusted source. There will never be an antivirus that's going to catch everything that's just not the way it works, heuristics help but the amount of new viruses released every day is too much too keep up with.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

You was using windows 7?

I'm not one to tell anyone what they should do or not do but, windows 10 have more support and probably updated windows defender. So using that sooner may have changed? Plus just a suggestion, Quad9 could also help if you are using the internet a lot.

Did you have any other security? Avast? Malware bytes? Macafee? Norton?

 

[Lacius]

1. Windows Defender is the name of a spyware removal tool on Windows 7. It is not an antivirus program and should not be confused with the antivirus program called Windows Defender on Windows 10. Microsoft Security Essentials is the antivirus program provided by Microsoft for Windows 7. If you weren't running Microsoft Security Essentials or a third-party antivirus program, you were completely vulnerable.
2. Windows 7 does not have as good of security as Windows 10. If your computer supported the Windows 10 update, it should have been updated a long time ago.
3. Windows 7 loses all security support a few months from now, which is another reason why an upgrade to Windows 10 is/was necessary. If Windows 7 had automatic security updates disabled for any reason, it was especially vulnerable.
4. All important files should be regularly backed up. Cloud services like Google Drive or OneDrive are highly recommended. If privacy is a concern, there's nothing stopping you from manually encrypting files before they're uploaded to Google Drive or OneDrive.
5. I'm curious what it was you were doing that caused you to be infected in the first place. You might have been engaging in unnecessarily risky behavior online.

In summary, while what happened sucks and I feel for you, this was likely very much avoidable.

Edit: If I wasn't clear, Microsoft is probably not to blame here.

 

[Deleted User]

You was using windows 7?

I'm not one to tell anyone what they should do or not do but, windows 10 have more support and probably updated windows defender. So using that sooner may have changed? Plus just a suggestion, Quad9 could also help if you are using the internet a lot.

Did you have any other security? Avast? Malware bytes? Macafee? Norton?

I was actually using windows 7, 8.1 and 10. All with win defender and the malware bytes premium trial

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

1. Windows Defender is the name of a spyware removal tool on Windows 7. It is not an antivirus program and should not be confused with the antivirus program called Windows Defender on Windows 10. Microsoft Security Essentials is the antivirus program provided by Microsoft for Windows 7. If you weren't running Microsoft Security Essentials or a third-party antivirus program, you were completely vulnerable.
2. Windows 7 does not have as good of security as Windows 10. If your computer supported the Windows 10 update, it should have been updated a long time ago.
3. Windows 7 loses all security support a few months from now, which is another reason why an upgrade to Windows 10 is/was necessary. If Windows 7 had automatic security updates disabled for any reason, it was especially vulnerable.
4. All important files should be regularly backed up. Cloud services like Google Drive or OneDrive are highly recommended. If privacy is a concern, there's nothing stopping you from manually encrypting files before they're uploaded to Google Drive or OneDrive.
5. I'm curious what it was you were doing that caused you to be infected in the first place. You might have been engaging in unnecessarily risky behavior online.

In summary, while what happened sucks and I feel for you, this was likely very much avoidable.

Edit: If I wasn't clear, Microsoft is probably not to blame here.

1. I reinstalled win 7. How do I activate that security essentials thing? And does windows 8.1 use the same method as win 7 or win 10?
2. I only have installed windows 7 because I can make it look tremendously alike windows xp, which is my favorite windows. I also use it to play purble place (which is included in the Home Premium version of win 7) and the space cadet pinball (which for some reason runs at 60fps in windows 7 and in windows 8.1 or runs at 30fps or sometimes less). I can’t install win xp because I don’t have a disk/product key.
3. I already have windows 8.1 and 10. (I restored everything in 1 day). Windows 8.1 is what I use to work (because it sucks) and windows 10 is for my games.
4. Yeah. I can’t use the bit locker because I don’t have windows 7 ultimate/pro/enterprise or any of the win 7,8.1 or 10 versions which have a bitlocker included. Is there a third party bitlocker which I can use?
5. It was probably because I didn’t have that windows 7 security essentials thing turned on. I think I downloaded something. Because I first noticed the virus in windows 7. The virus changed all of the files to .meds and locked me from logging in to windows 10. (It didn’t even displayed the list of the os into which to boot).

