[mohavepc]

no options just goes to the choice of windows xp or recovery console that combofix installed.

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Ok I just made some headway however. I swapped out the standard external cdrom for a home contraption using an external ide hdd enclosure and an ide dvd rom and now it is booting from cd. I am at the windows setup now. should I do a repair install?

[mohavepc]

Ok I just made some headway however. I swapped out the standard external cdrom for a home contraption using an external ide hdd enclosure and an ide dvd rom and now it is booting from cd. I am at the windows setup now. should I do a repair install?

[mohavepc]

ok good news and bad news. first the good news is that I indeed got the pc to boot from dvd, and began repairs. HowEvEr half way through the installation of drivers after the input of lic. the machine suddenly no longger see's any usb. so now i'm stuck with a freaking brick

ok as an update. DVD drive suddenly died. would not work in a tower either. scavenged another from a pile of parts and restarted repair as a continuation of the setup did not see the drive but a boot from however did. **crossing fingers**

Edited by mohavepc, 12 July 2011 - 02:26 PM.

[Essexboy]

A definite Heath Robinson construction going on here

You are a bit further ahead than I anticipated we have a repair tutorial here

[mohavepc]

Thanks for your help thus far Essex, I am quite familiar with windows repair and also the recovery console. I hadn't had any luck booting from cd or usb so I figured my only opiotns were to ask for help repairing or drop kick the mini
not sure who heath robinson is but I bet he's a lot like Rube Goldberg (goldburg?)
will let you know the status once the repair completes.


Thanks again.

ps. looked up Heath Robinson and I was right. Rube did a lot of the same stuff
http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

Edited by mohavepc, 12 July 2011 - 03:04 PM.

[mohavepc]

Well Essex your not going to believe this but....
after a repair install of windows
the exe issue still exists
I will back up data again and wipe the hdd

Thanks anyhow

[Essexboy]

For my curiosity when you were shutting down during this problem did windows hang for a period ?

[mohavepc]

No it didn't ....it hasnt had any issues shutting down or starting up,

[mohavepc]

Question
Is it possible that there is a security issue with that particular reg key or with the reg itself that wont allow for a save?

[mohavepc]

new turn of events.
I believe there is still something infecting this machine.
I was backing up data to an external HDD when the pc began to slow. at this point I terminated explorer because it hung and restarted it. it still hasent reappeard (15min). I looked at running proc and see no issues there. I am wondering if there could be a rootkit of unknown type messing here?

[Essexboy]

Could you check the hard drive for errors either using chkdisc or if you could let me know the make of Hardrive I will find the manufacturers diagnostic tool

[mohavepc]

I will run the chkdsk on it from the cd here in a few minutes and will try to get the HDD Man. This unut has to be fully dissaembled to pull the HDD.

[mohavepc]

The ChkDsk showed no errors, problem persists, HDD is a Toshiba MK6028GAL 40GB
could not find a chk util for the Toshiba,

Edited by mohavepc, 13 July 2011 - 01:08 PM.

[Essexboy]

Here you go - I feel you will need the DOS Diagnostic Tool Ver. 7.0 (For IDE/ATA/SATA Hard Drives) running from a cd (unless you have a floppy drive)

[mohavepc]

OK using either the dos ver from a bootable winxp cd or the win version in safe mode neither recognises the drive as testable. the drive shows up just cannot be selected to test. I may have to pull it and run it on a test machine.