NOT a virus, (who woulda thunk it) DIDN'T wipe my drive. Advice no longer needed!

[Jebaloo]

I stupidly clicked on a file in an email called 'v.zip' which ran a program or something which seemed to have made one of my hard drives nonfunctional. It may have been wiped, but I dont know. It just makes scary noises and won't mount.

Anyway. Silly me, my own fault. Thanks to time machine and super duper I have no data loss.

My question comes in two parts.

1: what are the chances of getting the HD to mount and to fix it using a virus program? ( I've already tried it in an external enclosure, and disk warrior doesn't see it either)

2: other than not being a fool and clicking on a zip' file in an unrecognized email, what can I do to avoid this happening again. Can I scan my emails for viruses? What software so you recommend?

Thanks.

 

[Mr.Noisy]

Was it a virus or just coincidence the HD happened to expire ? was it a new drive or had it been around a while? i would suggest trying tech tools but i think thats about as good as disk warrior.
Sounds like it's a done deal with the HD, but thank god time machine saved your stuff,
Just goes to show how backing up regularly is a good idea

as for opening the emails, ive got Junk set up on my mail app, anything from anyone not in my address book goes there, that way i know it's not of my request, not from my service provider and is sure to be spam/crap so i just delete it all, other than that ive go another mail account with yahoo just for signing up or ebay stuff, cuts down on crap in my main email account.

I like your site by the way, very nice

 

[Bobbi Flekman]

I stupidly clicked on a file in an email called 'v.zip' which ran a program or something which seemed to have made one of my hard drives nonfunctional. It may have been wiped, but I dont know. It just makes scary noises and won't mount.

What was the programs name? Might help in determining what it did.

Anyway. Silly me, my own fault. Thanks to time machine and super duper I have no data loss.

Wouldn't it be easier then to simply reformat and the disc and restore from Time Machine/SuperDuper?

1: what are the chances of getting the HD to mount and to fix it using a virus program? ( I've already tried it in an external enclosure, and disk warrior doesn't see it either)

Slim to none. From what I get the identification sectors are messed up, so you would have to go to work with Data Recovery programs, Disc Editors and the like... As I said, format/restore would be simpler.

2: other than not being a fool and clicking on a zip' file in an unrecognized email, what can I do to avoid this happening again. Can I scan my emails for viruses? What software so you recommend?

No clue about that for OS X. Was it sent by someone you know? Then contact him/her, yell at the person to find out what the $%$^%$! (s)he sent you. And be careful next time. If it was from an unknown, you should kick yourself harder as you shouldn't trust that anyway. No offense meant, simply being honest here

 

[Mr.Noisy]

Wouldn't it be easier then to simply reformat and the disc and restore from Time Machine/SuperDuper?

Would the OP be able to do this if the disc wont mount ?
if disk warrior/techtools cant help i'd have tought a new HD was called for, Lucky they ain't so expensive anymore

 

[AdeFowler]

You should really keep a copy of this file (v.zip) and send it to someone with the facilities to test it. There must be somewhere that will check this out for the good of all of us. Maybe Arn has a contact?

 

[Jebaloo]

thank you for the very helpful responses.

On iPhone so can't quote properly but will try to answer questions.

Yes, I didn't know the sender. It was very foolish of me to open the file, but I thought it was from a client.

I've deleted the e-mail, but the file will still b in my trash. Who could I send it to to alert people. I dont remember the name of the program that started up. Sorry.

Yes, HD is 1TB Samsung spinpoint about 3 weeks old. Could b coincidence, but I doubt it.

Hd won't show up, just makes scratchy noises.

Is there any scanner I can run ok my system to ensure that the virus/file isn't hiding somewhere?

 

[ewilson6]

I've been using Macintosh computers for 24 years and never got a virus or trojan or spyware installed on any of my macs.

As far as a zip file goes, when you click on it, it unzips on your desktop. So as for the unzipped file to begin startup, you have to click on it on your desktop.

