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  #31  
Old 02-13-2017, 03:53 AM
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Sorry to hear about this Tim. I have no good advice because I'm so old school all my old builds are kept in clip ring notebooks. Few pics. Sounds like you have plenty of good computer advice so I'll just condole.

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  #32  
Old 02-13-2017, 07:28 AM
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Originally Posted by Marcus Wong View Post
I am so sorry to hear about this Tim & Mary! I believe the most pressing issue now would be all the clients with upcoming builds?
Luckily I had a few files printed out and saved, including upcoming builds. However, I have lost a lot of phone numbers,contact, guitar pictures and build data info of ALL of my previous customers, which really sux. I think I concur with John Kinard, paper copies might be my next form of [additional] back up going forward.
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  #33  
Old 02-13-2017, 07:28 AM
KingCavalier KingCavalier is offline
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Sorry Tim, I've been down this road before as well.
Not sure if you or your tech have tried this but it does work for some variants of this type of virus.

https://noransom.kaspersky.com/
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  #34  
Old 02-13-2017, 07:31 AM
LSemmens LSemmens is offline
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I, too, am saddened to hear of your problems, sadly, AFAIK there is no recovery possible from ransomware. A good backup is only as good as you make it. Depending upon how long you've been "infected" it may well affect your backups, too. It is always wise to keep several backups off site with only the oldest one kept on site to be overwritten on the next backup cycle.

What security are/were you running? I usually recommend AVG or AVIRA as anti virus packages along with Malwarebytes (and regular scans) and CCleaner (Also with regular scans of both files and registry), Given some of the systems that I have had to recover, and the sites I sometimes have to visit, I've yet to be infected with anything more than some innocuous adware.

I'd also issue a word of caution to those of you who run bits of fruit (Apple). Although they are not commonly targetted, they are NOT IMMUNE from some of the nasties out there so, do not become complacent!
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  #35  
Old 02-13-2017, 07:34 AM
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Originally Posted by KingCavalier View Post
Sorry Tim, I've been down this road before as well.
Not sure if you or your tech have tried this but it does work for some variants of this type of virus.

https://noransom.kaspersky.com/
Hi KC,
Yes, the techs tried that and a few others to no avail.
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  #36  
Old 02-13-2017, 07:39 AM
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Originally Posted by LSemmens View Post
What security are/were you running? I usually recommend AVG or AVIRA as anti virus packages along with Malwarebytes (and regular scans) and CCleaner (Also with regular scans of both files and registry).

I'd also issue a word of caution to those of you who run bits of fruit (Apple). Although they are not commonly targetted, they are NOT IMMUNE from some of the nasties out there so, do not become complacent!
We were running Windows AV, AVG, MWB and Ad Blocker. Mary had Norton on hers plus the other free ones ^.

The Techs told us the same thing that Macs are not immune to attacks, just less profitable to hackers do to a smaller market share.

They also said that even the best antivirus software is only 70% effective at stopping or catching threats.

Thanks again for all of the great advice!
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  #37  
Old 02-13-2017, 09:06 AM
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Tim, Mary--so sorry to hear this. It's almost like a fire in some ways.
Going forward, this can be McKnight Guitars "Second Epoch" perhaps?

Steve
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  #38  
Old 02-13-2017, 10:29 AM
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Sorry to hear this. My thoughts were the same as frankhond in post #28, namely that you might consider going with a Mac. The Apple operating systems have not had the same problems with viruses as PCs have had.....although that could change in the years to come as malware begins to more aggressively target Apple users.
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  #39  
Old 02-13-2017, 11:04 AM
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I'm sorry to hear that, Tim. Are you able to piece any of that technical information back together from your jigs or demo guitars?
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  #40  
Old 02-13-2017, 11:24 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim McKnight View Post
Hi KC,
Yes, the techs tried that and a few others to no avail.
I recommend these folks, from a previous failure of a business computer (full recovery of data, BTW, but not a ransomware issue). Great care & customer service, and they have also been a help to my clients who had drive problems. They were expensive, but they did save about 11 years of emails, invoices, quotes, system builds, etc.

