the girlfriends phone crashed the other day, completely gone, couldn't do anything with it.
today mine (different model) does the exact same thing without any warning!
is there some kind of virus?

Plug them into the PC and update them that might help.

Iirc my Avira can scan them, not sure how

been trying that it'll connect to the pc in every mode except phone mode, which is the one i need...

i never knew you could back up contacts to the memory card either. i find this out now, just as it won't let me in to my contacts, so i can't even get in to write the important ones down.