Those of you who are familiar with Sex & the City will recall the episode in which Carrie's laptop crashed. Do you remember, how she sat at her desk wrapped up in a shawl, worried to death about her computer?
That was me, 4 days ago.
She even fought with her boyfriend because of her feelings at that time. I had a total meltdown, similar to Carrie. I remember, Aidan actually helped her take the computer to a technician and buying her a new one when the old one wasn't fixed. But I had no one helping me out. I felt very similar to what Carrie felt - invaded and taken over. By that stupid effing malware.
I literally panicked. So, I was browsing through some websites for suits and sarees in India. I was looking to get some addresses for my mom and dad since they are going to be shopping for me. I thought it would be easier to give them addresses so they don't waste their time. I opened all kinds of websites from India. And I believe, I caught a malware from one of those small websites.
Suddenly, a window popped up on my screen that looked like a notice from the Canadian Police. It said, I have been infringing copyright laws in Canada. And particularly, I watched child pornography and that is why I need to immediately pay $100.00 or else I will be prosecuted against in the frame of 72 hours. For a minute, I won't even lie - it caught me real good. But child pornography? I started thinking if someone has been connecting to my wifi and all that stuff. And then, when I logically started to think.. why would the Canadian Police want a 100 bucks from you if you're a paedophile? They would come beat your ass.
Near the payment options, I noticed the word "U-Kash" and it just stuck in my mind. I quickly turned off my laptop and when I turned it back on, it had the same screen. I had officially been a target of this stupid virus. Then, I searched all about U-Kash and then I found many articles which said it scares you in the name of pornography. Well, let's be real. Many people watch porn so it's the easiest thing to throw out there. And some people probably have paid that money, who knows? But I read articles on how to tackle the problem. My brother, the computer wizard, wasn't here so I had to do this all by myself.
I did what most of the instructions said but my computer failed to tackle the virus even when started in safe mode. So, I spent 5 hours of my time backing up everything I had. My brother took my external storage device and I had to collect a few memory sticks and USB flash drives to get everything saved. My pictures alone were 29 GB. Honestly, it's a different thing when you lose an assignment for school. It's a whole new story when you lose your LIFE for the last 8 years. I have pictures since the year 2004. All my amazing music collection since then, my pictures, my school work for my entire degree, and EVERYTHING!
I was on panic mode. I sat like an owl all night backing up everything slowly. I went to sleep at 3:00 am. I was lucky my guest account was not infected, so I could access all my files from there. But if I had NOT activated that guest account, I was screwed. I was gonna have to take it to a technician. So, tip: definitely allow a guest account on your laptop! You never know when you might need it. Anyway, I reinstalled windows again and everything is good. My brother told me that when you reinstall Windows 7, it automatically backs up everything in a folder called Windows.old. It did back up everything that I spent hours on. But I didn't wanna take a chance, so I don't mind all those hours that I put in.
Now, I can't connect to the internet from my laptop. There's no sound, it doesn't recognize any devices such as headphones or USB flash drives. I believe, I need to download all the drivers for it. I've told my brother that he needs to give me a good anti-virus software, the latest Microsoft Office, help me connect to the internet, put in all the drivers and BRING MY LAPTOP BACK TO LIFE!
It feels unbelievably incomplete without it. It's unbelievable of how much we can depend on technology. So, the moral of this blog post is to remind you all that it takes 10 minutes to back up your files every month or so. Oh, and you can get all kinds of virus and be convicted of watching child pornography, even when you've never watched porn. So, make sure you have an amazing spyware software that can save your ass.
P.S. I am using my desktop at home. And it is SO uncomfortable to be blogging from here. I have to wait till February 18th to get my laptop fixed. So, if I tend to be MIA from here, you'll know what it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment