windows corrupted need to reinstall

[Guest wayne]

Ok here we go. This on a small insignia pc (my girlfriends) 6 years old

running xp home SP2. This is what happened I was not there so not sure of

exact vergage. Got notice from virus software that a virus had been stopped.

Also got notice

that windows system files had been corrupted. Since then pc not running good.

Can not defrag except in safe mode, help and support center will not start.

In both cases says files not found but they are there. There is a whole

laundry list of issues. She lost all the discs that came with this machine

so I have nothing to work with. It has excel and word and I would like to

keep them if possible as I do not have the office disk to reinstall. I bought

a new XP home edition SP2. Not sure how to go about this. Treat as an upgrade

or new install. I am no pc genius but not completely ignorant either. Any

suggestions very much apreciated.

[Guest Elmo]

Re: windows corrupted need to reinstall

 

wayne wrote:

> OK, here we go. This on a small insignia PC (my girlfriend's) 6 years old

> running XP Home SP2. This is what happened; I was not there so not sure of

> exact verbiage. Got notice from virus software that a virus had been stopped.

> Also got notice

> that Windows system files had been corrupted. Since then pc not running well.

> Can not defrag except in safe mode, help and support center will not start.

> In both cases says "files not found" but they are there. There is a whole

> laundry list of issues. She lost all the discs that came with this machine

> so I have nothing to work with. It has Excel and Word and I would like to

> keep them if possible as I do not have the office disk to reinstall. I bought

> a new XP home edition SP2. Not sure how to go about this. Treat as an upgrade

> or new install. I am no pc genius but not completely ignorant either. Any

> suggestions very much appreciated.

 

The machine appears to still be infected. Try one of these free online

virus scans:

 

This one has a choice of a Quick or a Complete check

http://www.pcpitstop.com/

 

Symantec

http://security.symantec.com/default.asp?productid=ssr&langid=ie&venid=sym

 

<url:http://security2.norton.com/us/home.asp?j=1&venid=sym&langid=us&plfid=20&pkj=IHBEXIBVEMBQAUWZKTK>

then click the Security check link.

 

http://housecall.antivirus.com/ free online virus scan

 

http://www.ewido.net/en/

 

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm

 

--

Joe =o)

[Guest GreenieLeBrun]

Re: windows corrupted need to reinstall

 

 

 

wayne wrote:

> Ok here we go. This on a small insignia pc (my girlfriends) 6 years

> old running xp home SP2. This is what happened I was not there so

> not sure of exact vergage. Got notice from virus software that a

> virus had been stopped. Also got notice

> that windows system files had been corrupted. Since then pc not

> running good. Can not defrag except in safe mode, help and support

> center will not start. In both cases says files not found but they

> are there. There is a whole laundry list of issues. She lost all the

> discs that came with this machine so I have nothing to work with. It

> has excel and word and I would like to keep them if possible as I do

> not have the office disk to reinstall. I bought a new XP home edition

> SP2. Not sure how to go about this. Treat as an upgrade or new

> install. I am no pc genius but not completely ignorant either. Any

> suggestions very much apreciated.

 

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

 

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

You may also need to get drivers for the motherboard, video, sound etc.

[Guest Kayman]

Re: windows corrupted need to reinstall

 

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 17:46:04 -0700, wayne wrote:

> Ok here we go. This on a small insignia pc (my girlfriends) 6 years old

> running xp home SP2. This is what happened I was not there so not sure of

> exact vergage. Got notice from virus software that a virus had been stopped.

> Also got notice

> that windows system files had been corrupted. Since then pc not running good.

> Can not defrag except in safe mode, help and support center will not start.

> In both cases says files not found but they are there. There is a whole

> laundry list of issues. She lost all the discs that came with this machine

> so I have nothing to work with. It has excel and word and I would like to

> keep them if possible as I do not have the office disk to reinstall. I bought

> a new XP home edition SP2. Not sure how to go about this. Treat as an upgrade

> or new install. I am no pc genius but not completely ignorant either. Any

> suggestions very much apreciated.

 

On-line scanners are the most unsafe and next to useless. Because by the

time you've started your infected Windows and connected to the

Internet via this infected code base, and start to look for scanning sites

through infected DNS, you are almost certain to have the malware

perfectly positioned to overrule your attempts to clean it.

What happens if active malware is found? Don't expect that the on-line

scanner will do anything about it. Most of them are just just marketing

tools for selling you their products. Quite often, malware removal on the

NT based OS (Win 2K and XP) is far from easy. Sometimes a (good) resident

AV can deal with it in Safe Mode.

 

David H. Lipman's Multi-AV is *better and safer*, because you don't have to

be on-line to use it (it has no dependencies on using a web browser to

perform its function), and it can be used in Safe Mode.

 

Download David's MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL:

http://www.pctipp.ch/ds/28400/28470/Multi_AV.exe

http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

English:

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/01/09/scan-your-computer-with-multiple-anti-virus-for-free/

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more

comprehensive PDF help file.

Additional Instructions:

http://pcdid.com/Multi_AV.htm

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: windows corrupted need to reinstall

 

 

"wayne" <wayne@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:2A3F6CA6-C2CB-42E0-94B9-EF99996BC9C3@microsoft.com...

> Ok here we go. This on a small insignia pc (my girlfriends) 6 years old

> running xp home SP2. This is what happened I was not there so not sure of

> exact vergage. Got notice from virus software that a virus had been

> stopped.

> Also got notice

> that windows system files had been corrupted. Since then pc not running

> good.

> Can not defrag except in safe mode, help and support center will not

> start.

> In both cases says files not found but they are there. There is a whole

> laundry list of issues. She lost all the discs that came with this machine

> so I have nothing to work with. It has excel and word and I would like to

> keep them if possible as I do not have the office disk to reinstall. I

> bought

> a new XP home edition SP2. Not sure how to go about this. Treat as an

> upgrade

> or new install. I am no pc genius but not completely ignorant either. Any

> suggestions very much apreciated.

 

It would probably be fastest to start with removing the drive, attaching it

to another system (USB2 drive cases are inexpensive and work great for this)

and backing up all the data, including email and address files.

 

Before you attempt a clean install - which would start with at least

formatting the drive - you MUST be sure that you can get the drivers for

the system's hardware.

 

Repair installs will likely not help you, as they won't fix the registry

problems the system appears to have. If you can't replace Word and

Excel, Sun OpenOffice will create compatible documents and is free.

 

It is *possible*, though unlikely, that if there is a restore point going

back far enough, you may be able to recover some functionality and use the

Repair function. Do the backup *first*, try the upgrade, then if that

doesn't immediately appear to resolve the problem - a clean install is in

order.

 

You can spend a few hours doing a clean install and be sure that the system

is running properly, or you can spend days trying to track down an unknown

number of problems.

 

HTH

-pk