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What did I do and how can I fix it?
Two days ago, I noticed that my Norton was flashing red. There was something about needing to uninstall and re-install Norton for it to work. I did. Everything seemed fine, but when I went to use my computer today, I realized that my computer has essentially been wiped. All of my documents are missing. Anything I'd bookmarked is missing.
In my defense, when I did this, I had a 104 degree fever and was hopped up on medications. I probably wouldn't have done any of this if I'd been even remotely coherent, but now I need to figure out what I've done and see if there's a way to get my documents back.
Help?
I did try a system restore. Nothing changed. I'm also not panicking, because I've always made it a habit to email anything important to myself, as well as backing up my documents. I'd just like to get them back on my laptop, as that would be easier.
1 Answer
- SteveNLv 78 years agoFavorite Answer
Sorry to hear about your predicament. Problem is that no one can really know what exactly you did by this explanation. You don't usually have to "uninstall" Norton Anti-Virus to get it to work. If it is actively scanning and monitoring for malware and viruses, it should quarantine any problem files that it finds. And if there is an "update" for Norton, it has a method to download and patch the software to get it up to date.
The only thing I could suggest is the following:
1) Look in the Norton product and see if it has a quarantine section or a logs section. Does it mention any files that are quarantined or were removed?
2) Use Windows Explorer (the file folder next to the START button) and go look in the C:\ drive to see if you can spot any of your documents or photos or such. They are usually found in C:\Users\<your-username>\ under "My Documents" or "My Pictures" unless you told Windows to store them somewhere else.
3) Windows has something called "System Restore". You could try going into START -> Control Panel -> System and Security. Select the Action Center and look for the option labelled "Restore your computer to an earlier point in time." If a checkpoint was created prior to what you did that caused you to lose the files, then you go there and it TRIES to put things back the way they were. It doesn't always work but it has saved me a couple of times in the past.
Otherwise, I would recommend that you find someone with a good knowledge of Windows operating systems and see if they can help you recover the files.
And regardless of the outcome here. Start saving your files NOT just on the PC but also make a copy to an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or CD/DVD. That way if your hard disk is damaged, Windows gets corrupted, or whatever, you have another copy on removable media.
