unprotected

it was the familiar "Ate, pakopya ng songs." (Can I copy your songs?)

having gotten most of my songs free, i willingly shared.

she handed me her thumb drive and i began transferring the files.
while waiting for it to be completed, i noticed a file i've known from a previous dreadful experience (Brontok.a.htm). right away, i knew it was a virus. dang! i'm in trouble.

even if i was all boiling up inside, i managed a calm, "Girl, your thumb drive has a virus!"

apparently, she wasn't aware. and apologized profusely. i assured her, "let's just hope it doesn't spread."

but i knew. i just knew, that i've been hit.

and i had been.
3 grueling days. my folders were multiplying and running applications. my network connection could not be detected. my sound driver wasn't functioning.

until finally, i had to face the truth: there's no other cure except to format my laptop. *sigh*

gladly, a friend taught me a nifty trick, which proved to be very helpful (and which, i'm glad i did before this virus hit my unit):
partition your hard disk and save your data files in one of the other drives.
that way, even if you have to format, your data would go unharmed. =)