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.

DustSailor said:

Usinjin,

Honestly, I don't think there is anything you can do, unless somehow the virus has just masked everything from you, but that would have to be a very intelligent virus. More likely it just completely deleted everything. Might consider changing antiviruses in the future and attempting to be a bit more careful on what you download off the internet or sites you visit.

For the future, there are ways to make an image of your HDD so that if something like this were to happen, it could easily be replaced: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

I'm sorry that this happened, sounds like a truely nasty worm

That's kind of what I thought, that really everything was just gone. Not to bad, but very unusual that I got this virus, I'd say...I usually try to download things off of cnet.com and the websites I visit aren't usually so dodgy...I haven't even had that many viruses in the past.