VIRUS has formatted hard drive

Haven't tried it personally as it costs $75, I'd rather not spend that much money on something I don't need. If you were able to perform the system restore, try running the EASUS again. Whatever is picked up by EASUS will be all that you can recover. After that, do a clean reinstall like we've been telling you

The thing about using a program to restore your files is that HD usage needs to be kept to a minimum prior to using such a program, so as to avoid overwriting the deleted files. You have installed programs since the start of this, which doesn't help matters. Add to the fact that all indications point to a virus/ransomeware that either trashed/scrambled your files, it doesn't look good for a full recovery. Your best option would probably be to salvage as many undamaged personal files as possible, format the drive & do a clean install of Windows.

Clean Install Windows 7

One more option you can try - a repair install to see if that yields any results. It may, but it's doubtful.

Repair Install

It is upsetting to have to loose everything & restart, but this is the reason backups are highly encouraged. There is always the possibility of this kind of event happening as well as many other events that can trash an OS. Your best bet down the road is to save personal files & pictures on CD, FD or an external HD.

And the best thing you can do is make a System Image. If something like this happens again, you can restore your system to the point of the last Image and you're up & running in about 45 mins.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

I know, it's not what you wanted to hear, sorry about that. On the plus side, you'll be starting with a new system that's clean and fully functional. And, this forum has many good tutorials that can show you how to guard against threats, keep your system running good and how to do regular backups.

Tutorials - Windows 7 Forums

Borg 386 said:

The thing about using a program to restore your files is that HD usage needs to be kept to a minimum prior to using such a program, so as to avoid overwriting the deleted files. You have installed programs since the start of this, which doesn't help matters. Add to the fact that all indications point to a virus/ransomeware that either trashed/scrambled your files, it doesn't look good for a full recovery. Your best option would probably be to salvage as many undamaged personal files as possible, format the drive & do a clean install of Windows.

Clean Install Windows 7

One more option you can try - a repair install to see if that yields any results. It may, but it's doubtful.

Repair Install

It is upsetting to have to loose everything & restart, but this is the reason backups are highly encouraged. There is always the possibility of this kind of event happening as well as many other events that can trash an OS. Your best bet down the road is to save personal files & pictures on CD, FD or an external HD.

And the best thing you can do is make a System Image. If something like this happens again, you can restore your system to the point of the last Image and you're up & running in about 45 mins.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

I completely agree, as this is what I have been saying all along on this thread.

@dkny1221 Try one more run of the EASUS I suggested to you and see what you can recover. Take what you can and then do a clean install. Unfortunately there's nothing else you can do. However, learn from this experience and always keep at least a current backup of your important files