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Virus reset computer to factory conditions, could use some advice
Hi all,
So somehow, I contracted a pretty bad virus. It basically reset my computer, as if I had just installed Windows Seven (all my programs and files gone). My computer is an Alienware M17x, Sandy Bridge i7, 4GB RAM, Windows 7 Pro. I didn't really have a ton of important files on the computer, but I did have a ton of programs installed, and I was hoping there was some way that I could restore them.
So this is what happened: I was doing a scan with my virus software (Zone Alarm Pro Extreme Security) and a virus was found, repaired it, rebooted, everything seemed fine. Then, I was trying to upgrade my Bluetooth driver, but the upgrade failed each time. I rebooted again and wasn't really doing anything when my desktop icons suddenly all disappeared. I thought that was weird, so I went to My Computer and I saw that my hard drive was reporting only 5% used space, as opposed to like 80% used as before. I went to program files...sure enough, only the original program files were left (Windows Media Player, etc). My Documents was blank, too.
Is there anything I can do? I know I can try to use file recovery software to recover individual files, but is there any way I could do a complete, like, format recovery (programs and everything?) I really want to try to save my programs. On a whim, I tried System Restore, but it said the restore files were missing.