[leanneqld]

Friends pc(pentium 4 windows xp home)would only boot into safe mode. Have managed to uninstall a lot of useless programs , ran spybot and can now boot normal. When it boots i get error messages about inet and nail.exe not being found. Thats just the start. I checked the system folders and cannot find the system32 folder...its missing. From the RUN option i cannot use cmd or regedit. I get a box that says c:windows\system32\cmd.com
c:\windows\system32\AUTOEXEC.NT The system file is not suitable for running ms-dos and microsoft windows applications.

Next, the D: drive "my computer" is missing and the cd-rom drive in device manager is yellow flagged. Have tried uninstalling the letting the pc detect new hardware which it does but it's still yellow flagged(error code 39).

Also note, the pc is not connected to the internet , I am using my pc to post and download what i can to a usb flash drive so i can put a few programs(like spybot) onto the friends pc.

Where do I start??????

any help much appreciated, thanks

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Hi leanneqld...

Do you have an XP installation cd? Preferrably a retail version...

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi leanneqld...

Do you have an XP installation cd? Preferrably a retail version...

wannabe1

[leanneqld]

unfortunately no. What they gave me seems to be a boot cd not an xp cd(they were given it by the peron who built their pc) it says on the cd "productr ecovery cd-rom" the software included on this recovery cd-rom was pre-installed on your hard drive...etc etc . I tried running sfc /scan now and inserted the disc but it told me it was the wrong disk and i needed xp professional, yet i checked and HOME edition is definitely installed. Although it might not even have recognised the cd as there is ni d: drive. ....its a bit strange

[leanneqld]

ok...just found the system32 folder..it was hidden 1 problem down...lol

[wannabe1]

Good...

Let's see if we can get the cd-rom back.

Let's take a look at the upper and lower filters. Click Start then Run and type regedit...click "Ok"

In the left pane, expand (click +) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, then Control, then Class, and click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} In the right pane, are UpperFilters and LowerFilters listed?

Edited by wannabe1, 25 April 2006 - 11:04 PM.

[leanneqld]

stilll can't run regedit from the run command.....i just tried and still get the pop up box (see above, original post)...any other idea???

[wannabe1]

This is going to be difficult to say the least...

The machine is still loaded with malware and it's going to stop just about any attempt we make to fix this machine.

Try going to Run and type cmd.exe Does this bring up the command window?

[leanneqld]

hey, clever, yes it brings up the cmd box

[wannabe1]

Ok...we need to decide which way to go with this. We're pretty limited with what we can do.

At the prompt, type chkdsk /f /r (Note the spaces)...press "enter"
Type Y (to run on the next boot)...press "Enter"
Type exit..."Enter"

Reboot.

This will run on boot and is a pretty long check...be patient and let it finish. It may help this situation...it may not, but it sure won't hurt!

[leanneqld]

ok..i got this message
CHKDSK cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts. y/n

ok...i clicked Y and it's restarting.....

[wannabe1]

Perfect!

It's going to take a while...quite a while. It may appear to start over a time or three...that's part of the procedure...it's repairing and restoring files

Let me know if you see any improvement once it completes and boots to the desktop.

You will be needing the Malware folks to help you get this cleaned up once we get it running a bit better.

[leanneqld]

hi, finished and it rebooted...still have no d: drive and cannot get into regedit..same error message.....I found an article about copy/pasting the autoexec.nt file into the system32 folder

http://support.micro...kb;en-us;324767

is this a possibility?

[wannabe1]

That really isn't going to do much for you... One...it will require the cd-rom and Two...it will require an installations cd.

If you can get your hands on a retail version (same version that's on the machine), that would really be a big help.

If you have a floppy drive on the rig, we can get some boot disks made up so we can use Recovery Console to try a few options available there.

For the moment, don't try moving files around...this machine's in bad enough shape already.

Myself or other Staff members can assist you more with this...we're gonna have to get it running to fix it. Talk about your catch 22...

wannabe1

[leanneqld]

hi, yes floppy drive is on it and in working order

[wannabe1]

Go HERE and download the floppy set for the operating system on your friends machine. This will require 6 floppy disks. Double click on the downloaded file and start feeding it disks when it asks for them.

I've got to get some sleep, but will be back on tomorrow and will be glad to assist you in this.