ENTIRE HDD Erased!

I'm a computer power user since '99(everythign that I used since '99 to 2007 so far was cracks and keygens)[/QUOTE]

Dude If u were a power user where is your backup drive?
Also when u download torrents always check the comments before downloading[/QUOTE]


Until 5 yrs ago the only purpose of my pc was to sell CD/DVD's with games, music, different software to the people in my small city, because I was one of the few people in my area who had an dial up internet connection, yes it was illegal, no one knew back then how to buy or download software. I had my fair share of crack's keygen's, which I scan every time, there s times when the AV finds something in a crack keygen but they are harmless. I download only from private ROMANIAN trackers, where everything is verified, there hasn't been one time that a file from my private trackers was infected, in change, in the few times I had to download smt from piratebay, mininova etc there was always something hidden somewhere if I didn't read the torrent comments.

Anyhow the point is that like 4 yrs ago I stopped doing that kind of business because people started to have access to internet and so on, I've been of the 3 IT guys of my city (more like village 5500people) for like 8 yrs. Where I want to get is that I can assess threats, my surfing is based on habit(long hosts file etc, trusted sites, even trusted keygens, ironic), since I started web development(~3yrs) I stopped using all the websites I used in the past, and using only my preferred software that was previously checked for av and burned to dvd.

The probability of me getting infected, having all the knowledge, taking some precautions,with my data on a separate partition/hss on which nothing else was copied, only visiting KNOWN websites(be they keygen websites and so on), IS VERY SMALL. I've been meaning to backup everything on DVD the past 5-6 months, but one job after another I completely forgot, anyhow 60-70% of my projects are on DVD's and will work with them only under MacOSX Snow Leopard.

The story sucks and it's wrong, but I don't want to hear, aaaaa you're using cracked software, it was my Choice given the economy here in Romania, and I got around knowing very good which cracks and keygens to avoid. IF what I got in my pc was because of using keygens, than yes, I deserved that. Yes, now I can actually afford to buy SOME software, like windows license and so on. It is really hard to be standing on your feet here with a firm, we all make compromises, I make the software ones, you on the other hand who are able to buy software make other sort of compromises on different fields.

I never made EXTERNAL backups(besides the software I use) because I never lost anything of importance, and yes, actually that is my biggest err so far. But actually there's no harm done, it is another well learned lesson, 3 weeks of no activity which costed me spending my holidays in front of the pc, not skying with my gf and friends.

And yes, I used paranoid security measures in the past, but given the fact that I don't download new software on a daily basis, I only work with a few programs, nothing new comes in, using W7, atm the only things that I download from torrents is music, movies and some games(only RELOADED, RAZOR 1911 and SKIDROW), NO SOFTWARE, I have loosen most of the security paranoia, and it served me well for 3 yrs.

Pardon my bad English, and let's hope for the best to come.

and, have a HAPPY NEW YEAR all of ya~!!!!

(I truly hope no further flaming comes out of this)

And may you have a Happy, Healthy, Safe-Surfing New Year!

Thank you for the potent reminder of the how economic conditions around the world can affect internet security.

If you are one of those averse to the system drag caused by typical AV suites then try Avast free Home, which is the closest I've found to having no AV system impact at all.

You'll keep it busy, but it can keep up.