The End of an Era

I suspect most of you aren't aware of this, but for the last 2-3 months, I have been fighting a battle with a crafty enemy. Actually he may not be crafty, but I'd rather not admit to extreme stupidity >_>

It was a close battle, with a lot of back and forth, and he always seemed to have the slightest upper hand. Nonetheless, I refused to retreat or surrender. Despite my best efforts though, I lost that battle today.

What am I talking about? My laptop, good sirs. Around winter break time, I caught a virus (I have no idea how) that started messing with and redirecting links on google searches. There was an easy enough workaround to this, but it irked me that I had this thing. With help from you guys (mostly Luke), I pulled together an assortment of anti-spyware/malware software and went after the bastard. Indeed, for a while, it looked like I had driven him out. Then one night, I found that I was wrong. As I was working, a series of error windows started to pop up as the virus tramped through my registry deleting critical files. I managed to turn the comp off and do a system restore, but I knew then that I was in for a nasty haul.

This sort of thing has been happening regularly for several weeks now. On Monday, though, without any warning, I lost everything in the Documents and Settings folder. Nothing crucial, but I was finally starting to get legitimately worried. I backed up everything (finished yesterday night) and was more or less content. Unfortunately, this morning, following a regular shutdown sequence, Windows fails to boot. To make matters worse, the virus had taken out both Safe Mode and System Restore. In short, I am completely shot.

It's kind of sad that I'm writing an entry on fighting a virus, but it's pretty valid. I've had the laptop since sophomore year of high school, and I value it a lot. I'm going to have to get a new one now, and it actually makes me kind of sad. Luckily, one thing won't be changing - my desktop background (yes, I saved it =P).

In any case, until this new machine shows up, my access is pretty much limited to computer labs here, so don't expect me to be online, and if you need to reach me, call.

~jnub