StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Remember that worm that went around last month or so that deleted critical windows files and was activated by the infected computer restarting?

Well, I think I picked it up, and just now activated it. I'd kept my laptop in hibernation whenever I wasn't using it, and I finally turned it off when I went away for the weekend.

First thing I immediately noticed was that internet explorer wouldn't open. Firefox would though, and I figured that it was unusual but nothing that couldn't be fixed later. Then I found that here and there are programs and folders that won't open, and one folder in My Documents that wasn't there before (deleted with a vengeance).

I figure a system restore to two or more months ago would fix the problems, but my biggest problem is it removed system restores functionality as well. The start program shortcut to it does nothing, and neither does going to the .exe file itself.

So, I'm at a loss for what do to next, any help would be appreciated.

Unfortunatly this sounds like a format/reinstall situation. You could try to just do a repair instalation instead but when a system is comprimised that well you never know if you removed all of the infection so nuking it from orbit (ie format) is the safest choice.

Back up all your personal data (that is unless you have a seperate partition for data and for programs/win which is highly recommended, in which case format just the win/prog. partition), format, reinstall windows and install an antivirus. Run it on the data before trying to open it (that means turn off any desktop search indexing tools and such).

Bit of a pain, but it shouldn't take you more then an afternoon to get all the functionality back.

How is your system protected from something like this btw? (ie. antivirus, firewalls, routers)

Actually, I'm not sure I'll need to. I have no idea how it happened, but everything that wasn't working last night is working again.

I'll do a system restore later to a couple months ago, just to be safe. I'd rather not reinstall windows unless I absolutely have to, and it'd be during the weekend if I did, since the disk is currently an hours drive away.