Virus and trojan

[Tak]

So this morning when I turned my pc on, it seems I've got unwelcome guests. They are called sirefef.ab and sirefef.a and I don't know what to do.

My PC is now rebooting every 1 minute, couldn't even shut it down properly.

I am close to tears at the thought of having to format and lose everything. So many photos :'(

Please remember I am an idiot so any explanations or ideas will need to be idiot guide style.

Haven't a clue where it came from; I'm usually so careful :'( :'(

[leowyatt]

Ok, can you boot into safe mode?

[Tak]

Nope - did the same thing

[Tak]

Ended up putting windows onto a different drive and booting from that. Seems lots of people are being hit by this ATM :/ it really is a nasty one.

[Zirax]

Is this the wrong time to offer to come over to fix your pc and check your plumbing? :D

I would have suggested moving it over with a fresh install. Then scanning the drive of the spare drive.

Are you running the following:-
Avast / AVG
Comodo
Hosts file replacement
Spybot
Ad block plus in firefox

[leowyatt]

Another one to try is combo fix :)

[Davey_Pitch]

For info, if Windows is shutting itself down or rebooting when you boot it up, you can generally stop it by doing the following....

Click Start -> Run -> shutdown -a

That aborts the shutdown sequence (hit Windows key + r if you don't have Run on your start menu). That would then give you a chance to use whatever virus/spyware removal tools you can get your hands on to try to get rid of the offending files.

[Tak]

Davey - that didn't work; Mic tried it a few times, including in safe mode. It still shut down.
Other things I've read about it; it creates copies of itself and hides them in audio files. Re-infection after "fixes" seem very normal. It can "show" an image of whatever file it took over when scanned by anti virus so they don't detect it.

I have now put avast on - I was using mse after recommendations here so its all your fault :p :p

I've still got some drivers and stuff to sort out but will then be looking at drop box for photo security in future.