I went downstairs to get something to eat, and when I came back up, I found my computer full of cascading errors and some "SMART Check" program trying to install itself on my computer. I immediately turned off my computer to stop the program from installing itself. I then found that it got rid of all my stuff from my desktop and start menu.

I've managed to get my icons back on my desktop through safe mode by getting my computer to show hidden stuff, but I don't know what to do at this point. I'm afraid of booting my computer in regular mode and all these removal instruction videos I'm looking at are either very vague or all have different instructions. It also doesn't help that this virus seems to mutate itself often. BTW, I'm using my work computer to type this; my laptop is right next to me though.

Here's a site that pretty much shows what it is:

http://guides.yoosecurity.com/black-screen-with-fake-data-recovery-virus-smart-check-virus-smart-repair-virus-how-to-remove-it-in-an-efficient-way/


Is anyone familiar with this virus?

Okay, I've managed to remove whatever malware my computer had using a few instructions I found on google as well as a really handy anti-malware program called Hitman Pro. However, the damage is still there: all my icons are faded (my computer still thinks they're hidden files), my start menu and program list is 90% empty; not even the control panel is visible, though I can still access it by searching for it from the Start bar, and half my icons seem to have gone missing in my desktop.

I'd like to get things back to the way they were before my computer got infected. So what I'd like to know is, would it be safe at this point to use System Restore if I've already gotten rid of just about every infected file there is? Would it fix everything back up or would it just mess things up even more? Or would it just not do anything?

I'm gonna get myself an external hard drive tomorrow so that I can back up my files just to be safe. I know reformatting would be the best thing for my computer, but I'd rather not; it's just too much of a hassle for me to install everything back on. I'm just backing up just in case things go really wrong.

System Restore was a success! Everything's back to normal again ^^

I backed up my files anyway just in case though it turns out I didn't need to reformat :3 System Restore took 3 hours to complete though...never knew it could take that long.

I still have a few folders and files that are still transparent due to being marked as hidden files. That's one thing System Restore can't undo, though that's something I can take care of myself; I'm just glad everything else is back to normal.

Fuck yeah!