[csicomputers]

I own a PC repair shop. Several months ago we decided to resell Panda products, one being Global Protection 2009. We hadn't had any problems with it and it does work great, until ...

A few weeks ago, after finishing up a PC (all viruses removed by scanning with 8 different AVs as a slave, one being Panda and manual removal after that) and the customer had asked for Panda Global (at my recommendation). I installed it. I clicked the "fix now" to update it, as I always do. After a few minutes a box popped up "Important Windows System Files have been replaced" my only options were retry or cancel. It didn't matter what I chose, it kept popping up. I turned the PC off and booted the hard drive as a slave to look at it. Almost all system files were gone. All documents were gone. The file structure was there, but the files were either all gone or ALMOST all gone (14 system files remained).

I hadn't made the connection to Panda's update yet. During this time, a customer called that she updated her Panda, got an error and now it won't boot. I had her bring it in. Same deal. File structure there, no files. I tried to contact Panda with no luck. We assumed it was a bad definition file update or just a huge coincidence. We recovered those PCs and went on. We have Panda on several of our shop PCs and personal PCs and none of them had any problems, perhaps because they did not receive that bad update.

Since then we have installed Panda Global and updated without incident. Until yesterday. Same deal, I removed viruses/malware as a slave with AVs and manually. Computer worked great, I installed Panda. Still great. I updated Panda... Crash. It's wiped.

I can't get Panda to answer my emails and I'll be damned if I pay their $20 tech support phone call fee to fix THEIR product which destroyed 3 computers so far. I've found little, although some, evidence on the internet that this has occured before. I want answers, I want solutions and I WILL not resell this product until I am assured it won't wipe out systems completely.

[smax013]

Were all three computers ones that had been infected with something and then cleaned? Or was that only the two computers that you dealt with directly yourself?

I am asking because I am wondering if you did not get everything. That seems more likely than Panda killing stuff, but I suppose either is a possibility.

[csicomputers]

Two had been cleaned, doubtful something was missed and caused the same thing... deleting ALL files on the computer only when Panda is updating for the first time. If Panda removes a virus by deleting the operating system during an update, I'd say it's not working properly :)

[smax013]

csicomputers said:

Two had been cleaned, doubtful something was missed and caused the same thing... deleting ALL files on the computer only when Panda is updating for the first time. If Panda removes a virus by deleting the operating system during an update, I'd say it's not working properly :)

My thought was that maybe you missed something that then got "triggered" when Panda went online to update (i.e. the "something" left "learned" about the online connection to phone home when Panda did) and then it went to town.

It is admittedly pure speculation on my part.