...has a virus jumped up and bit me?

[Will Hay]

I installed a new 200gb HDD last night, and having spent three hours instazlling all my essential programs installed ZoneAlarm and connected to the web via broadband.
Within about twenty minutes I kept getting directed to this one site, and kept being asked to download and run some shit program or other (to eb able to view the page properly; you know the one).
I used ctr+alt+del to get rid of it but everytime I conencted I'd get directed to this one site.
The end result is when I installed AVG (anti virus) I got a fair few messages fromWinXP saying 'x' file was corrupted, and having tried to reboot can't start my machine.
Can someone help me determine what I can do to fix?
If I can't start my PC I guess I need some kind of boot disk, right?
Many thanks,
Will Hay

[jeex]

Within about twenty minutes I kept getting directed to this one site, and kept being asked to download and run some shit program or other (to eb able to view the page properly; you know the one).
Many thanks,
Will Gay

what website is it? does it autolauch your browser? have you updated windows? viri scan? spyware scan?

[flaninacupboard]

avg -isn't- part of your essential programs?!

have you tried sticking in the XP disc and using the repair option?
can you still boot in safe mode through the F8 menu?

[Will Hay]

I didn't install AVG at that time as I wasn't checking nor had set up my email
I tried the recovery option of XP but couldn't follow it, it just gave me a command prompt
Can you point me somewhere where I can learn how to use the repair option?

It doesn't autoload the browser jeex, no, it just divert me to the site but I'll be buggered if I can remember the web address, ended in .ro I think and had .txt in it.
Not a lot to go on, sorry
I got two messages through messenger as soon as I connected via ADSL, and ZoneAlarm reported at least half a dozen "problems"
Will

[hech54]

Try here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/

Download CWShredder to check for spyware.
Download Hijackthis and post the log onto the message board on the above web site...within a day or so someone will help you get rid of the problem.
READ the FAQ first. They will respond ALOT quicker if you follow the rules in the FAQ.

[fmctm1sw]

This has saved my ass on numerous occasions: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

Good for when the wife opens email sent from "Admin" and containing subjects such as "open immediately!"

adaware has been good to me too....[/url]

[VCDHunter]

This has saved my ass on numerous occasions: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

I'll second that, its been a life saver for me too on occasion.

@Will try running something like Spybot or adaware to see if you've got any spyware lurking somewhere.

[Will Hay]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm a little confused as to how I can scan my computer for popups, spyware or (trend) viruses when I can't even boot up to windows
Will

[fmctm1sw]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm a little confused as to how I can scan my computer for popups, spyware or (trend) viruses when I can't even boot up to windows
Will

Shit Will, I didn't read close enough...

[VCDHunter]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm a little confused as to how I can scan my computer for popups, spyware or (trend) viruses when I can't even boot up to windows
Will

Isn't the XP disc bootable ? I use 2k and that has 4 floppys to boot from.

[flaninacupboard]

assuming everything is backed up, chalk it up to experience, format, and start again. it only takes about 40 minutes to install XP, just make sure you install AVG and firewall absolutely 1st.

[Will Hay]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm a little confused as to how I can scan my computer for popups, spyware or (trend) viruses when I can't even boot up to windows
Will

Isn't the XP disc bootable ? I use 2k and that has 4 floppys to boot from.

It is pal, yes, but I cant follow it and the last hour searching/reading the MS site hasn't helped.
There is every digital picture of my son and newborn daughter on that drive, along with at least 25no/35gb mpegs (I record a little every month)
Some are backed up, not all.
Will

[flaninacupboard]

hmm, then you need to find a way to grab those files.

got another hard drive you can install a fresh OS on? only needs to be a couple of gigs.

[fmctm1sw]

Would you be able to format another drive and boot off it? Then maybe you could configure the other one as a slave or something and get something off it that way?

[Will Hay]

hmm, then you need to find a way to grab those files.

got another hard drive you can install a fresh OS on? only needs to be a couple of gigs.

Yes, I'm in the process of borrowing one I gave away when I installed the 200gb!
So, as that already has a clean version of XP on (never connected to the net), I can just grab the files from my big drive and then start again?
It's only the OS on the big drive that might be buggered?
If so, good to hear
Can you recommend some ad/spy software to run along with my AVG and ZoneAlarm?
Will

[fmctm1sw]

hmm, then you need to find a way to grab those files.

got another hard drive you can install a fresh OS on? only needs to be a couple of gigs.

