i must confess...

[jimi_81]

i'm an idiot.

this morning i was over at neowin.net reading a post about an msn issue. there was a link, and i followed it. some site popped up and i saw a link to a screenshot of some program that supposidly allows someone to hack msn accounts.. by what means i have no idea. so i downloaded this program.
2 exe files. commander.exe and controller.exe i believe...
before running anything i did a quick virus scan with avg. because lets face it... i was suspicious. nothing came up, so i ran commander.exe.

within seconds, all my desktop icons vanished.
the windows file protection window popped up telling me to insert my windows xp cd to restore files that had been damaged. ok so now i was scared. i didnt have my winxp cd around. so i shutdown. rebooted and got an error on booting... hal.dll was missing, please reinstall. not im $hiting myself.

i insert my ghost recovery cd...tried to rescue my documents, email and other things i would usually grab during a backup... and i copied the folders over to my external hdd. I noticed something wierd...none of the folders had files in them. my documents with exception to a few temp files was empty. my flashfxp folder and serv-u folders were also empty except for files that run with my system all the time.. ieflash.dll and the tray monitor.

i suppose whatever this file was literally deleted everything it could off of my C drive.

this has got to be the most ironic thing ever. im an advocate of ..smart computing. i never open questionable files, i have a firewall, antivirus, spyware stuff... for whatever reason.. maybe i was still a little drunk from the night before, i was feeling awfully mischievious this morning.

thank god for ghost. i reimaged and was back up in 5 minutes... only hassle being i lost all my new emails, contacts and some documents.

to conclude... dont let this happen to you! i now store outlook email on a separate drive...

 

[Grandmaster]

Haha, glad everything worked out okay in the end. Always avoid dodgy bull**** like that in the future

 

[Tittles]

:laugh:

 

[TKC]

hahahahahahaha, too funny.

 

[jimi_81]

haha
thanks man

this almost makes it to the top of the list of my biggest bonehead moments.
my biggest being....running an unattended winxp install using some freeware app i found. i didnt know it would MERGE my partitions. i walked away to the fridge to get a drink...when i came back i saw the setup formating my entire drive so in a fit of panic and brainfarts i dove to hit the power button.

ya, the drive wasnt readable after that.
thank god western digital took it back and replaced no questions asked.

 

[LordOfLA]

IMAP. You can sue someone if your mail goes missing since it stored on a remote mailserver

 

[Admiral Michael]

Makes me want to be even more cautious!

 

[ming]

You should use at least two patitions on any machine. One for the OS and the other for storing personal data such as emails and other documents.

 

[jimi_81]

yes thats what ive been doing for a long time with mp3s...
but not email or documents.
i have taken that precaution now...everything important is stored on my D.



i was thinking this would open the floor to some mishaps anyone at osnn has experienced...funny or not.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Dude you need to be kicked

*bend over* /me inserts boot

 

[LocKStocK]

I'm not one to open unusual files, but when is was on IRC, some random sent me
a so-called "game". I opened it and ran the exe. only to find it had disabled all security on my PC (norton, spyware, etc...).
I knew it was a trojan of some kind. Luckily, a simple system restore fixed it.

Glad you fixed everything without much hassle Jimi, usually I format if a boot error occurs!

 

[jimi_81]

Let this thread be a thread dedicated to my stupidity.

About a year ago I went out and bought a new computer... its fast, but loud as hell. I cheaped out on the case, and the power supply... so what could I expect.

Yesterday my Fanless powersupply, and fanless cpu sonic tower heatsink came in... so I was thinking all my problems would be solved.

The power supply went in thanks to some tinsnips. The chip heatsink took me 3 hours to put in. it was the biggest pain in the ass to do. I had to take my board out to do it.. so that meant I had to put the board back in. When I did that I heard a huge crack, but the board survived... i powered up, and through my speakers i hear something like...'system failure... cpu failure'. I dont have the patience to take the heatsink off and see whats up, so Im just going to drop it off at the local repair shop. its a P4C800 Deluxe socket 478 i believe.

the best part... the computer is still noisy! its the hdds that make the majority of the noise... and because my case is garbage....

so Im thinking I blew the chip...

besides me being a dumbass... any thoughts?
as a side note, there was a chunk of thermal paste that i grabbed at with my fingers..meaning i touched the chip. any thoughts on the side note?

