Transferring files problem

[some_guy]

Friend called with problem with her Windows 7 laptop. I helped her over the phone

She opened an attached file of an email, a zip file that looked like it was from the IRS, and it messed up her computer.

She called me.

She had quickbooks files that were not backed up that she needed.

I had her buy a usb - sata cable and had her take out her hard drive and attach it to XP desktop.

She copied the files to her XP desktop and to another USB hard drive.

She puts back the hard drive.

I have her restore to factory settings on the laptop, so reinstall Windows 7.

She tried to read quickbook files on the Windows 7 laptep and they are not there on the USB hard Drive, though the Hard Drive shows up.

She copies the files to a USB stick from XP machine and still can't read them on the WIndows 7 laptop or see that they are there.

So what's going on ?

Is this as bad as I suspect, the files were not copied right ?

What can we do ?

Thanks.

{Right now she is trying to email one of the files to herself and transfer the files that way.}

Update: emailing them to herself works

I was wondering if perhaps quickbook files are different for XP and 7.

I am going to have her try to copy and then read other types of files.

 

[Fardringle]

Can she not see the files at all on the drive? Or does Quickbooks just not see the files when she tries to restore them from the USB drive? Or does the program list QBW files but gets an error when it tries to open them?

Depending on the version/year of her Quickbooks, the data files might be stored in different places or under different names. Since she didn't make a backup from within the program, she would need to copy ALL files with the .QBW extension from the old installation to the new one. If any of the files are missing, Quickbooks might not be able to import and display any of the data correctly (or might have part but not all of the information).

 

[some_guy]

She claims she is able to copy the files from a XP box to usb hard drive and a usb memory stick and see them from the XP machine. But when she plugs them into the W7 laptop she is unable see them with Windows Explorer.

Right now she is sleeping which is probably good so she can clear her head.

I do not know if she is able to see other types of files or directories.

Thanks for the " she would need to copy ALL files with the .QBW extension from the old installation to the new one." I hope she did that.

She was going to just email them all to herself but some of them may be too big for her email.

So I need to take a better inventory of the situation, though it is hard over the phone for me.

Thanks.

 

[Fardringle]

If she knows that the files are on the USB thumb drive but Windows 7 can't see the files, we need to know what is actually happening. Does Windows 7 open an Explorer window with an empty folder when the USB drive is attached to the laptop (if so, try adding some different files on the drive to see what happens), does it give an error message when the drive is attached, or does it not do anything at all?

 

[corkyg]

"...She opened an attached file of an email, a zip file that looked like it was from the IRS, and it messed up her computer."

This has all the earmarks of malware. IRS does not send zip files or attachments. Do a complete virus and malware scan - deep!

 

[Fardringle]

They already completely wiped the machine, corky. He's just trying to figure out why Quickbooks on the clean install of Windows can't read the .QBW files that were saved to a USB drive from the old installation.

 

[some_guy]

Thanks so much for the help.

My friend is taking the night off - kind burnt out and needs rest to think clearly, as I too need to do.

She said that she copies a file from the XP machine to the USB stick and she can see the file from the XP machine and it is grey not black. I suspect the USB memory stick may be too small even though one of her friends gave her the impression it wasn't. When moved to the W7 machine she sees nothing.

She is having trouble with the USB hard drive also. It has files already on it that both computers can see, but not the quickbooks files. But now she can't get either computer to even mount the drive.



And I am not sure why the USB hard drive is not being recognized but it is possible it has something wrong with it.

She wants to try to transfer the files with a yellow cable RJ45 to RJ45. I am not familiar with this but she claims she can just plug and play. I told her to hold off but she may just do it anyway.

I will talk with her tomorrow when her and my thinking is more clear and report back (and hopefully my head does not hurt.)

Update: as of Thursday 6pm - no new info

I am beginning to suspect both drives may not have space. Will check that out when she is ready to work on it again.

Update: as of Saturday no new info

 

[MtnMan]

She opened an attached file of an email, a zip file that looked like it was from the IRS, and it messed up her computer.

HELLO here is the problem, and only one other person has picked up on this. The IRS doesn't contact anyone via email, ever.

 

[Fardringle]

Hello, MtnMan. Welcome, to the discussion.

Everyone involved in this thread knows what that fake message from the IRS means. If you actually read the entire first post, some_guy already said that they completely wiped the system and restored it back to factory defaults because of it. In fact, if you read the whole discussion, you'll see that I already said the same thing to corkyg as well...

Unless the spare computer - and then the USB drive - was infected when the laptop's drive was temporarily attached to back up the files, then there's no virus involved at this point. It's possible, but not very likely.


The issue is that the clean install of Windows 7 doesn't see the backed up files on the USB drive. Based on some_guy's last post that the thumb drive is not being recognized on either machine now, I'd say it's most likely a problem with the drive and the friend will need to use something else to transfer the files back to the clean installation on the Windows 7 laptop.

 

[TeeJay1952]

Some malware changes the properties on all files on PC. Changes them to read only and hidden.

 

[corkyg]

Some malware changes the properties on all files on PC. Changes them to read only and hidden.

That can happen. I would then use a good file manager such as XTree Win and find those files and change the attributes. I would also not use a thumb drive. I would put the afflicted drive in an external case and go from there.

 

[some_guy]

So sorry about the delay in the update. (messy story)

Latest info.

So the files on the XP machine that were copied from the infected Windows 7 machine with the hopes of copying them later to an external drive, after the Windows 7 machine was refreshed like new, this copy was tried again, this time from the desktop XP machine onto a brand new WD passport USB 3.0/2.0 external hard drive. What prompted this immediate action is my friend needs a file that is too big to email. (I assume somehow the emailing changes some characteristic of the file.)

Then the copy, which took maybe 8 minutes was tested on the XP machine to make sure they were there. They were visible and to test them two of them were opened, a pdf file and some other file type. However, the files seemed to be listed lighter than usual.

Other files that were not originally on the infected machine were also copied.

Then the WD passport external drive was taken to the windows 7 laptop. The folder that was created to store the files was visible but the contents that was copied was not there. Windows Explorer said “The folder is empty”. The files that were never on the infected machine transferred just fine.

The hard drive was then attached to a Mac and they did not show up there either.

Additional Note: It is likely email with the virus that was opened on yahoo email account was not originally flagged as a virus. (Yahoo uses Norton antivirus.) I tried it a week or so later on a Linux machine and yahoo mail did flag it as a virus.

Thanks for the support.


Update: the big file was transferred via some internet software just fine. And even though it might take awhile she can email the rest to herself.

It may be as mentioned above, a change of properties thing, but I don't use windows very much and unless she can't do it any other way, I am going to stay out of it, at least until I visit her and can be with the files face to face.

Thanks again.