Thanks for the tips thou.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Try using quad9. I haven't gotten anything bad since i been using windows 10 and quad9.

 

[Lacius]

1. I reinstalled win 7. How do I activate that security essentials thing?

Download it here and install it. However, it is highly recommended that you ditch Windows 7 in favor of Windows 10. As I mentioned before, it will stop receiving security updates in a few short months.

And does windows 8.1 use the same method as win 7 or win 10?

Windows Defender is an antivirus program on Windows 8.1. However, updating to Windows 10 is recommended. The security of Windows 10 is better, and Windows 8.1 will lose security support in early 2023.

2. I only have installed windows 7 because I can make it look tremendously alike windows xp, which is my favorite windows.

Respectfully, this by itself is not a particularly compelling reason to use Windows 7, particularly after it loses support in early 2020.

I also use it to play purble place (which is included in the Home Premium version of win 7) and the space cadet pinball (which for some reason runs at 60fps in windows 7 and in windows 8.1 or runs at 30fps or sometimes less).

If there are must-have games on Windows 7 that you can't play on Windows 10, then I would recommend dual-booting into Windows 7 for those games, keeping the system offline when doing so. Alternatively, and probably more conveniently, you can boot Windows 7 in a sandboxed virtual machine environment for these games while running Windows 10.

I can’t install win xp because I don’t have a disk/product key.

1. I don't recommend using Windows XP. It's full of well-known security vulnerabilities and no longer receives security updates. A lot of modern software also doesn't work with it.
2. If one just had to install Windows XP, it can be pirated pretty easily.

3. I already have windows 8.1 and 10. (I restored everything in 1 day). Windows 8.1 is what I use to work (because it sucks)

I don't understand from this why you're using Windows 8.1.

4. Yeah. I can’t use the bit locker because I don’t have windows 7 ultimate/pro/enterprise or any of the win 7,8.1 or 10 versions which have a bitlocker included. Is there a third party bitlocker which I can use?

1. If we are talking about encrypting files before putting them into Google Drive, for example, this can be accomplished using something as simple as 7-Zip, although there are other third-party programs that will also encrypt files.
2. BitLocker and other full volume encryption programs won't do anything to encrypt your files on Google's servers.
3. Pro editions of Windows are easy to unlock without paying for them.
4. There are third-party full volume encryption programs, yes, but they won't help you in this scenario.

 

[Deleted member 388531]

Windows 10 can be made to look like XP with some tweaking now, so no reason to use 7.

 

[tech3475]

The only true good ransomware protection is a backup which can't be touched directly and ideally has incremental backups.

Ideally for anything important you have at least 3 copies with 1 offsite, which saved you in this case.

I also wouldn't use windows defender alone, I treat it like I treat IE, a placeholder for better protection.

 

[Deleted User]

Windows 10 can be made to look like XP with some tweaking now, so no reason to use 7.

I already replaced windows 7 with Ubuntu 18.04

 

[Reynardine]

so so sad. i got a ransomware from out of nowhere. So first i was working on a school project when suddeny my entire pc did a refresh and my files magically changed their extension. So i rebooted in safe mode, and my local account was locked! my password was not working, no matter how many timed i tried. so i decided to wipe the entire drive using diskpart. and i converted it to mbr, and set boot mode to legacy, and re-installed windows 10, but i lost windows 7. I lost all of my school work and my mario head videos. So im now here, restarting everything. Thanks windows defender. Thanks ransomware, thanks microsoft.

EDIT: IT TURNS OUT THAT EVERYTHING WAS IN DROPBOX!!! (I DONT KNOW HOW I DID IT BUT ALL OF MY WORK IS SAVED!!!)

Happy end at last. Good to hear that you got your files back!