This zipped file was 99% not the problem.

As far as checking your hard drive, you should have smart reporter installed on every mac you have. Smart reporter is a free program and will tell you when your hard drive is getting ready to crash, giving you ample time to backup everything.

You usually have at least a week to backup your entire volume before the hard drive goes out.

As far as a mac catching a virus, now you got me laughing.

http://images.apple.com/getamac/images/viruses_header20060428.gif

By the end of 2005, there were 114,000 known viruses for PCs. In March 2006 alone, 850 new threats were detected against Windows. Zero for Mac. While no computer connected to the Internet will ever be 100% immune from attack, Mac OS X has helped the Mac keep its clean bill of health with a superior UNIX foundation and security features that go above and beyond the norm for PCs. When you get a Mac, only your enthusiasm is contagious.


Connecting a PC to the Internet using factory settings is like leaving your front door wide open with your valuables out on the coffee table. A Mac, on the other hand, shuts and locks the door, hides the key, and stores your valuables in a safe with a combination known only to you. You have to buy, configure, and maintain such basic protection on a PC.

On a Windows PC, software (both good and evil) can change the system without your even knowing about it. In order for software to significantly modify Mac OS X, you have to type in your password. You’re the decider. You approve changes to your system.

People attempting to break into computers may disguise a malicious program as a picture, movie, or other seemingly harmless file. You might download such files from the web or get them via mail or chat. A PC just blindly downloads them without a peep. A Mac, however, will let you know that you may be getting a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The Mac web browser, Safari, can tell the difference between a file and a program, and alerts you whenever you’re downloading the latter.

A Mac gets much of this out-of-the-box protection from its open source UNIX heritage. The most critical components of Mac OS X are open for review by a worldwide community of security experts. Their input helps Apple continually make Mac OS X ever more secure. And it’s simple to update a Mac with the latest advances. By default, a Mac checks for updates weekly. For pure peace of mind, you can set a Mac to download security updates automatically. Apple digitally signs the updates, so you can be sure they come from a trusted source.

To get a sense of just how big the virus problem is, search for “virus” at both Apple and Microsoft. Compare the number of results. What’s more, the 100 most virulent attacks cause 99.9% of damage from malicious software. None of these attacks work on Mac OS X. Don’t you deserve such protection?


--Mac Lover

 

[Erwin-Br]

Please don't fool people into a false sense of security. Do you really think hackers aren't smart enough to write a virus for the Mac? We've seen people write software able to crack Blu-ray disks, jailbreak Iphones, etc, for crying out loud! What makes you think the Mac is safe? (Besides, there are examples of Mac viruses anyway)

The Mac user group simply isn't attractive enough at this point. It's not worth going through all this trouble for a relatively small userbase. We can only be glad to be in this position and hope it'll stay that way.

--Erwin

 

[pastrychef]

If the drive is making "scary noises" and not mounting, I would think it's a hardware issue.

Windows users and new Mac converts are too fast to assume anything that goes wrong is cuased by a virus.

 

[Jebaloo]

ok. I'll try to be more descriptive.

The email contained a file called v.zip. I double clicked on it, which then probably sent a file to my downloads folder. I thought that it might be a zip file with photos for a recent project, so I then probably ruble clicked whatever file it unzipped.

Yes I'm sure that this was all very foolish, but I've always been sure that apples are imune from these sorts of problems.

I remember a strange icon, like a joker or similar appearing in my dock. Obviously this alerted me so I quickly shut down and deleted all that I could.

I would thank all that are helping me out, but to the poster that went on about the whole no viruses on a mac thing, I would b very greatful if you could use your experience to help me out.

I'm only trying to solve a mistake I made, and possibly alert others to this file. V.zip.

Any answers to my previous questions would be much appreciated.

No need to tell me how silly I was, lesson learnt, enough said.

