[ron1111]

I've run into a dilemma and I hope someone can help me out with this. Something strange has recently occurred with my computer and I am unable to retrieve some priority files that are stored in folders on my 'Desktop' and in 'My Documents' that I desperately need to get access to without them being overwritten. Let me give you the whole scenario.

I was running an audio production program when my disk space was running low and "Windows disk cleanup" appeared and it inquired if I wanted run it. After declining many times I finally decided to run it and, frankly, it didn't seem to recover all that much space for me. What did happened though was that the next time I started my computer, a message of "bad or missing command interpreter" appeared alerting me that "command.com was missing". I decided that I would replace it with a good copy that I had on a good hard drive. I then restarted the computer and got the same message, only this time telling me that "msdos.sys" was missing, so I copied that one over as well. Each time I restarted the computer, more and more files were coming up missing and I was never able to get Windows to start. I then decided that, to retrieve my important files, I would make this corrupted drive as a slave and use a good drive that I have as the primary, so I can access the bad one as my D:. After doing this, I found that on the corrupted drive, the 'Windows' folder was now named as 'WINEOWS!.!', the 'Program Files' folder became 'PSOGRA~1!.!', etc, etc

Basically all important folders got renamed with one of the letters within the name incremented up by a letter or two (ie, the "d" in WinDows is now an "e") plus they end with exclaimation points. When I try accessing these folders from within Windows (the good install I have) I get an error saying "the file has been moved or removed". I notice that it still takes up all the same amount space as it did before on the drive although now when I right-click the properties of the folder, it is displayed as 0 bytes.

As I said before the priority is retrieving my .WAV files that are saved in those folders, I just need to get access to them, so I can copy them over to another drive. Does anyone know of a virus, worm or trojan that would rename folders like this and make them inaccessible. I also already tried accessing these folders from a command prompt with no success either. If anyone can offer any suggestions on what this could be and how I can get my files back, you would really be helping to save my livelihood. Thank you in advance.

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You are the second person reporting folders being renamed on this forum. There are some new viruii out there now, but haven't kept up on what they do. Was getting too many security bulletins. You might go to the Malware section and see if they can get you booted into Windows. I lost track of other post about folders being renamed, but you probably can find it doing a Search.

Ron

[Major Payne]

You are the second person reporting folders being renamed on this forum. There are some new viruii out there now, but haven't kept up on what they do. Was getting too many security bulletins. You might go to the Malware section and see if they can get you booted into Windows. I lost track of other post about folders being renamed, but you probably can find it doing a Search.

Ron

[ron1111]

Thank you for the response. My concern is not overwriting the files and folders that were on my desktop. Any suggestions about accessing these files and folders would be greatly appreciated.

[Major Payne]

Have you tried doing a search of your HD using *.wav from Start/Search/All files and folders? Just a chance you might find them.

Ron

[ron1111]

Yes, I've tried doing that. Any file that I put in search did not come up. These files are in the renamed folders. It seems that the folders are not recognized by search or by virus scan either. It is taking up the same amount of space but has 0 bytes in the properties. I've been researching about a virus that renames folders one letter up like Windows to "Wineows" and Program to "Psogram" and anything that adds an "!!!" extension after it but have not found anything yet. Thanks for the reply. Anything else you can suggest. Appreciate the help you've contributed.

[Major Payne]

Requested assistance on this for you.

Ron

[wannabe1]

Hi ron1111...

Really weird problem you've got here.

How much free space do you have on the HDD? Do we have room (about 3 gigs) to do a parallel installation of Windows 98 to the same partition it's on now?

wannabe1

[ron1111]

Thank you for the assistance. I don't have 3 gigs of space to do a partition. I normally keep more than that in extra space just in case. Right now I'm stuck on really low remaining space.