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Recovery Console NOT Installed, My PC Warns


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#1
scottportraits

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Feb 18, 2008

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
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#2
happyrock

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see if the info here will help...
it even covers How to get to the Windows Recovery Console without an official Windows Setup CD
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#3
scottportraits

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Feb 18 11:45pm est

Ouch ! Getting a recovery console without an 'official' XP install CD requires a floppy drive, which I have not got. I would literally have to buy a USB plug and play floppy driver to do this. Don't know anyone locally who does. Wish the technique would work with bootable CD's, which I could easily burn.

The other way that an MS knowledge base article recommends involves having an install CD and copying, I believe, i386 files. I don't have a full XP OS install disk, and can't find any i386 files in C:\Windows.

My PC boots up fine. I just ran sfc /scannow and all protected files are intact. I could boot up again from the dinky Recovery CD I do have, and see if a NON-Destructive System restore helps in any way.

Other than that, I am hard up for ideas. Will study the articles at that link more closely, but at first glance it seems that these two techniques are the only ones that apply here.

-scottportraits.
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#4
sari

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Scottportraits,

Please wait for someone to help you in malware - we have a means for getting the recovery console installed, and whoever helps you should be able to walk you through this. This is something that will be addressed there.
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#5
scottportraits

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Okay, so from here on it's a malware damage issue, and no longer an OS post. This topic is closed.

For more of this incident go to "Malware Forum" at this link:

http://www.geekstogo...ch-t187950.html

Thanks Sari,

-scottportraits
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#6
happyrock

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if you know someone with a retail copy of the same flavor as you use...(if you use pro their copy must be pro)..you can use their copy to get the i386 files copied to your computer
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#7
scottportraits

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Feb 19 4pm est

Darn ! I don't know of anyone personally who would let me do that. I do know some repair guys I'd have to pay $100. just for the housecall to.....
....If I ever get my hands on XP Home OS Full Install disk, should I copy just i386 and paste it into C:\Windows....why not just copy the whole CD to hard drive and then burn my own CD from there.....

You know that MS sells rights to the OS directly to the PC manufacturers, Dell, eMachines, Gateway, etc etc....and so making us buy the full install CD is like selling the same product twice. Gouging !

I recall when I first bought this PC I looked in C:\Windows for i386 files, to copy to CD, but they do not include those files in the pre-installed OS. They do, however, thoughtfully include a dinky Restore CD that also does not have those i386 files on it.

Someone in Malware will be walking me thru the process of building the recovery console up again, but I confess, if the cabinets never had i386 files in them, nor are they on the restore CD, how did I ever do a destructive restoration ???

-s
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