 

[speakerwizard]

did the file unzipped have an extention? if it was an app did it tell you you are starting it for the first time and check? did you give it your password, i cant imagine anything being able to reformat a hard drive or the like without an admin password.

 

[Neil321]

Please don't fool people into a false sense of security. Do you really think hackers aren't smart enough to write a virus for the Mac? We've seen people write software able to crack Blu-ray disks, jailbreak Iphones, etc, for crying out loud! What makes you think the Mac is safe? (Besides, there are examples of Mac viruses anyway)

The Mac user group simply isn't attractive enough at this point. It's not worth going through all this trouble for a relatively small userbase. We can only be glad to be in this position and hope it'll stay that way.

--Erwin

At present there are no known Mac viruses in the wild,so why bother with a av?.Im pretty sure if a virus was released into the wild news of it whould be all over the forums,websites etc like a rash

Also can you provide documented proof of these viruses ( recent ones that is )

Neil

 

[pastrychef]

ok. I'll try to be more descriptive.

The email contained a file called v.zip. I double clicked on it, which then probably sent a file to my downloads folder. I thought that it might be a zip file with photos for a recent project, so I then probably ruble clicked whatever file it unzipped.

Yes I'm sure that this was all very foolish, but I've always been sure that apples are imune from these sorts of problems.

I remember a strange icon, like a joker or similar appearing in my dock. Obviously this alerted me so I quickly shut down and deleted all that I could.

I would thank all that are helping me out, but to the poster that went on about the whole no viruses on a mac thing, I would b very greatful if you could use your experience to help me out.

I'm only trying to solve a mistake I made, and possibly alert others to this file. V.zip.

Any answers to my previous questions would be much appreciated.

No need to tell me how silly I was, lesson learnt, enough said.

Send it to me. I'll run it on my MacBook. I just got a new hard drive anyway.

 

[Neil321]

ok. I'll try to be more descriptive.

The email contained a file called v.zip. I double clicked on it, which then probably sent a file to my downloads folder. I thought that it might be a zip file with photos for a recent project, so I then probably ruble clicked whatever file it unzipped.

Yes I'm sure that this was all very foolish, but I've always been sure that apples are imune from these sorts of problems.

I remember a strange icon, like a joker or similar appearing in my dock. Obviously this alerted me so I quickly shut down and deleted all that I could.

I would thank all that are helping me out, but to the poster that went on about the whole no viruses on a mac thing, I would b very greatful if you could use your experience to help me out.

I'm only trying to solve a mistake I made, and possibly alert others to this file. V.zip.

Any answers to my previous questions would be much appreciated.

No need to tell me how silly I was, lesson learnt, enough said.

Sounds like a Trojan id recommend clamxav to stop this sorta thing in future & try some data recovery hardware/software or firm

 

[scotpole]

How valuable was your data?

If you had data that you needed on your hard drive, you might be able to contact a data recovery firm. If you had all your pictures from your life on your hard drive, it may be worth while trying to contact one. MacWorld and Mac|Life usually have ads for these services. A lot of times the header for the file has been deleted but the file remains. It is my belief that even if the drive is damaged these services can recover your data. The question is how much will they charge you and how much are you willing to pay to recover your data?

I lost data from a computer last year. What seemed to be happening before the wipe out was that Virus Barrier was trying to update its definitions. The problem was that I turn my airport off when I do not want to be connected to the internet. For some reason virus barrier would lock up my computer because it could not connect to the internet. My computer would not wake up and on several occasions I had to do a hard restart. When I would check the console logs it would seem to indicate that NetUpdate (the updater for Virus Barrier) kept trying to access the internet.

Finally nothing, nada, the computer would not start up. I had to do a complete reinstall of Tiger. The other things that were old and on this computer before the crash were Virtual PC and Windows as well as older Palm Pilot software, perhaps a lethal combination.

I do not know for sure what caused the wipeout, all I know is it did occur.

