Hey guys,

I was troubleshooting a malware infestation and after loading up a bunch of standard security software (AVG, Spybot, PeerBlock, etc) I noticed another problem.

None of the files were visable.

I thought that was a touch odd, so I opened a command line and then cd.. back to C:\ from there I ran a dir command and there was nothing found.

Wtf.

Anyone have any ideas?

Oh yeah, after AVG (4 threads) and Spybot (126) went through everything the god damn malware was still there.

 

I assume you've tried the standard boot into safemode, scan from there?

If not, do so.

Beyond that, format and restore to a previous backup. If you don't have a backup, get every piece of media you want saved, back it up and then format. (Also, lesson learned to backup if you haven't already.)

Honestly, the time it takes to restore a few days old backup is far less than it does to comfortably eliminate a malware problem, when there's always a chance something is still there.

 

No backups at all. I can't access any files at all. None. I can't even find them in explorer or via a commandline, even when I know exactly where they should be.

And yeah, I did everything from safemode too.

 

Try an Ubuntu Live-CD, maybe you'll be able to backup your files at least. This is assuming that you've got access to another computer.

 

Remote Desktop?

 

Depending on your resources, you can try this:

When in safe mode, the default settings for explorer take hold, so you would need to modify the Folder options and enable viewing of hidden and system files. I suspect the malware set the attributes on the file systems to hidden, system, read-only. At cmd, you can use dir *.* /ashr

If safe-mode windows can't launch but you can get to safe-mode command prompt, it may be necessary to invoke a local policy change to allow you to do anything.

Alternately, there are several devices available to connect your hard drive to an active PC, so that the file system can be read using the other PC's OS- this is where the Ubuntu suggestion was going, though I cannot recall if that can read NTFS file systems.

My recommended hard-drive toaster: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392022

 

I should mention. It's a five year old laptop.

Wordhammer: I'll give that a try.

 

Use some better tools. It's been years since Spybot was the top dog, and AVG's always been pretty avg. Try the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...E0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php