virus, no start menu, no desktop icons, plz help

[Lou_]

the pc was on for about 3 days,

I went to use my computer today and it has no desktop icons or start menu. I rebooted a million times. I started in safe mode and I can get in but it won't let me do anything except look at this scanning program so that I can buy it.

I tried control alt delete, nope,
I tried system restore is locked out,
I tried banging my head on the monitor, no bandaids.

Any suggestions?

[Monty007]

Hi, download these two progarms:
Superantispyware
Malwarebytes
Update both and run a full scan in safe mode.
Once done run super antispyware repair http://www.superantispyware.com/imag...epairsFull.gif

[Lou_]

let me give that a shot, thanks in advance mate!

[JohnFL]

He said ""I started in safe mode and I can get in but it won't let me do anything except look at this scanning program so that I can buy it.""

If in the safe mode it won't let him do anything, then he certainly can't start any anti spy ware programs, unless those are boot able via a CD rom drive.

I would think his only chance would be to take that boot able drive out of his machine, and put it in another machine as a ""slave drive"", and THEN run an anti virus program on it.

Just make sure you do NOT copy any files off of that drive until you have the virus properly cleaned up. Any transferring of files from that drive should be viewed as suspicious, until that drive is cleanded.

[Monty007]

Originally Posted by JohnFL

He said ""I started in safe mode and I can get in but it won't let me do anything except look at this scanning program so that I can buy it.""

If in the safe mode it won't let him do anything, then he certainly can't start any anti spy ware programs, unless those are boot able via a CD rom drive.

I would think his only chance would be to take that boot able drive out of his machine, and put it in another machine as a ""slave drive"", and THEN run an anti virus program on it.

Just make sure you do NOT copy any files off of that drive until you have the virus properly cleaned up. Any transferring of files from that drive should be viewed as suspicious, until that drive is cleanded.

So true my bad....working night shift is a .....you know what. You could also try a boot cd http://www.free-av.com/en/products/1...ue_system.html I have used it and it works well.

[Lou_]

oh ok, I was going to download the programs from my laptop and burn them on a disk to attempt all this on the affected machine which is my desktop. But then again it won't let me do anything. So being that my other computer with McAfee is a laptop, I'm not going to be able to plug the hd to a serial port as a slave. So hmmm

[JohnFL]

I have a question..... Does the desktop have any data on it, that is worth the time and effort to try to save?

If not, then you would probably be best to just pop in your OS disk, and format the drive and re-install the OS.

If on the other hand you have data on that machine that you just have to have, then as I see it, you have only three choices.

You can go to the trouble of using your laptop and downloading something like ERD Commander or Ultimate Boot CD. Both of these programs can be downloaded from the internet, but require you to slipstream an anti virus program, and then make it into a bootable CD.

Or a much easier choice would be to find someone who has a desk top machine that you could put your bad drive in, and try to run a anti virus program from it.

Or... and this might be your best bet. See if you can find a small 40 gig drive that a friend might have laying around, and put it into your desk top as the main boot drive. Then put an OS on it, and install an anti virus program on it, and make your bad drive the "D:" drive and go about it that way.

It all depends on how important the data that you have on that drive is.

On another note, if your running McAfee, do yourself a favor and get rid of it. McAfee a long time ago used to be a good anti virus program.... just like Norton used to be a good one. Both of them now make any machine a very slow machine. Spend about 9 or 10 dollars, and go to Ebay and buy something like Kaspersky anti virus. Your machine will end up running MUCH faster, and you will still get updates many times each day.

[Lou_]

I think I have a spare 60 gig drive laying around that I can format and install xp or something on it and then do it that way.

The other problem that I have is that I have looked for the windows xp disc for like days since this happened and it's nowhere to be found so I'm going to have to run out to compUSA down the street and get an XP cd.

I have all the discs for my vista laptop, I wonder if I can use one of those?

[JohnFL]

"I have all the discs for my vista laptop, I wonder if I can use one of those?""

I would think, probably not. Most laptops come with windows installed, which in turn puts 2 volumes on your hard drive. They come with drivers from the company that made your laptop, so I don't think you have a real MS disk, but instead probably a "restore" disk from the company that made your laptop... I could be wrong on that one.

Is the MS sticker on the desktop case??? The sticker that has the MS keys.

If you have that sticker, then just borrow a MS XP disk from one of your friends, and use the keys that are on that sticker.

If there is no sticker, then yes, you need to go and buy an XP disk, or... think about maybe just ordering the $49.99 Windows 7 package, that MS is offering until the 11th of this month. That would be cheaper than buying a XP disk, which would cost you around $90.00

Remember, you do NOT have to have the original OS disk, as long as you use the keys that are on that sticker.

[Lou_]

I took the primary hard drive out of the pc and plugged it up to my kid's pc as a slave. It's been running a scan with McAfee for the past 4 days and so far it has detected over 4,000 infected items. Hopefully the scan ends soon!

[Lou_]

The scan kept on crashing. I gave up. So I connected another external hard drive to move the files from the now slave to the external. Only stuff I want to keep like family videos and pics. So that I can format the disk and it does not let me get into the slave's docs! it says "ACCESS DENIED" in the owner's docs from the original pc. So now what? How do I get my videos and pictures out of there?

[Lou_]

bump, plz help