 

[Jebaloo]

If the drive is making "scary noises" and not mounting, I would think it's a hardware issue.

Windows users and new Mac converts are too fast to assume anything that goes wrong is cuased by a virus.

I'm a long time mac user.

I'm quite happy to accept that the odd program that ran, and the hard drive that failed immediately after are unrelated. I'm really just trying to get advice and help.

 

[cohibadad]

The Mac user group simply isn't attractive enough at this point. It's not worth going through all this trouble for a relatively small userbase. We can only be glad to be in this position and hope it'll stay that way.

--Erwin

silly statement of the day award granted.

 

[Magnus Reftel]

No need to tell me how silly I was, lesson learnt, enough said.

You were not silly.
The way you describe what happened, you only unzipped an archive. That does not cause any code to run, which means it cannot wipe your hard drive. Even if it could, your hard drive would not start making the kind of noises you describe. You would be able to re-format it and keep on using it.
As far as I can see, this seems to be a coincidense. But then again, if you can find the zip file somehow, it would be interesting to see what was in it, just to make sure.

 

[Jebaloo]

If the drive is making "scary noises" and not mounting, I would think it's a hardware issue.

Windows users and new Mac converts are too fast to assume anything that goes wrong is cuased by a virus.

did the file unzipped have an extention? if it was an app did it tell you you are starting it for the first time and check? did you give it your password, i cant imagine anything being able to reformat a hard drive or the like without an admin password.

I dont remember an extension. I didn't type in a password. And didnt get an alert about running a new program downloaded from Internet.

 

[SimonTheSoundMa]

If the drive is making strange noises then it is not a software problem, it is a hardware one. Most likely your new drive has failed. It's under warrantee, contact the person who you bought it from.

A virus cannot damage hardware, and also cannot delete all your data on your hard drive, even if your logged in as root.

 

[VoidBoi]

A virus ... also cannot delete all your data on your hard drive, even if your logged in as root.

Something that runs sudo srm -Rf / certainly could delete all the data on your drive.

 

[Jebaloo]

Send it to me. I'll run it on my MacBook. I just got a new hard drive anyway.

chefpastry@yahoo.com

I dont know if you're being sarcastic or not. If u want. I'll fish it out of my trash when I get home. Be careful though!

If the drive is making strange noises then it is not a software problem, it is a hardware one. Most likely your new drive has failed. It's under warrantee, contact the person who you bought it from.

A virus cannot damage hardware, and also cannot delete all your data on your hard drive, even if your logged in as root.

I dont know if data is missing because the hard drive will no longer mount.

You were not silly.
The way you describe what happened, you only unzipped an archive. That does not cause any code to run, which means it cannot wipe your hard drive. Even if it could, your hard drive would not start making the kind of noises you describe. You would be able to re-format it and keep on using it.
As far as I can see, this seems to be a coincidense. But then again, if you can find the zip file somehow, it would be interesting to see what was in it, just to make sure.

its in my trash. But I'm hesitant to be posting it off to people for obvious reasons. I will if u want!

Sounds like a Trojan id recommend clamxav to stop this sorta thing in future & try some data recovery software or firm

no data loss thanks to time machine and super duper. Thanks for the concern though.

 

[pastrychef]

I dont know if you're being sarcastic or not. If u want. I'll fish it out of my trash when I get home. Be careful though!

No, I'm not being sarcastic. I'd like to know for certian if there's a new trojan out in the wild or not. Thanks.

 

[Neil321]

no data loss thanks to time machine and super duper. Thanks for the concern though.

Thats Ok,id still install clamxav though for scanning those e-mail attachments or dont open up the ones you have no clue who there from,those Trojans can be nasty bar***ds

 

[jonbravo77]

the people who write the viruses for PC probably use macs to write them, they are not going to write a virus to destroy the system they use to write them on in the first place. lol

Just my thoughts on it.

Peace