 

[mlakrid]

Let this thread be a thread dedicated to my stupidity.

About a year ago I went out and bought a new computer... its fast, but loud as hell. I cheaped out on the case, and the power supply... so what could I expect.

Yesterday my Fanless powersupply, and fanless cpu sonic tower heatsink came in... so I was thinking all my problems would be solved.

The power supply went in thanks to some tinsnips. The chip heatsink took me 3 hours to put in. it was the biggest pain in the ass to do. I had to take my board out to do it.. so that meant I had to put the board back in. When I did that I heard a huge crack, but the board survived... i powered up, and through my speakers i hear something like...'system failure... cpu failure'. I dont have the patience to take the heatsink off and see whats up, so Im just going to drop it off at the local repair shop. its a P4C800 Deluxe socket 478 i believe.

the best part... the computer is still noisy! its the hdds that make the majority of the noise... and because my case is garbage....

so Im thinking I blew the chip...

besides me being a dumbass... any thoughts?
as a side note, there was a chunk of thermal paste that i grabbed at with my fingers..meaning i touched the chip. any thoughts on the side note?

It shouldnt be a big deal, just clean off the thermal paste with isopropyl alcohol, repaste it, and reseat the heatsink...
EDIT: I didnt realize you said you didnt take it off.... how exactly did you get thermal paste on your fingers if you didnt take the heatsink off??



anyway, you should look at it yourself it will cost anywhere from 20-40 US$ for a tech shop to even look at it...
unless you have a service agreement...

 

[celticfan11]

IMAP. You can sue someone if your mail goes missing since it stored on a remote mailserver

but if its pop3 and you have outlook or such its downloaded to your pc.

 

[Mastershakes]

IMAP. You can sue someone if your mail goes missing since it stored on a remote mailserver

hahha. I'd like to see it. good morning laugh. hahaha Thought you were in UK, when did you move to USA? LOL

Alright, this is what you likely had:

http://www.spywareremove.com/removecontrollerexe.html

Executor is a Trojan designed to destroy your computer, or at least all of your data. Your computer's security and stability may be decreased as Executor deletes system files and records every keystroke you make. Other symptoms of Executor may include losing your Internet connection, disabled "Ctrl+Alt+Del" commands, loss of control of your mouse, your monitor's colors changing, and the display of messages, such as "Hello b*tch!!!" "Do you ready to f*ck your system????!!!" "ShutUp B*tch!!!!!" etc.

I downloaded them to test them. Norton Corporate identified and removed them. Other than that, spendid little executable, very small.


Don't hit yourself over the head - and thank Norton.

 

[mlakrid]

I agree with master... Live, Learn, move on, just dont do that again, or Ill have to agree with tittles

HEHE :laugh:

 

[kcnychief]

you could use GMAIL, everything is saved online for you

 

[celticfan11]

yes gmail will save your emails good call

 

[kcnychief]

I'd like to see gmail incorporate a calendar function, with reminders. If that was the case, it would be the perfect mail client. But, that's an off-topic rant...

 

[Psyborg]

as for the outlook mail issue, in advanced account options, you could do as suggested in my attached pic and leave a copy of messages on the server, until you delete them from your local deleted items folder, and you could set up a schedule to archive your stuff on a regular basis? :nervous:

as for the most stupid thing i've ever done:

one day, years back, i got a call from a friend that his system had been fried by a lightning storm and was there anything i could do with it? so i went out, took a quick look, and sure enough- no power, at all...
so i told him as it was an old enough system he mite be better off just to claim off his home insurance and buy a new one. so we needed a qualified tech repair report for the insurance company, and as luck would have it, he also kept the original purchase receipt (now, i figured, we could claim for the original purchase price of the pc and buy a spanky new one, not just settle for a reduced estimated cost).
so a quick trip down to the tech store, and we left in the chassis for him to look at. so we went for a browse around the shop thinking that it wouldnt take him long to write out the report and we could be on our way.
about half an hour later we called back down to collect the report, and there was the computer, to both our amazement, running perfectly!
the tech explained, as non-condescendingly as he could i suppose, lol, that all that had happened was the lightning had blown only the MODEM, and not the motherboard, as we had both suspected!
one new modem in a different pci slot later (the pci slot had also been damaged) and the computer was working away...

i was only raging we didnt get to buy a spanky new pc, as he decided not to follow through with the insurance claim :cry: