The following blog is copyrighted by Mike McCarthy, 2011. All rights are reserved.
Unauthorized duplication in any manner is prohibited.
A CASE of POP-UPS
Friday May 20, 2011
3:42 p.m.
I leaned back in my rickety chair, propped up my tired old dogs on the worn desk and gave a satisfying sigh of a job well done. I had just wrapped up a rather complicated case that took me most of the week to resolve. Classic case of a scorned wife who wanted to recover data from her soon-to-be ex’s laptop for use in the divorce proceedings. As usual I uncovered more than anyone thought I could. "Guy’s gonna have a rough time explaining that to the judge!"
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Mike McCord
Data Detective
Your Partner in Technology Support
on the door’s security glass. It was Paulie, AKA Paul Lawrence, from down the hall. Nice kid. Tall, slender, well groomed.
“Mac,” he said. Only my best clients call me Mac. “I’ve got real problems!”
“Paulie, of all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never had real problems.” I smiled.
“This it’s serious Mac!” he sounded distraught. His face looked like someone whose best friend had just been murdered.
“Take is easy Paulie,” I motioned to the chair. “Take a load off and tell me what’s going on.”
Paul lowered himself into the pleather chair as he began unraveling the situation. “I was on my web site updating products you know, when I opened a new tab to my advertiser’s site…” Paulie was like that. Very distinct and articulate. He explained to me how he clicked on a link to a new advertising site when suddenly screens began popping up everywhere. Not just any screens he tells me, but some were, well, very provocative. He said it got to the point where he had to restart his system. That was when everything went crazy. I waited until he finished before re-introducing my mug of coffee to the top of my desk and return my shoes to the floor.
“Didn’t you have protection?” I asked.
“I did Mac, I did! My anti-virus protection alerted me, but it was too late.” “Hmm”, I thought. “This can’t be good.”
I leaned forward. “Tell me, when did this happen?”
“About an hour ago. I tried closing them out, but it seems things just got worse!” I could see Paulie was getting frustrated. “What can I do Mac? My site is my work, my work is my world. What’s happening? Can it be saved?”
I planted my hands on the desk and we rose up together. That’s when Paulie heard someone whisper.
Paulie asked, “What?”
I repeated, “What?”
“I thought you said pick up the Poo. What Poo?”
I turned towards the half-opened window to find my nemesis’ sitting on the ledge outside. I rushed the window swinging my arms wildly and yelling like a drunken Baboon. “Pick up your own Poo you filthy birds!” A group of pigeons had decided the ledge outside my window would make a great meeting place. All day long I hear, “Pick up the Poo. Pick up the Poo.” It made sense since they certainly leave quite a pile of it behind. They’ll be back. They always come back.
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Over in Paulie’s office I sat down at his computer and took a quick assessment of the situation. I could hear the shuffle of shoes on the stairs as people went about their business which meant the lift must be on the fritz again.
“Okay,” I started. “Let’s try a System Restore first.” Going through my usual motions I clicked on Start and selected All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and finally, System Restore. The restore calendar indicated a restore point a few days back. I said to Paulie, “We’ll try this one first…” and set about the restore. Once Paulie’s system rebooted however, I found the restore was unsuccessful. “Damn!” I blurted out. This upset Paulie who stopped his pacing to stare at me.
“Damn what Mac?” he asked moving over to my side. “What’s wrong?”
“First restore point didn’t work,” I replied. “So I’m gonna go back a little further.” But as the second, third and even forth restore point failed I had a sinking feeling this was going to be bad. “Okay,” I said. “Restore points aren’t cuttin it. I’ll have to go to the next step.”
By now Paul’s system would no longer boot up. The infection had spread as if the creator of the infection anticipated Mac’s reaction. No, the creator played Mac like a cheap violin. Paul straightened up. “What’s the next step?”
“Restore the system files and hopefully wipe out whatever was in there.”
“Will this wipe out all my data? All my links?”
“No, just replace the system files.” I said. “Course, we’ll have to reload and reinstall a lot of Windows updates to bring it current and you will lose any browser history and stored passwords.” Paulie was agreeable. “I’ll need your Dell System Recovery disk though if you have it.” Paulie wasted no time in locating this for me and within minutes I had started the recovery. Paulie, on the other hand, stepped outside to calm his nerves and have a smoke.
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The first attempt at restoring the original system files failed. The second one was no better. Paulie walked in from his sanity break and must have seen the look on my face. “Didn’t work?” he asked.
“Nope, didn’t work. Keep getting the blue-screen-of-death.”
“So now what?” He was wringing his hands. Kids really concerned.
“So now we go to the next step.” And I paused. Paulie looked down at me with his palms up as if to ask, “So what is the next step?” I shut down Paulie’s system and continued. “The next step is to install a fresh copy of the operating system.”
“But won’t that wipe out all my files?”
“Normally it would, but in this case I am going to install a fresh operating system in a different directory as your current one so as to preserve your data.” The look on Paulie’s face told me I just spoke in a foreign tongue and he has no idea what I just said. Shaking my head I reassured him, “Don’t worry kid. If this doesn’t work I’ll pull out your disk, pop it in my server and move all of your data off. After I save off your data I’ll wipe the disk clean and reinstall a fresh copy of the system. After that, I’ll move your data back on, run updates, tune it up and you’ll be good as new. Course,” I continued. “Any programs you installed not originally on your recovery disk will have to be reinstalled. Also, you’ll still lose any browser history and stored passwords.”
“The least of my concerns.” Paulie said.
“Okay,” I replied cracking my knuckles and restarting the system. “Why not take another break Paulie. This is going to take a while.” I stretched my neck and shoulders and proceeded to start the fresh system installation as Paulie left the office.
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Time seems to fly when I'm in deep concentration, working on a system or data recovery problem. A wrong move, an incorrect response can means hours of delays and do-overs. I hate do-overs.
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Glancing at my watch I saw it was pushing seven. I decided to keep going for Paulie’s sake. Paulie walked back into the office.
“Looking good.” I said.
“Do you think it’ll work?”
“Looks like it. No errors so far.” I stretched my back. “In fact, it looks like we’ll find out pretty soon. The system is booting up now in its new environment.” Paulie moved to my side as the familiar boot chime we all have come to know and love, rang out, signaling a successful log in. But Paulie was starting to panic again.
“Where’s my desktop icons? My files!”
“Relax Paulie will ya! I haven’t pulled them over yet.” As Paulie hung over my shoulder I moved the cursor to My Computer and double-clicked. I navigated to his C: drive and then to his Documents and Settings location. Once there I opened his old user-name folder and copied his data to their new home. Like magic Paulie’s desktop came alive with icons and Paulie gave out a cheer so loud they heard it all the way up to the third floor.
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I guess that’s why I like doing what I do. Providing a valuable service like this has immediate gratification and satisfaction of a job well done.
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Back in my office I grabbed my head-lid and coat from the rack. It was 9:25 p.m. I slid the now familiar hat over my head and slung my coat over my shoulder. As I locked my door I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the door’s security window. I adjusted my hat, gave the reflection a smile, and left for home. Case closed, another job well done.
Epilogue
Although the story is fictional, the events are factual and names were changed to protect the privacy of those involved.
The problem Paul experienced is the same problem thousands experience every year. Paul, when surfing a fairly known and well respected site in his industry, got hit with what we call a drive-by infection. Actually, it’s really not yet an infection. You see, what popped up on Paul’s system were not browser windows or displays, they were actually large buttons. Once Paul clicked on Cancel or tried to X out, the infection began. Newer drive-by infections can infect your system immediately without having to click.
The infection downloaded was a Trojan Horse. This released its payload when Paul rebooted his system and subsequently infected system files and device drivers. Once this happens its impossible to flush out as, in some cases, the infection removes your ability to run executable programs. Attempting a System Restore to an earlier time is noble, and sometimes this works, but the really serious infections will go in and either remove your ability to perform a restore back or remove all of your restore points. Either way, a System Restore is not a solution.
So this leaves me with only two choices: Try to perform a system file recovery or, in this case, install a fresh operating environment in a different location. Once the installation is done, I then move all of the user’s data over and delete the old location’s system files. This was Paul’s final resolution.
After the recovery is completed, and the data is moved back into place, the tedious task of downloading the myriad of operating system updates need to begin. I left this task for Paul, which took him well into the next day to complete.
Footnote: Paul filed a complaint with the owner of the advertising website. Although the owner sympathized with Paul, he claimed no responsibility and stated it is not his business what his advertisers post. A lack of integrity and professionalism I suspect.
To have your case reported, resolved and written up, contact ITC for all of your technology support needs. You can visit ITC at http://www.itcaz.com/ or you can call Mike at 602-684-7501.
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