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win2k boot problems.


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#1
Purple_monkfish

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My pc has malware, I know it has malware but because my antivirus software subscription ran out I couldn't remove it two days back. Fast forward to yesterday and my pc starts to go mad, i've spent the whole day trying to install AVG and failing and trying to get adaware and housecall to get rid of as many trojans and worms as possible. Well, they got a few but still a few remained. Amongst them, a Vundo and a Nucrp_7 worm.
Well, now all of a sudden my pc starts to go really bad, explorer itself fails completely and I decided to turn my pc off to stop any furthur damage.. oh.. big mistake.
NOW it wont actually boot. It would get to the load screen (i'm running windows 2000) and start loading, get to the "loading network settings" or whatever and just hang, the little animation would keep on shifting side to side but pc was doing nothing.

Under my father's instruction I put the windows cd in the drive and loaded up recovery. Because I don't have an emergancy boot disk (I don't know why) I had to load up the console.
Ran chkdsk to get the message "volume contains one or more unrecoverable problems"
great, so I tried chkdsk /p to the same avail and then told it to fixboot c:/ just to see if that would make a difference.
Well, it did something as my new error is "NLTDR is missing, press any key to reboot"

So, anyone got any suggestions? I'm convinved this isn't a harddrive problem but rather a software problem related to these damned viruses that seem to have riddled my poor pc. Honestly, as soon as the firewall goes down they just appear, it's infuriating.

I'd rather NOT have to reinstall windows completely as while most of my important documents are backed up online my most recent stuff isn't and i'd rather not lose it all.
Anyone got any reccomendations or suggestions on what I can do to either fix the problem or at the very least access my files and back them up so I can blow the brains out of my pc for what feels like the hundreth time?

Microsoft's info seemed to suggest that running fixmbr would only help if there wasn't still a virus lurking so apparently I have to get rid of the virus first.. but how the [bleep] can I do that if I can't even load windows?!

Anyway, please help!

my pc doesn't have a floppy drive (my father built it, I asked him to put a flopy drive in and he ignored me, asked again and he said "oh it wont need one blah blah blah"... hah.. yeah, right.)

Thanks!
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#2
The Skeptic

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If your computer is not bootable you can try BartPE to boot, save data to a storage device and perform some maintenance operations such as checkdisk.

BartPE is a windows based, very small operating system that loads into the computer's RAM.

Use the link in my signature to download the necessary file. Follow the instructions how to create the bootable CD by using an XP installation CD. It's quite simple.

To backup your data boot the computer, click GO, click PROGRAMS and then click A43 FILE MANAGEMENT UTILITY. Windows explorer will open and you can copy the necessary data and save it to a storage device.

When finished backing up take the backed up data, the new and old, and run a thorough scan with some good antimalware programs. If you don't do that, and if there is malware in the saved data, your computer will get reinfected.

My opinion is that you should clear format your computer and not waste time on a badly corrupted system.
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#3
Purple_monkfish

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xp instalation cd? I don't think we have one of them.. just win2k. Will that work?
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#4
The Skeptic

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As far as I can see BartPE was designed to work only with XP and server 2003. Could you borrow an XP disk from someone? It's worthwhile the effort. When you create the disk (which is simple to do) I am sure that you will want to keep it for future use.
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#5
Purple_monkfish

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Not really very easily, I only run 2k and I don't think my partner doesn't have the xp install disk apparently. His copy is some half arsed not quite full copy encoded only to work on his laptop.. ahh wondeful aren't they microsoft.. hah.

I can't think of anyone who'd have a copy either, darn.

Any other suggestions for win2k? It's not the end of the world if I can't save all the data I suppose, just damned annoying. The only reason things aren't backed up is I ran out of DVDS
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#6
The Skeptic

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Try to create the bootable with win 2000. We may be surprise. XP is really based on win 2000 so we may discover something that Bart himself didn't think about (I doubt it).

Another option is to download and create a bootable cd of Puppy Linux. It serves for the same purpose but I find it more complicated. I used it few times until I learned about BartPE, and never looked back. Use this link to download Puppy 2.16 Seamonkey Fulldrive.iso. Burn the iso file to a cd to create a bootable cd.
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#7
Purple_monkfish

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Right, i'm going to have a go at downloading puppy and see what happens. Bearing in mind i've never used linex before in my life heh. Fingers crossed this works.
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#8
The Skeptic

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It's simple and intuitive to use. For some reason, at a certain point of time, I don't remember why, I had difficulties saving files.
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#9
Purple_monkfish

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Ok, puppy is up and running BUT, at the risk of sounding like an annoying noob, how on earth do I access drive C? I understand it lables the drive as something different but how can I access it and it's partition (which is I believe fat) so i can transfer the data onto a cd? A nice simple walkthrough would be terrific!

thank you so much for the help thus far!
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#10
Ztruker

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Got any friends with computers? If so, remove your hard drive and install it in their computer as a slave drive, then copy off your data. Once that's done you can nuke it and reinstall W2K.

If they're leery of installing it inside their computer, you could buy an external USB 2.0 enclosure (with fan!) and put it in there, then simply plug it into a USB 2.0 port to copy your data.
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#11
The Skeptic

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Since you know that the computer is infected I wouldn't recommend moving the disk to another computer. This can lead to the other computer being infected. I just had a case in which, while backing up data from an infected computer, the other computer got infected instantly (I mean instantly. During the first boot after connecting the disk that I wanted to backup). with malware, of the difficult-to-remove nasties. I spent hours cleaning the computer.

As for Puppy Linux: Boot with the disk, choose XVESTA and complete the bootup. When given the option choose a screen resolution like 800 x 600 x 24. Click the Drives icon. A table will open up showing all the connected drives. Choose any partition or local drive and look for it's content. The symbols look different then in windows but the logic is clear.

Please let us know if you can open any of your partitions.
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#12
Purple_monkfish

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Right, I can access /div/sda which I think must be drive D:/
It's only got 8 folders in it which seems about right for drive D but I can't open anything because it's all just a string of random numbers and letters. This is normal right? Different file systems etc etc.. but I can SEE the folders, just can't open them.

Drive C however, I can't work out how to mount. I tried the obvious in command prompt "mount vfat (it claims d is vfat but maybe c is different, i'm not sure) /div/sda2 (which i'm assuming C must be right?) mnt"
but it tells me I don't have permissions or something along those lines.

If I bung all of /div/sda (eg D) onto a cd windows can read it right? The not being able to access files is a linux compatability thing? I just want to make sure it's not meant to be able to open the folders without messing about.

I'm also having issues installing the router again so I can get net access but I think that's more a driver issue. It's a D-link wireless/ethernet router but I don't appear to have any cd with a driver on, most frustrating. I think i'll search the net and see if I can bung it onto a cd on this laptop then shove it across or something, unless anyone else has any bright ideas. I didn't set up the router so it's all a bit of a mystery to me. Not the end of the world, I can probably download what I need on this computer and burn onto a cd or dongle. All I really need is a cd burning program to be honest...

Anyway, we're getting there. Slowly. Thanks guys!
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#13
Ztruker

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My apologies Purple_monkfish, I completely forgot about there being malware on your computer.

The Skeptic is absolutely right. Thanks for catching my mistake.
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