'Shortcut changed or moved'

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cruisemonkey

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'Shortcut changed or moved'
« on: December 21, 2012, 03:14:25 PM »
Help!

I have a removable media USB/flashdrive that picked up a trojan from one of my uni's classroom computers. My Avast antivirus program detected it and cleaned it up. However, now I cannot open any folders on the drive ('stand alone' files are fine) and I get this message -

The item '1853959184.vbs' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly.'

Do you want to delete this shortcut?


I have not deleted the shortcuts. Also, some Chinese script has been added to all the folder names (I have no idea what it says and I can't copy it) below my original folder names along with "1 KB" below the Chinese script.

If anyone can tell me how to fix this I'll buy you a beer... and a single malt scotch.
 bjbjbjbjbj

Cheers,
CM

 
The Koreans once gave me five minutes notice - I didn't know what to do with the extra time.

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Pashley

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Re: 'Shortcut changed or moved'
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2012, 03:46:05 PM »
The ".vbs" indicates a Visual Basic Script file, quite likely something that the trojan installed and your virus checker removed. The "1 KB" may just indicate file size, about right for a directory.

If the files are all OK but the directories wrong, can you just grab all the files and format the thumb drive? That's what I'd want to do, but it is a little inconvenient if there are a lot of files.  

Another thing worth trying is to see if the disk is readable with a different OS. A Linux machine or a Mac may show it differently than a Windows box.

For future use, look for a drive with a switch that makes it read only. Those switches used to be standard, but are now rare. One brand available in China that does have them is Netac; I have several. Mine are all 4 gig and finished in black & white, but I bought them years ago so you may find differences.

Before you insert it in a dubious system (e.g. anything at a Chinese school), move the little switch to make the drive read-only. Any attempt by evil software to write is then blocked at the hardware level. Your drive and your own computer are completely protected.

Of course, if you need to have students give you files, e.g. for marking, this is not enough.
Who put a stop payment on my reality check?

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cruisemonkey

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Re: 'Shortcut changed or moved'
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2012, 03:58:48 PM »
If the files are all OK but the directories wrong, can you just grab all the files and format the thumb drive? That's what I'd want to do, but it is a little inconvenient if there are a lot of files.  

Thanks for trying to help but I have no idea how to find out if the "files are all OK but the directories wrong..."

How can I "grab all the files" when I can't open any folder? No folders will open.
 llllllllll
The Koreans once gave me five minutes notice - I didn't know what to do with the extra time.

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Escaped Lunatic

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Re: 'Shortcut changed or moved'
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2012, 04:49:42 PM »
No idea if this will work or not, but it's worth a try.

Create a folder somewhere on your hard drive.

Go to the root of the USB drive and tell it "select all", "copy"

Paste into folder on your hard drive.

Watch the paste process.  See if you see any file names that belong in those folders getting copied or not.

Either way, see if you can open the copied folders on your hard drive.
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cruisemonkey

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Re: 'Shortcut changed or moved'
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2012, 07:11:31 PM »
Hey guys,

Woohoo!... it's not the end of the world  bfbfbfbfbf (despite misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar).

I fixed the problem (without knowing what I was doing  mmmmmmmmmm) by downloading a free disk recovery program (EasyDriveDataRecovery 3.0) and let it do it's thing. Afterward, I checked the drive and... low & behold the corrupted folders had been duplicated uncorrupted. I simply deleted the corrupted folders and all is well.  bfbfbfbfbf

Now I have all the little 1s & 0s back that comprise my life.

I think I'll go out and buy another 'USB' (never seen a 'read only' around here), copy the files in need for work and stick it only in classroom computers.

Whataya drinkin'?

Cheers,
CM
 

The Koreans once gave me five minutes notice - I didn't know what to do with the extra time.

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BrandeX

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Re: 'Shortcut changed or moved'
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2012, 04:16:58 AM »
I uninstall 360 and put avast on any pc i use at my school, now I don't get virii on my flashdrive.

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xwarrior

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Re: 'Shortcut changed or moved'
« Reply #6 on: December 25, 2012, 10:13:00 AM »
The ideal of 'one teacher, one classroom, one computer' did not exist in most of the places I taught. As a result I had more than one bad experience with Chinese variants of the dreaded lurgi.

After a virus totally destroyed my new 8g Flashdisk (it increased its capacity to more than 1Tb !) I installed Panda USB Vaccine on my computer. Never had a problem since.

from: Cnet

The Panda USB Vaccine is an application that protects your computer against vicious malware by vaccinating potential threats. It's an easy and fast way to keep your computer safe and working.
There really isn't much to this USB drive vaccine. We were pleased to find that it not only has an option for USB Vaccination, but also Computer Vaccination. For each option it lists an explanation of the process behind vaccination and what it involves. You know what and why it vaccinates before you decide to even use it. You can setup this utility to automatically scan and clean any USB when it is plugged into the computer, or manually direct it to do so. The vaccination process was very quick for both the computer and USB. You can remove the vaccination from your computer as well, if you decide that you don't really need it. For more details and information, you can go to the Help page. There isn't much listed, but it does cover more concerning what the utility is for and what it really does. Overall, it's a very simple and useful utility that doesn't take up much of your time.
Downloading and setting up the Panda USB Vaccine was very easy. You can even have it start up with your computer and run automatically. There didn't seem to be any issues or glitches when we went through the download process. It will most likely download well on any PC, as far as we know.


The Panda USB Vaccine is an application that protects your computer against vicious malware by vaccinating potential threats. It's an easy and fast way to keep your computer safe and working.
There really isn't much to this USB drive vaccine. We were pleased to find that it not only has an option for USB Vaccination, but also Computer Vaccination. For each option it lists an explanation of the process behind vaccination and what it involves. You know what and why it vaccinates before you decide to even use it. You can setup this utility to automatically scan and clean any USB when it is plugged into the computer, or manually direct it to do so. The vaccination process was very quick for both the computer and USB. You can remove the vaccination from your computer as well, if you decide that you don't really need it. For more details and information, you can go to the Help page. There isn't much listed, but it does cover more concerning what the utility is for and what it really does. Overall, it's a very simple and useful utility that doesn't take up much of your time.
Downloading and setting up the Panda USB Vaccine was very easy. You can even have it start up with your computer and run automatically. There didn't seem to be any issues or glitches when we went through the download process. It will most likely download well on any PC, as far as we know.

http://download.cnet.com/Panda-USB-Vaccine/3000-2239_4-10909938.html
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