Ramsom Virus encrypted prized photos...

I got hit with Cryptowall 3.0, a new strain of "Ransomware" that hijacks your PC until you pay a fine over the internet. I got rid of the virus easily enough, but not until it had encrypted all of the pictures and folders that were on my PC desktop. The idea is that I could pay a $500 ransom to get the decryption key, thus getting all of my old photos back. Be sure to back up your stuff to an external drive or Flickr or whatever... something that is not always attached to your PC.

In my case, I had recent projects and many prized photos sitting in folders on my desktop. That included my screen saver folder which was full of pictures I loved. Most of these are probably backed up somewhere, except the most recent.

So, back up your stuff, and make sure you're running a really good anti-virus program, because I was just using Window's built-in defense system.

Also, for Windows, be sure to set a System Restore point. I had done that, but I think this bug actually erased all of my old restore points so I could not use that feature. In fact, I tried to run ComboFix, a popular freeware PC scrubber, and it got deleted when I tried to run it! That Cryptowall is one advanced bug.

I see you ran combofix, so you may be familiar with the bleepingcomputer forum, its a very popular tool over there. Those guys are great with helping solve the seemingly unsolvable problems. It does not look good for you though. Here is some reading if you haven't seen it:
CryptoWall and HELP_DECRYPT Ransomware Information Guide and FAQ
This is really bad bug and everyone should be extra careful.

It is a really bad bug. I'm sorry that you got hit with it.

And that is good advice that everyone should follow. Backups, lots of backups! AV is always important too but even the best ones can't stop everything at the right time.