private file in external backup

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Level 1

8 points

private file in external backup

I was downloading Avast when you have a virus on my computer. It shut down and could not restart. I have a 2012 iMac and it is now running 10.9.5 and prior was mountain lion. I have two external hard drives. One for time machine and it is fine. The other had my personal things I wanted to keep. I researched on my ipad and was able to restore my computer but in the process lost what was in the other backup drive. It is working but has a folder called private and when you click on it to open then it goes to tmp, then tempvm, then vm, and then swapfile0. Any thoughts if I have lost everything on it or maybe it is hidden somewhere? HELP

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jul 28, 2015 12:26 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,478 points

Jul 28, 2015 12:36 PM in response to linbo1573

First uninstall any antivirus, cleaning or any third party maintenance utilities. These are unnecessary and most tend to create more problems than they solve. Locate the developers instructions for uninstalling and please follow them. There are no viruses for OS X, this makes antivirus apps 100% unnecessary, however there is a very small amount of malware for OS X which is easily avoided with a bit of common sense. This includes:

Never use a torrent to download anything.
If you get an ad, pop-up, e-mail or phone call advising your computer has been compromised, these are all SCAMS!!
Keep OS X up-to-date.

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