Files on external drive have changed to shortcuts, cannot access them.

cloudbuster101, Kaiguy

Cloudbuster101

To answer the question of why there was no antivirus detection first: it's simple really every day there are thousand of viruses made.... you can make them on any computer with the right skill and lets be almost..... almost every house has at least one computer and kids start playing around with programs and creating new fun pranks as soon as they can. If you know the parameters of the newest Anti virus program you can crat a program that the anti virus does not see as a threat, then the company has to first identify the threat and write new programming to recognize the newest malicious software and then stop it.... and if possible find a fix for the damage it has already done.

Currently there are two forums running on this or a similar problem.... well both are similar. to keep more uptodate on this problem try checking the

All my folders have turned into shortcuts and I cannot access files within

This forum has more posts as of right now so you may find something there to help you.

this is what I have so far if you can not open the source program.

if you are still having a problem and you cant find the file using the description above, your best bet is to search manually. This will be more time consuming but it may save your data in the long run. just add another step between step 3 and step 4, call it 3A if you will.

3A. if you are unable to access the file destination folder you will have to manually search for and delete the virus. Once you have completed step 2, follow the instructions for step three-- except you will not be able to open the destination folder, so you will have to write down the name of the suspected file causing problem to your computer. When you have the information needed you will do the following.

go to "my computer" (computer shortcut, Computer etc...)---c:\ drive (may be renamed depending on what your preferences are, as well as what OS you are running)---- at this point you will have to go through every folder individually and search for the program causing you problems.... I recommend you start with the USERs folder if you are running Vista. this will be more time consuming but it should fix your problem. If you have multiple hard drives or partitions you may have to search them as well.

after this is completed continue following the other steps above and reset your setting to what they originally were.... you don't want to end up deleting important programs later on.

Remember: before you delete anything.... CHECK the file name online... you do not want to delete anything you may need later.... Google works great for this, but make sure you read more then just on paragraph when possible.... there are viruses that have the same name or similar ones as legitimate operating system programs.

Good luck with your problem, and hopefully this works for you. Any questions let me know

hi sorry i got the same problem too but i dont understand step 2. cause all my files are in shortcut format and after i deleted them, where do i copu data from to copy into the new folders? do you mind going step by step in more details?

would appreciate your help alot!!!

you could emal me at *** Email address is removed for privacy *** thanks!

Same problem, except mine is ruidaax.exe and I'm on a HP netbook running XP. None of my scans caught anything and it's driving me nuts.

For those of us who can't do as James suggested and right click on the process in Task Manager (Step 3), any other way to find out where it is so I can delete it?

Before i begin, let me say that i had Mcafee and Windows Security Essentials up to date, before the computer turned hundreds of photographs into shortcut folders.   Let me also say that I seem also to be infected by the nuevaq.fm virus//  ALSO undetected by Security Essentials.  'Great program!!

I too am affected by this virus .  However, I followed the directions from *Holligan  and it DID NOT WORK.  I was able to find the hidden folders as per instructed, and I was able move the fiiles out (photographs) , but when i tried to delete the shortcut files,

i got the message that it was not possible to delete them because they were  open in another program.

I was able to delete the hidden folders and files containing the photographs ok, but not the shortcut, nor a couple of other suspicious files (see below)  BY The way, i was unable to find the files in mention in Task Manager, but i did find this virus on Task manager

mssreces.exe , which when i tried to go to file location from Task Manager, it opened and immediately closed, thus i was unable to even identify where the virus was.  I had no problem with going to file location when i did this with other programs from Task manager.

After trying to unsuccessfully trying to delete the Files and folders from the SD CARD ,I reformatted the cardand that got rid of everything (at least for now the card is empty)

SO, why is there so little information out there on this virus?  Why did it escape Microsoft Security Essentials?  does anyone know of any antivirus program that is able to detect it?

While am at it, if you could help me with getting rid of the nuevaq.fm virus, I would be very grateful....    It is creating the OUT OF STACK ROOM  error 28 on my computer and closing down web browsers.  Winutilities does help a little bit by the way.

THANK YOU

Cloudbuster101

Suspicious files i found  on external drive (SD 2 megabyte photo card)  

S-3-7-01-3639077401-4404491267-704113574-1143   File folder         date modified  23 July

EmrVQMar0BHh9hKKJ9vG6gt5zm2slhPo                  Application        date modified  12 july