Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Agent 21

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 27, 2009
211
0
Sorry to sound so desperate, but i've got a major problem. My roomate used my PC while I was away and somehow got it infected with a nasty Trojan (a bunch actually). I managed to cure most but I was still having a problem where all search engine results in IE would be nothing to do with my search queary, they'd all be ads. The only way I could search in IE was to type my request directly in the address bar and let AVG anti-virus take over and return "safe" search results. That got annoying since I couldn't use real engines like Google or Yahoo, so I started using Google Chrome as my browser and everything was fine, leading me to believe the Trojan infected IE. I think it was called "BHO.JEW", since that was the last one to pop up that I can't get rid of. Until today that is.....

AVG detected one called "BHO.KKD" and it said quarantining it could cause system instability (it was found in the system32 area, just like the ".JEW" one). Well, ever since that my computer won't access Internet. My VNC server (that I use with Jaadu Connect/Jaadu VNC for my phone) won't connect, WinAmp Remote won't connect, and none of my Internet browsers connect (IE, Chrome, or FireFox). They all give the "page cannot be displayed" error messages you get when not connected. I know it's my PC because my 360, PS3, and iPhone are all still able to access the Internet, so it's not the modem or the router. Also, I can't use system restore, every point I try to restore to says I can't (after going through the whole process and rebooting, it tells me on startup that it couldn't ve restored, even though the point was safe). There was a trojan found in the system restore folder, so I guess that option is screwed. I've run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, AVG, SpyBot, and Ad-Aware, all but AVG gave found none of the Trojans, and AVG said Quarantine/removal will make my system unstable.

That brings me to this question (sorry for the long leadup, wanted to give detailed backround info on my issue). Since I can't seem to rid the Trojans, nor can I access Internet on the PC to try and DL other programs that may help me get rid of them, I'm just going to suck it up and factory restore. However, I have YEARS and YEARS worth of music and pictures that I can't lose. I want to toss all of it on my iPhone (it's a 32GB 3GS, there's plenty of room to do so) so that once I restore I can put the stuff back. The music and pics and movies are the only thing I'm worried about. Programs can be re-installed, but the music collection has been built for about 10yrs now, and the pictures and videos even longer, documenting all my surf trips around the world and just family and friends in general, they are priceless.

I have iPhoneBrowser already installed on the PC, I'm just wondering where I have to put all these files once in the phone? Is there a specific folder they have to go in so I can take them back off later, or can I just store them in whatever folder I want? I just need to keep 'em safe for the hour or so it takes to do a full restore and put iPhoneBrowser and iTunes back on my PC.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated, and again, sorry for the length if the post.
 
As far as storing your files temporarily on the iPhone, I'd just make a new folder for them on the iPhone so they don't get mixed up with anything else, but the location of this could be anywhere on the iPhone file system that's easy for you to remember.

And if those files are so important to you, I'd strongly recommend that you consider getting an external drive to back them up to. If you have only one copy of them, it's a question of when, not if, you'll lose them to a hard drive failure, or a virus, as is currently the case.
 
you can just create a random folder in your iphone via iphonebrowser call it something like 'important' or 'backup' so you can access it later when you restore your computer. install iphonebrowser again and you should be able to retrieve the backed up files. as long as you keep your phone the way it was when you place your backups, you should be fine.
 
Thanks guys. Might be a dumb question, but do I need to have the same version of iTunes to get the files back off? I am still using whatever version I installed back when the 3GS launched because I remember for awhile there were issues with the newer iTunes releases and jailbreaks. I know it's fine now but just never bothered to update. When I restore/re-install everything it'll be the newest iTunes, but that's not what will be installed when I put files onto the phone. I know you need iTunes to use iPhoneBrowser, will it matter that they will be different versions for adding/removing the files?
 
Thanks guys. Might be a dumb question, but do I need to have the same version of iTunes to get the files back off? I am still using whatever version I installed back when the 3GS launched because I remember for awhile there were issues with the newer iTunes releases and jailbreaks. I know it's fine now but just never bothered to update. When I restore/re-install everything it'll be the newest iTunes, but that's not what will be installed when I put files onto the phone. I know you need iTunes to use iPhoneBrowser, will it matter that they will be different versions for adding/removing the files?

Last I looked iphonebrowser wasn't working with the latest version of itunes. I found another program called ifunbox which I liked so well I never went back to see whether iphonebrowser has been updated. Just use google to find ifunbox if you need.
 
I appreciate the suggestions for the alternate programs but I can't get them as the virus has blocked access to the Internet on my PC, hence me having to take this factory restore step in the first place.

I guess I'll just re-DL the same version of iTunes I have now. I know there are places to find older versions of iTunes so I'll just have to do that until everything is back to normal. Trojan Horses SUCK, especially when you have FOUR different programs to prevent/cure them (an anti-virus, spyware program, adware program, and malware program) and they still happen and cause this much trouble. Ugh.
 
Have you tried running in safe mode with networking? That should give you net access without the virus running.
 
I appreciate the suggestions for the alternate programs but I can't get them as the virus has blocked access to the Internet on my PC, hence me having to take this factory restore step in the first place.

I guess I'll just re-DL the same version of iTunes I have now. I know there are places to find older versions of iTunes so I'll just have to do that until everything is back to normal. Trojan Horses SUCK, especially when you have FOUR different programs to prevent/cure them (an anti-virus, spyware program, adware program, and malware program) and they still happen and cause this much trouble. Ugh.



i only suggested iphone-explorer because after you are done with formatting your PC, you can just download iphone-explorer and then retreive your backed up files in your iphone. there are 2 versions of iphone-explorer, 1 to work with latest itunes and another work with the older version of itunes..so you get to pick which works best for you. depending on the version of itunes you redownload of course.
 
i only suggested iphone-explorer because after you are done with formatting your PC, you can just download iphone-explorer and then retreive your backed up files in your iphone. there are 2 versions of iphone-explorer, 1 to work with latest itunes and another work with the older version of itunes..so you get to pick which works best for you. depending on the version of itunes you redownload of course.

I'll definately look into it. I've been just using SSH, but given that I can't connect to the Internet now on the infected PC I have to use a USB solution, and iPhoneBrowser happened to be the one I had installed back before I set up my Wireless network, but I never even used it once.

Does the newest version of iTunes still conflict with jailbroken 3.0 firmware? I know it did before, and then I've read that it's fine with the 3.1.x series of JBs, but I haven't seen if it's OK with the 3.0 JB. I don't really see the need to upgrade to 3.1.x and re-JB, it didn't add anything "must have" for me to go through the hassle. Since I have to start from scratch with my PC I might as well just go with the newest iTunes version as long as it's going to be fine with my jailbroken 3.0FW 3GS.
 
I'll definately look into it. I've been just using SSH, but given that I can't connect to the Internet now on the infected PC I have to use a USB solution, and iPhoneBrowser happened to be the one I had installed back before I set up my Wireless network, but I never even used it once.

Does the newest version of iTunes still conflict with jailbroken 3.0 firmware? I know it did before, and then I've read that it's fine with the 3.1.x series of JBs, but I haven't seen if it's OK with the 3.0 JB. I don't really see the need to upgrade to 3.1.x and re-JB, it didn't add anything "must have" for me to go through the hassle. Since I have to start from scratch with my PC I might as well just go with the newest iTunes version as long as it's going to be fine with my jailbroken 3.0FW 3GS.

i dont know how well it will work on 3.0.x fw and the new itunes. if you are skeptical about it, and able to find itunes 8.2, download that and use iphone-explorer as it still supports older itunes. just click on the corresponding version for the older itunes.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.