Hey y'all.

Happy Monday everybody. I don't have any pics to share today, or maybe for a couple of weeks, that is. Let me explain, see Friday night, I was on the computer (and hubs was asleep). I had actually already laid down, but got back up, bc I was having trouble sleeping. I was on Facebook (which I don't actually even use that much) when something popped on my screen. It said that my computer had been "infected."  The screen shot to a menu page, and these scanning bars came across my screen as if the computer was scanning my documents. Percentages were hiking in numbers beside the red bars. It said that if I didn't back up my work immediately that my information would be corrupted and destroyed. Of course, these red bars are going across the screen, and I'm reading these words, and I'm watching Nik's entire first year and a half in photos go down the drain. Against my better judgement, I clicked on the security icon that popped up, saying that I should back up my work. I knew I shouldn't do it, I almost just turned off my whole computer and ran into the room to hurriedly wake Josh. But, I didn't. I got scared, frantic, and was trying to save him from having to wake-up, I took matters into my own (incapable) hands, and clicked on it, several times. Then a huge red box came on my screen saying that there were "trojans" infecting our computer, and I would loose all our data/documents if I didn't back it up-telling me our computer was "infected."

I stopepd clicking on the pop-up security boxes and per the pop up box instruction, I went to "programs" I went under "control panel" and then on to "security panel."  I don't recall if I clicked on anything there or not. I was looking for an anti-virus program somewhere on the computer, so I could run it and stop the "trojans" and the "infection."  I closed all the windows on my computer, and when I couldn't find a anti-virus under programs anywhere. I viewed the desktop and found one. Hubs is really into security on the computer and he is always installing and running security programs. I clicked on the anti-virus icon, and watched it scan all my documents.   I watched every photo of Nik from the first year and half of her life get scanned for viruses, and after several minutes. It stated that "nothing was detected," no viruses found.  I shut down the computer, feeling shaky, and rattled, and worried, but hopeful that everything was okay. All of Nik's photos were still there.

In the morning, I told hubs what had happened, and hubs told me that he would look into it. I asked hubs if he thought that we should take the hard drive to a tech person to look at, bc I was really worried about Nik's photos, and hubs said that "if he couldn't fix it, no one could." After looking at it, hubs said that I may never get any of the photos back. He said that he has never seen a virus this "impressive" and "intelligent" are the words hubs used. When it comes to thieves, believe me, we roll with the best of them. No second class hackers for us, ha.

You know I take a lot of photos.  Apparently I have upwards of 14,000 photos uploaded on the computer. Hubs says that he has saved 178 of them so far. He says that he has to move really slow, so he doesn't loose them. He worked on it for a very long time this weekend.  He apparently had to completely reverse the whole virus.  It seems like he must be exaggerating that I have that many photos, but I guess, it could be possible. I dont delete photos of the pumpkin, I just can't. It's hard to explain but DSLR's sometimes take imperfect photos, bc a setting is off.  On the flip side, with a DSLR, a good lens, and the proper setting, you can capture many great photos that you could not capture with another camera.  Most of the times the ones that don't come out perfect, are ones that she got excited and moved, or made a big smile.  I just can't bring myself to delete those. I keep having this hope, that one day, I will sit down and attempt to correct those imperfect photos through an editing program. I may not be able to, but I know that I have to try. 

And the answer to your next question, is "no," I don't have them backed up somehwere else. Ironically, early last week, I decided that I was going to purchase another hard drive to back up the pumpkin's photos, but I was waiting till I got paid last Friday to purchase it. It is something I have been thinking about, but have not gotten around to.  As, I attempt to decide if I am going to start shooting in Raw and using photoshop, I have looked into the fact that I am going to need a very large hard drive to store and edit the images, and want to be sure to back-up our photos in the case of a system crash. I do use a 3rd party source, Flkr to upload photos, but I didn't nearly have all the photos backed up there, just some.

The reason I am sharing this with you all is so that you can be aware and informed in case this happens to any of you. I obviously, am not computer savvy, and I knew better than to click on this "anti-virus" link/window site. I did, I really did. But, I got flustered and nervous, and I made a rash decision when faced with the possibility of losing all Nik's photos.  I feel like I miss a large part part of her life as it is, and now, I am faced with the possibility of losing the only way I knew how to attempt to capture and retain the life/time that I feel I miss. Photography is how I try and give that time back to her and and I. 

Please be wary of the sites that you go to. I'm pretty sure I probably encountered this breach while logged into Facebook, but I could be wrong. And, be very careful of the anti-viruses that you install on your computer. Hubs says that by clicking that "anti-virus" icon, it probably allowed the source to gain access to my computer, where they installed the icon to my desktop, and I basically gave them free access/entry to our computer and all our information/documents.  Who would think that a 3rd party could create a desktop icon on my computer?  We're not sure excatly how it happened, but either way, all of it was corrupt. And, people do it in an attempt to steal your personal information like credit card numbers, bank information, etc. I bet they're sorry the tried me, they just got 14,000 random baby photos on their harddrive now, ha.  I'm just praying that hubs can get the pumpkin's photos back, at least most of the ones I don't already have backed up.

Also, hubs revealed to me that he is my "surprise mystery gifter" of the Pevonia products. I think I suspected that all along. Guess, I have just about the greatest hubs ever. Still scolded him for spending the money though, ha.

Hope you all have a Great Week.  Love ya.