My son's computer was recently infected with a variant of the click.livesearchnow.com virsu (Norton Antivirus and Power search do not detect it).
I tried to use power eraser and it found one program it said was bad. (Actually makred as a shortcut to the program.). Instead of deleting just this one program it deleted almost all the files in his "skyrim" game folder (over 18,900 files, about 19 GB worth). Including many custom mods and edits. There was NO indication from Power Eraser that it was going to delete full directories of files instead of just the ONE file listed.
When realizing it deleted all of these he tried the "undo" -- it undid the deletion of the ONE file.
Then he tried system restore, an it brought back about 1/3 of the files -- but not the ones that were his custom mods and edits.
So -- Anyway to get more material recovered, or did Power Eraser just delete all of this.
My son's computer was recently infected with a variant of the click.livesearchnow.com virsu (Norton Antivirus and Power search do not detect it).
I tried to use power eraser and it found one program it said was bad. (Actually makred as a shortcut to the program.). Instead of deleting just this one program it deleted almost all the files in his "skyrim" game folder (over 18,900 files, about 19 GB worth). Including many custom mods and edits. There was NO indication from Power Eraser that it was going to delete full directories of files instead of just the ONE file listed.
When realizing it deleted all of these he tried the "undo" -- it undid the deletion of the ONE file.
Then he tried system restore, an it brought back about 1/3 of the files -- but not the ones that were his custom mods and edits.
So -- Anyway to get more material recovered, or did Power Eraser just delete all of this.
Welcome, When you run the Norton Power Eraser it creates a file which will allow you to recover all of the files it deletes. However, since a partial undo has been done and a system restore that file may no longer exist.
You might start NPE again and see if the file is still available and if so, restore the files.
I initially ran the undo process, but Norton Power Eraser restored just the one file it was supposed to delete. It did not restore anything else. That is why I then tried system resotre, and now am scanning with an unerase utility. NPE does not let me resotre the files it deleted -- it pretends they don't exist.
For A start NPE has warnings about its use on the site you download it from, It is not NPE or Symantecs fault if you choose to delete all of what is shown.
NPE allows you to select / unselect items listed, if you choose not to do so, and instead just have NPE remove what was selected (all) it is not NPE fault it did what you asked it to do.
NPE is a more dangerous tool, and user choose also to ingore those warnings
Because Norton Power Eraser uses aggressive methods to detect threats, there is a risk that it can select some legitimate programs for removal. You should use this tool very carefully. If you accidently remove a legitimate program, you can run Norton Power Eraser to review past repair sessions and undo them.
"For A start NPE has warnings about its use on the site you download it from, It is not NPE or Symantecs fault if you choose to delete all of what is shown."
I know, but that is not what happened.
I understood the warnings, that is why I chose to have it delete ONE file, as I said in my first post. -- It showed 4 files, that was it. I chose to delete 1 of them. Yes, I chose exactly ONE file out of 4. It then deleted over 18,000 files. Not the same. Not my mistake.
Yes, my mistake was not to backup the whole system first.
Yes, it is a dangerous tool. Much more dangerous than I thought.
I understand now. Fortunately system restore restored 6000 of the files that NPE deleted and did not restore upon undo.
Even though I asked NPE to delete ONE file, not one directory, but ONE specific file -- which NPE designated as a shortcut to a specific file in a specific directory, is agressively delted all but 4 files from that directory subtree.
I understand now. Fortunately system restore restored 6000 of the files that NPE deleted and did not restore upon undo.
Even though I asked NPE to delete ONE file, not one directory, but ONE specific file -- which NPE designated as a shortcut to a specific file in a specific directory, is agressively delted all but 4 files from that directory subtree.
Hi, NPE is a very powerful and very aggressive cleaning tool. It must be used with caution and only when very necessary. It is also wise not to go to other tools if the results of the NPE run aren't as expected. The best course there is to restore all and take a less aggressive path. As always hind sight is better than foresight.
I understand all this -- however RESTORE FAILED!!!! The log file says it deleted one file. The interface said to delete one file. But it Deleted over 18,000 files in a directory subtree. The tool FAILED TO RESTORE. I am not sure how to get answers to my real question here -- people seem to think I don't understand the tool; but I do.
Do we know where the restore file is? And format to recover from it?
I did everything people said here (except creating a backup first). NPE failed becuase it delted too much. Don't know how else to say it.
