Hi Fellow PC Enthusiasts,
After as thorough a cleaning as can be imagined, I emerge from Trojan wars with a bright red warning in the Combo.Fix Log. The message ominously warns (in bright red) that "This machine has not got the Recovery Console Installed".
A complete unabridged bio of this matter (and logs) can be found at this malware link:
http://www.geekstogo...ch-t187950.html
...but I believe all the malware has been detected and purged, so I thought I'd start this second topic under Operating Systems > XP Home.
I had to do a complete XP destructive System Restore in January. My eMachine W3502 came with a dinky little recovery CD, which appears to be able to do the job, but is hardly an XP OS Full Install disk. I wonder if this Combo.fix warning suggests that the back-up XP 'cabinets' are no longer installed, and that this dinky little CD won't work any more.
I do not have an XP install disk. When you buy a PC that has the OS built-into the 'cabinets' they only supply you with an abbreviated System Recovery disk. That way, Slick Willy Gates & MS can charge twice for XP; once to eMachines and then again when you have to buy a full install disk. This is what they do, the games they play.
I will run an sfc /scannow and see if anything shows up for corrupt/missing protected system files, which I thought those cabinets were. This is post-trojan/virus removal damage, also possibly the result of a few fix utilities like SDFix, Combo.Fix, Dr Web CureIt, Langer, etc.
Thanks folks,
-scottportraits