Not sure if it was a virus or a botched BIOS upgrade, but my machine got hosed!!! Lost some goodies (Rhianna, Elle 2 LE, that New WW suit from the Namehei craze among others.) Some files on the machine are fine others are totally corrupted. So...be careful when doing a BIOS upgrade. Make sure your virus definitions are up to date. BACKUP THOSE FILES!!!!

Been there, done that. Quite recently, too. Horrifying. Back up frequently. Back up now. Do it or you'll feel very foolish looking at an eaten Runtime.

I don't mind reinstalling my runtimes. Takes time, yes, but it's a good chance to organize further, or get rid of those files that you liked at one time and after one use decide that you don't like it after all. When I install something to my runtimes, I burn the original file to a CD, so that way when I redo my runtimes, I just have to go to my "installed" CD's and then it's just a matter of installing again; no need to search for them. But yes, if you don't want to install runtimes, then burn baby burn!!! ;)

I must be weird. In many years of using computers, I've never done a BIOS upgrade that I can recall.

I never had any viruses doing harm to our puter. The virus killer updates automatically, the firewall is sufficient to control basics (only a hardware FW would be better) and SpybotSD gets rid of eventual spyware. Afaik: when you upgrade a bios and you get disconnected (no electricity) your puter won't work anymore and you'll need to have someone write you a new bios. It won't do something like partially destroying files. Apart from that: backing up is always a good idea. It's not a question of whether your HDD will crash, but when.

Gonglyla, When checking some of my files to see if they were intact, I got a lot of Chinese Text. My Motherboard is from a Chinese Manufacturer and the update program I was using was connected to the site in Taiwan. My (original) computer was fine after the crash and when trying to recover files it crashed again and for good. I thought virus (and it may have been) because a image flashed on my screen very quickly. I did catch a glimpse of Shrek.(No, I'm not kidding!) Just prior and after that, running programs would shut down for no reason. As far as updating your system BIOS, if you are going to do it, go to the MB makers site and DL the updated BIOS and make your OWN floppies. My Mobo had a util to do this automatically. I strongly suggest doing this the "hard" way. (Even better pay a PRO to do it :) ) So it was just a bad set of circumstances. Back 'em up!

That is weird. Maybe they're using distributed trojan renderers to do SDhrek 3 :-) I've been using Microsoft's SntiSpyware. It seems to work quite well. I tried it before MS bought the program and it was the only thing that would get rid of a pesky hijacker.

I burn my files to a dvd, too big for cd now! Also back up to my file server (doesn't everybody have one??). Don't have to worry about viri yet. :P

I've had several hard drives fail over the years. The first time it happened, some of the data I lost was impossible to replace and I had no backups. It's not the reinstallation that gets you, although it is a HUGE pain and a gigantic time investment, but rather the stuff you didn't think about, such as custom files, recipts (yes, I keep digital receipts for stuff I buy online), your old email, bookmarks, digital art, digital photographs, etc. Those things can't be "reinstalled" unless you have a backup from which to reinstall them. Keeping working backups is only good sense. If you don't, you may one day find yourself wishing you had. It's like car insurance. Maybe you won't need it, but when/if you do, you'll be very glad that "safety net" is there. bonni

I also have never done a BIOS upgrade, if your BIOS needs an upgrade it means that your motherboard is obsolete!

Elizabyte, you know my pain! On the plus side, I have a new motherboard and chip (Athlon64!) and lots more space to fill up :)

my files are backed up, x3!! :=)

I've done many BIOS upgrades. Doesn't mean you're necessarily obsolete, but sometimes some new pieces of mo'board candy comes out that you need to do an upgrade for (I have a project at work installing wireless cards in laptops, you have to upgrade both the BIOS and embedded controller).
Another possibility is that you have got a corrupted BIOS upgrade file. If that happens, the system board needs replacing (since it thinks it's a coffee table instead of a system board, etc..;) If the file comes from the same place as the system board, you should be able to work out something.
Yup..been backing up for decades..every zip file is burned on CDR (proven technology, and I can't afford a DVD..;)

Another good insurance policy is to check all your downloads as soon as you get them. Among my thousands of obsessively downloaded Poser freebies, I always find a few that are bad, sometimes long after the original file or the entire site is gone. One of these days, I will add a file verification feature to my zip catalog application and find out how many of these corpses are littering my HDs.