I don't know how many people have had an issue with the phone call from tech support and they want access to your computer and then they essentially lock it and you need a password to get access again and the only way to get the password is to pay them.
A friend called tonight and she was taken in by the scam. Her immediate concern was to get her pictures and other personal documents off of the computer. I have no idea what these people do or if it is just a matter of getting the password and once input everything is okay?
Anyway I took her drive out and connected it to my computer and copied off all of her personal data to a flash drive. I ran Malwarebytes and selected only drive E, which is her drive, but the only problems it showed were on Drive C. I have no idea how it detected issues on Drive C as I had unselected Drive C and only selected Drive E for a scan.
So the first question is, is there a way around the password and to be able to remove it without reinstalling the OS. or recovering from a set of recovery disks?
Second is there a way to access the control panel on her drive with it still being connected to my computer to make a recovery disk for her drive, as like most people she didn't bother making a recovery disk set so if it has to be reformatted and the OS reinstalled she has no disks? It has a partition on the drive which I assume may the recovery information but the only visible folders are system volume information and recycle bin and I do have the appropriate boxes checked so I can see hidden files and operating system files. The computer is an ASUS.
Where is the start menu stored on her computer so I can find the actual shortcut for creating the recovery disk to see what it runs and try to run it that way to make a recovery disk in case it is the only way to recover her computer. I have found more than one start menu folder but they all have the arrow inside which I assume means it is actually in a different folder elsewhere on the drive but have been unable to find a start menu that I can open as they all say access denied.
Thank you
A friend called tonight and she was taken in by the scam. Her immediate concern was to get her pictures and other personal documents off of the computer. I have no idea what these people do or if it is just a matter of getting the password and once input everything is okay?
Anyway I took her drive out and connected it to my computer and copied off all of her personal data to a flash drive. I ran Malwarebytes and selected only drive E, which is her drive, but the only problems it showed were on Drive C. I have no idea how it detected issues on Drive C as I had unselected Drive C and only selected Drive E for a scan.
So the first question is, is there a way around the password and to be able to remove it without reinstalling the OS. or recovering from a set of recovery disks?
Second is there a way to access the control panel on her drive with it still being connected to my computer to make a recovery disk for her drive, as like most people she didn't bother making a recovery disk set so if it has to be reformatted and the OS reinstalled she has no disks? It has a partition on the drive which I assume may the recovery information but the only visible folders are system volume information and recycle bin and I do have the appropriate boxes checked so I can see hidden files and operating system files. The computer is an ASUS.
Where is the start menu stored on her computer so I can find the actual shortcut for creating the recovery disk to see what it runs and try to run it that way to make a recovery disk in case it is the only way to recover her computer. I have found more than one start menu folder but they all have the arrow inside which I assume means it is actually in a different folder elsewhere on the drive but have been unable to find a start menu that I can open as they all say access denied.
Thank you
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- 8.1