Beat me to it....

[Will Hay]

Thanks to all
I'll be playing at lunch-time and will report back with my success (or otherwise).
Thanks again,
Will

[flaninacupboard]

i use both adaware from lavasoft and spybot search & destroy. quick google should sort you out.

if it is the virus that upset your OS then you personal files should still be intact. however without more info, and the fact it's a new drive, the possibility of hardware problems is looming on the horizon

[VCDHunter]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm a little confused as to how I can scan my computer for popups, spyware or (trend) viruses when I can't even boot up to windows
Will

Isn't the XP disc bootable ? I use 2k and that has 4 floppys to boot from.

It is pal, yes, but I cant follow it and the last hour searching/reading the MS site hasn't helped.
There is every digital picture of my son and newborn daughter on that drive, along with at least 25no/35gb mpegs (I record a little every month)
Some are backed up, not all.
Will

From where you are now can you get onto one of those sites that has all the boot up floppy images for download ? That maybe a half decent way to start. As long as you can get the damm thing booted, even if only to a dos prompt, you'll be a little closer to sorting this out - you haven't been trying overclocking have you ?

[thecoalman]

I can just grab the files from my big drive and then start again?
It's only the OS on the big drive that might be buggered?
If so, good to hear

Will to set your mind at ease, The only time they become unrecoverable is if the space they occupied on the disc is written over or the disc itself becomes physically damaged. If you can't recover them using your old drive whatever you do don't try to install or write anything to that drive. Even if the drive is no longer operable you can still recover them but you will pay a small fortune to do so.

[northcat_8]

Since your stuff is not backed up, I would just do a new install of XP overtop of the old copy. Everything in "My Documents" will be saved under the user names of your current install. So make sure you put in a different user name on the new install. For example, my old XP install had user names Jack, Mary, Brooke. So when I installed XP over top of it, I had 3 extra folders called Jack's Documents, Mary's Documents, and Brooke's Documents and then I had a new "My Documents" folder.

Now many of your software programs won't work, but if you are just looking to save documents, that will work.

I currently run a 2nd install of XP overtop of the original install. It's a pain in the ass to download all the updates again but you are on broadband so it's not bad.

[Will Hay]

Okay, so it was a ******* virus.
AVG found it after I added a 30gb drive and used the 200gb one as the slave.
The 200gb must have infected the 30gb as soon as I connected it, I got a NT shutdown message straight away and when I rebooted messenger said I was connected when I wasn't, but it looks like all is well as far the virus goes.
Trouble is, only about 8gb of the 70gb is there.
******* bastards.
I backed up my mpegs/jpegs of my family 15 May 2004, and the pics I haven't got are still on the camera so that's cool.
The stuff that's gone is the broadcast stuff I recorded and encoded over the last six months
Could have been worse I suppose, but are the files really gone?
I've already moved the 8gb that was still there back to my storage drives, so is it gone and will one of these freeware recovery software packages help?
Just one last thing on the virus...
....I had two 160gb drives on a controller conencted to the drive whcih caught the virus, after I format the master drive and reinstall windowsXP, check every drive for viruses I'm guessing everything will be clear, right?
The virus would only have been resident on the master/OS drive, yes, and not the drives only used for storage/video editing/capture?
Thanks,
Will

[thecoalman]

I recovered files from a drive that was formatted and had a clean install of windows. Matter of fact I recovered multiple copies of them due to the fact they were opened and resaved. like I said before providing they weren't overwritten they should be still there. Most if not all of those file recovery programs have trial versions, just won't let you recover anything unless you buy it. They'll show you what they find though, won't cost you anything to look. Just make sure you install it to a seperate drive than the one your trying to recover from. Good Luck!

[Shard92]

something else to remember you sp1 to recognize large hard drives like that.

[mariner]

Get a 2 small 20 - 30g drives and install it on the motherboard ide channel 0.
Install cdrw/dvd rw on motherboard ide channel 1.
Install only windows on drive c: (use fat32 to be able to boot w/ win98)
Install only pograms on drive d: (ntfs)
Save files only on the 3rd large drive attached to the controller that comes with it.

If something happens to drive c: you can easily recover by using a win98 boot disk and use an antivirus program to clean it. Mcafee has dos based antiviurs utilities that can be downloaded.

[Will Hay]

something else to remember you sp1 to recognize large hard drives like that.

Not in my case, the Maxtor Maxblast 3 utility on a boot disk worked perfectly
Will