I work in the court system dealing with court cases, so when I got this email "Appearance in Court", I know better and opened the email. I had and I say had because my computer is dead. my system is a Windows 7 XP, will not re boot. Windows 7 will not install, I am really mad at myself for opening that email, I am still getting that dam message on other accounts. Now I am looking for a new computer.
Ouch! That really sucks. I have had random emails that seem related to my work but, for the most part, I don't open them as they smell fishy. There is probably something that can be done without having to buy a new computer. Many shops can hook your hard drive up to their systems and clean them using their virus software. The operating system may be damaged, but the data should be in tact and you should be able to reinstall or repair your operating system.
I am hoping to be able to re install the operating system but I do not have a disk and did not make a boot disk when I purchased the computer. I talked to the Geek Squad and they say they maybe able to get the data off but it will be costly. My backup computer is short on space, and runs hot so I have to get a new one or get the old one fixed quick.
I had the same thing happened to my laptop before but it wasn't because I opened a link on my email or something though. I had previously connected my mp3 player into someone's laptop then I connected it back to my laptop without scanning it. And then it happened. I had to take it to the specialist and got it reformatted. I lost all my data but at least I paid less than getting a brand new laptop.
Oh that's quite unfortunate. Do you use Outlook, or you only use a web mail, like Yahoo or Gmail? Because I know that using Outlook is the main reason why pc's get infected, because when you use a web mail, unless you click a link or you download the attachment, then you are safe from being infected, right?