I passed through a very bad experience these last couple of days, and after solving (kind of) the problem, I want to share with you what I did, and to warn you about NOD32.

Two days ago I installed the NOD32 trial version (to try it) after my kaspersky license was finished. Installation complete I start the scanner, 2 minutes later the computer freezes. For information about my hardware: quad core 2.66ghz, 8gb ram, gtx280 1gb ram, 1tb hdd WD, motherboard Asus maximus extreme series, vista 64bit genuine

I do a small manual reset in order to restart, and to my surprise the booting process freezes on the small loading of windows (you know the small bar that keeps coming and going). I try several times to restart in vain. I wait for like 5mn on the loading screen, when a blue screen appear telling me that there is a system file that is missing/corrupted. So I insert the windows vista cd, and try a repair ---> nothing work.
I have win7 on a separate partition of the hdd, I try to boot from it, same thing happens, freezes with nothing.

I try to reinstall windows without formatting, it does not work, it stops at copying files without expanding them.

After a bit of web search, I find out that NOD32 can fry the bootsector of the hdd... specially the 64bit version of the antivirus...

So I update the bios of my motherboard, buy a new hdd and install everything back again.

Now to retreive my data:


First try, I take the hdd and plug it on my brother's pc as slave, the pc does not boot^^ it freezes.

Second try, I buy a dock to transform the internal hdd into external one, and plug it via usb:

Here comes the fun part:) I tried for 6h to make the hdd be detected by the computer, all I got was unknown device all the time. After slapping it a bit, I retry and now I can see the two partitions of the damaged hdd, but windows is asking me to format it before using them (something I do not want to do).

Trying all the usb plugs of the pc, uninstalling the unknown device driver when detected, with a bit of slapping from time to time, finally I made it work, and I was able to retreive my data (slowly I must add, as in no more than 3mb/s, on average 700kb/s).

All this story to warn you about NOD32 64bit (I don't know if the 32bit version does affect the bootsector also), I won't be installing it again on any pc. Long live kaspersky.

For those who will tell me why didn't I backup my data etc... I always keep backups, but I had some new files which I needed that I didn't have as backup.

Tout est bien qui finis bien, as would the french would say, but it was a hell of couple of days to make everything back to normal.

If anyone would have had a different approach than mine it would be nice of you to share it. For me it worked in the end, maybe for others it wouldn't.

Crazy
I would have maybe tried to get my data back from a liveCD linux.

Interesting though.

I have been using Avast lately, and it's working like a charm!
As Flyingwizard have said, you could have tried a LiveCD from Linux. In addition, your motherboard is a pretty expensive one. It should have a recovery feature that will allow you to copy files from the HD before Windows boots. Mine does and it's a 130$ MB.

What I would do now is download Ultimate boot CD, and run a health test on the HD. Just to make sure it is dead. Maybe you can write zeroes to it, and then be able to use it.

Bonne chance.
Oh, yes I forgot to say that I tried to get my data from a liveCD distribution, it did not work, didn't detect anything.

I will try what you proposed about the ultimate boot cd, 1tb hd would be nice to use as backup if it's not dead^^
Definitely. That Ultimate Boot CD has everything you need. It's like a Swiss army knife.

Good luck and post back your results please.
ouf.. really really ugly !

thanks for sharing the warning with the community :)

I love kaspersky <3 ... if u need trial reset let me know :P

kaspersky is an actual useful thing.. i like their :
- proactive defense
- on screen keyboard now integrated into browsers
- how u can run a software in its own virtual space
- the password request when u want to exit it
- the different type of malwares it works on
- how u can see alert when network connects.. how u can see the apps connected to the internet.. even internet usage stats !
- .... should i really go on ?

just awesome
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING GOING TO NOD ?
I personally use Comodo Internet Suite. It is very advanced and needs some tweaking, but once you get it going, it's very proactive. Firewall + Antivirus + Defense+.

It works on Windows 7 too!
Well mir, I went trying nod 'coz my license on kaspersky ran out. I tried to find a new one, but did not had a lot of time.
So I made the mistake of installing nod32crap :)
well with kaspersky u can do the trial reset.. not using a new key who can get black listed quite fast :)

u were using the 2010 version.. if not download the trial it is awesome.. and when the trial period runs out..pm me, will send you email containing a trial reset thing :)

if you are in the mood for testing antivirus give symantec - norton antivirus a try...and rate it for me :P
symantec?? are you kidding? I mean, I suppose it is a good antivirus, but it kills my computer (or any computer) it is installed on. It makes everything running super slow, I hate it. And scanning takes forever.

I will install Kaspersky again now, since I formatted and everything, I shouldn't have a problem with the trial version. But thanks for your offer, I'll get back to you on it ;)