[smichael]

Heya, well I started off with the intent of getting some spyware off my comp and have now instead I cannot even get windows to load up now. So any help would be appreciated.

I had just gotten hit with Spy Sherriff and had some of it contained but wanted to run HJT from safemode. What I did was go into "run" and then typed "msconfig" then went into the the "boot ini" tab and clicked on "start in safemode" and then restarted the comp.

Now what happens is that it tries to start up but then stops I get a screen with a number of options including
"start in safemode" and "start with last working configuration", "start windows normally" etc.. If I select safemode it starts as if it was going to load and then brings me back to the same screen with the start up options on it. I have tried to get it to start with the "run windows normally" option and the last working configuration option but nothing works. It appears that I have the start up stuck in a cycle of trying to start in safemode but since it is having trouble doing that then it just keeps going back to the same screen. Is there any way to break this cycling that is going on so I can get any form of windows to start up? Or am I going to have to wipe the whole thing clean and find my windows xp disc? (really don't want to do this)

I am running (well trying to run )windows xp home edition sp2 on an older Sony Vaio w/ a p4 2.0 in it.

Thanks in advance for any advice provided.

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Do you have a Windows XP disk?

[gerryf]

Do you have a Windows XP disk?

[smichael]

I don't have the original xp disc I am still looking but no luck so far. If I don't need the original, I think I can get my hands on the one from my girls laptop I just got her.

[smichael]

Ah well, I cannot find any XP disc (my girl's comp didn't come with an XP disc. Just the original "system recovery" discs that came with my computer

[gerryf]

are both these machines desktops or laptops?

[smichael]

my computer that won't start is a desktop, the one I am writing on right now is a laptop

[Fenor]

Are you able to burn CD's on your laptop or any other computer in your house that is working?

Fenor

[gerryf]

do you have access to another desktop?

Here is what I am proposing.

Something I think is wrong in the boot.ini file, a text file in the root of c:

If you were here, I'd pull the faulty drive, put it in the second computer as a SLAVE to the working PCs drive (you will just be adding the nonworking drive as a second drive, not replacing it), open boot.ini from the drive that is causing issues, edit the boot.ini file in notepad by removing the /sos switch, then run chkdsk on the drive just for good measure, then reinsert in your computer.

[smichael]

I only have one desktop in the house so nothing to swap out.

The laptop I have can burn cd's

[gerryf]

doesn't help...necessarily.

Hmm, do this

Start > run
notepad.exe boot.ini
<enter>

(on your laptop)
copy and paste contents here.

And, your desktop that does not work...only one harddrive?

[smichael]

eh looks like I am sol, ah well

I tried running the boot. ini for the laptop but got a msg that it doesn't exist and I was asked if I wanted to create it.

[Fenor]

Try typing notepad.exe c:\boot.ini instead.

Fenor

[smichael]

oh and I forgot say that I have 2 hard drives and one external hard drive

[smichael]

ok this is what I got from the notebook computer:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[gerryf]

Well, the two drives complicates things a bit as I do not want you to alter boot.ini file incorrectly.


Did you try safe mode with command prompt?

Not having the xp disk is really complicating this