They seem to have experience with ransomware as well:
http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.c...data-recovery/

Supposedly, no data, no cost. Worth a try?
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  #41  
Old 02-13-2017, 11:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by random works View Post
Tim, it might be of a some help to consider: the AGF has had a number of posts with your guitar builds chronicled. Specs and pictures are at least available.
Maybe a call to previous owners to send a copy of their build documentation back could help, too. IIRC Mary sends out a CD with lots of pictures.
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  #42  
Old 02-13-2017, 12:12 PM
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Sorry to hear about this.

I'm a partner in a small aerospace mfg. business,
in the late 90's when our larger customers started sending quotes, blueprints etc. via their website / e-mail
we decided to purchase another computer for internet access / use.

we had two computers already, one with custom engineering/planning software,
the other with our accounting program for a/r & a/p etc.

we made the decision, while not the most technically advanced perhaps,
that those two computers would never see the light or darkness of the internet.
it's served us very well.
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  #43  
Old 02-13-2017, 12:53 PM
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I've been a Mac user since the late 80's. It's common to think these are bullet proof, but they're not. Four weeks ago I was on the phone with AppleCare for the better part of two hours, ironically because Time Machine couldn't open my backup archive. Something about the latest OS not playing well with Time Machine backups created on the old one. I couldn't grab some notes I needed for my bar exam prep course. Not OK.

I'm at the point where I think Macs are less reliable than PC and won't be buying another. Last week I paid a $500 bill because the logic board on my one and a half year old Macbook Pro failed.

I back up four ways.

1) Time Machine to an external. It's automated so it's easy.

2) Similar to what someone suggested, I also literally just drag certain folders over to an external drive.

3) I don't use Google Drive as a backup source anymore because (as I mentioned earlier) it converts some file types into simple screenshots that aren't usable.

4) Backblaze.
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  #44  
Old 02-13-2017, 12:53 PM
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I'm so sorry to hear about this. It's the very thing I feared most when I was in business. In my last business I was tied to Intuit/QuickBooks (QB) because that is what my accountant preferred but I had two computers and one of them was only used for QuickBooks and it never went online except to communicate to QB and only QB. Emails and other online stuff was through another computer and I never stored a thing on that computer because I was afraid of how dependent it made me and afraid of yet another mess or work to perform by exposing myself to the crooked part of the outside world. QB contacted me once and wanted to know why I didn't do my point-of-sale and inventory through QB and I told them I didn't need to look at a screen to see my inventory, I could just get out of my chair and walk over and touch it! No computer cash register either, once again for my and my customer's security.
We've come full circle in a pretty short amount of time on these computer issues and I know without a doubt now that the paper systems used in business are much safer than a computer and WAY cheaper too. I'd rather deal with fire or water damage to paper than some Russian hacker any day of the week. Some businesses have gone so all-in with the shiny allure of the computer and seem to blithely ignore that in so doing they have wittingly made themselves a target....of hackers and of the very constantly-charging-for-updates computer companies and systems (which may just be the worst of the two) they profess to enjoy or consider necessary. Not to mention the joy of talking to "Steve" in India when there is a problem. If these companies are so great then why are their systems so vulnerable, huh? And just how much more money DOES one really spend in the end for the conveniences provided by these things (and still find you aren't secure)! I think it best not to be a target if one can at all help it or else stay off the shooting range itself. That gets me labelled a Luddite at times but then I never had to lose sleep, worry about, or go through the kind of scenario discussed here. I'd be surprised to hear that someone that has experienced this kind of thing would do it all again. The guys who just got you are probably eagerly awaiting your re-entry. If you're doing less than two million dollars a year gross my advice would be to save yourself the expense and insecurity of being so deeply in with computers. You have to have them for some things but diversify the risk with paper.
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  #45  
Old 02-13-2017, 01:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kkrell View Post
I recommend these folks, from a previous failure of a business computer (full recovery of data, BTW, but not a ransomware issue). Great care & customer service, and they have also been a help to my clients who had drive problems. They were expensive, but they did save about 11 years of emails, invoices, quotes, system builds, etc.

They seem to have experience with ransomware as well:
http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.c...data-recovery/

Supposedly, no data, no cost. Worth a try?
Great idea and certainly worth a try ... Except ... The techs wiped and formatted all of our drives.
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