[Leonides]

Hi guys. I hope you can help me, because I'm at my wits end.

The Story:

About two weeks ago my computer was seriously trashed by trojan, malware, and worms. It was pretty bad. It was a new system and I hadn't installed any anti-virus protection yet. So I bought myself a copy of BitDefender and went to town.

It found dozens of trojans, worms, etc. and cleaned them all up and then restarted my computer.

Since then I haven't been able to log on.

The computer boots and brings me to my log in page like normal. I type in my password and for a moment I see my desktop image and then BAM! I'm logged off. I've tried Safe Mode and the Admin account and the same thing happens there.

I went so far as to install a copy of XP on my slave drive and run a virus scan of the original drive from there. It came up clean.

So then I decided to run a Windows Repair... but the same thing is still happening.

My thought is that when BitDefender deleted one of the viruses it also deleted some critical registry file that deals with logging on. But I don't know.

Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Anything, guys?

[Leonides]

Anything, guys?

[Leonides]

Man, I must seriously be screwed...

[Retired Tech]

Apologies for the delayed response, you managed to post a thread which went under the radar

As you can access files on the drive, you could back up any data you need, put the drive back and use boot and nuke as part of a clean install

To completely erase all data on the drive(s)

Download Boot and Nuke

Using Boot and Nuke

Use the autonuke option, which could take 8 hours or so, then when you run Windows set up, check it is creating a RAW1 partition on C, if the drive letter is different, restart the PC and it should default to C

[Leonides]

Thank you Keith. One question:

When attempting to copy my old desktop folder (which is now on the slave drive) I get the "Access is Denied" message. I imagine it's because that user (me) isn't logged in.

Is there a way around this?

[Retired Tech]

This may help

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP?

When you access a file or a folder in your system, you may receive an error "Access Denied", which indicates that you don't have permissions to access that folder or the file. The error is seen is after you reinstall Windows XP and try to access your old profile. If you are an Administrator (or Administrator-level User account) and want to access the contents of the folder, you can take ownership of the folder or file.

You must be logged on to the computer with an account which has administrative privileges.

If you use XP Home Edition, start the computer in safe mode and log on with an account that has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab.

For XP Professional, you need to disable Simple File Sharing in order to see the Security tab.

To disable simple file sharing:

Click Start, click My Computer.

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, click the View tab.

In the Advanced Settings section, clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box. Click OK.

To take ownership of a folder:

Right click the folder you want to take ownership of, then click properties.

Click the Security tab and click OK on the security message, (if one appears).

Click Advanced, click the Owner tab.

In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.

If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on sub containers and objects check box.

Click OK, then click Yes when you receive the following message:

You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder name. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?

All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.

where folder name is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of.

Click OK then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents.

To take ownership of a file:

Right click the file you want to take ownership of, then click Properties.

Click the Security tab, click OK on the Security message (if one appears).

Click Advanced, click the Owner tab.

In the Name list, click Administrator, or click the Administrators group, click OK.

The administrator or the Administrators group now owns the file.

[mike needs help]

yes that should work if not reccomend a boot from cd repair!

only if you cant boot into safemode that is ))

now if you are having a major problem logging in or if the problem is resolved plz do reply!

Have you noticed the edit button

Edited by Keith, 02 July 2006 - 06:28 PM.

[Leonides]

Well nobody has yet suggested away around the initial log in problem... so I gues I'll just copy my files over. I hope my programs will still work!

[Retired Tech]

The programmes won't remain after a clean install, you will need the installation discs or the download source for them

[Leonides]

I now have control of those folders...

Recovery will be long, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks, gents.

[mike needs help]

your welcome best wishes


and by the way kieth thanks for letting me knowabout the edit button sorry if i caused you any trouble lol

Edited by mike needs help, 02 July 2006 - 06:58 PM.