[RaviG]

Let me explain the sequence of events that have led me to the problem:
My Compaq Laptop (Celeron M, 512 MB) running Widows-XP Home, SP2 was infected with spyware (It was a Trojan) and I used Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2007
to clean up the mess. I chose the option to remove all the affected files and after that restarted the system. Upon restarting, just before the Welcome screen it displayed (as i remember may not be exact) :
Lavasoft Executing command in queue...
Deleting file 'win@@@@.exe'


After that it displayed a blue screen with the following message:
STOP: c000021A {Fatal system error}
The windows Logon Process System process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000034 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down

Now, I am not able to start Windows either in normal or safe mode, it enters an infinite restart loop.

Would appreciate if someone can help me recover the existing Windows-XP installation. I even started the recovery console and
played around with commands like FIXBOOT, BOOTCFG but in vain. Would I be able to recover the Win-XP or should I go in for
a new installation all over again? Pls help

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Hi there RaviG, welcome to Geeks to Go!

Have you tried following these instructions?

Cheers

[Troy]

Hi there RaviG, welcome to Geeks to Go!

Have you tried following these instructions?

Cheers

[RaviG]

Will give it a try thanks for the info. Another thing I forgot to tell was that I'm running an OEM
version of the Windows on my laptop.

Any idea about the difference between repair through a new installation menu option and
repair through Recovery console option? Just to be ready for the after effects.

Cheers,
Ravi

Hi there RaviG, welcome to Geeks to Go!

Have you tried following these instructions?

Cheers

[Troy]

You may be able to recover the installation, but I'm not quite technical enough to walk you through it properly. The New Install option sounds like it would format your hard drive first, meaning you lose all your personal files.

Just wait patiently and I will get someone who can help you better.

[wannabe1]

Hi RaviG...

When you tried booting into Safe Mode, did you try the option for "Last known good configuration"?

From the Recovery Console prompt, have you tried running chkdsk /r?

If you have tried those with no joy, we'll see if we can run a System Restore from command prompt.

wannabe1

[RaviG]

Troy\wannabe

Thanks I was able to restore my Windows XP installation. Instead of Recovery console option, I used Install option from Win-XP CD and then went on to choose the repair existing installation option. However, the effects of spyware/malware continue to exist i.e., while the system was affected by spyware it had disabled Task Manager and Desktop wallpaper. I had set it right manually by using Regedit.

However, after recovery of Windows XP I found that even though I have access to Task Manager, it does not have any Menu Bar, Status Bar, Tabs to switch from task to process etc.? Any thoughts or suggestion to setting it right? Would it be still safe to use this installation (spyware affected) though it was cleaned by Ad-Aware2007? Would deleting the user which was affected and creating a new user solve the problem? I know that the affected files or registry is still common to all users (just a thought).

Cheers,
Ravi

[wannabe1]

Open Task Manager and double click on a gray border area...the tabs should reappear. This is called the small footprint mode and is simply one of the views available for Task Manager.

[123Runner]

Another suggestion after you get the comp somewhat operational is to have it checked out in the malware forum. While there, there are things that they ask you to do on your own that will clear a majority of malware/ spyware/ virus's. Be patient they are usually busy.

You will want to start HERE

[RaviG]

Wannabe,
Thanks for the help. I did not know it was going to be so easy.

123Runner,
I'll start with malware forum from tomorrow, thanks for the help.