[theCleaner?]

I did it again, I broke Windows 2000 NT, i think. I have a PC that is used for work and it got full of spyware and adware, I get Pest Patrol and run the scan and it found like over 1000 pest, one being Ncase and it recommended to delete or quarantine, it stated it as a hijacker. Well I selected all that they scaned as pest and I quarintined them, so that it could be undone later if i needed to. Well when I did that, it blocked me from connecting to the internet (cable internet), so I restart, when it booted back up, nothing worked, no program will even open at all, there is basically nothing I can do to it, sometimes it want even boot up all the way. I think pest patrol really screwed up my PC. I have one and a half days to get it up and running for work, if not, I'm really screwed. I came to this board, becuase you guys still know your PC as well as Macs and are smarted than most others on window forums. If anyone can help me in any way I would really appreciate it. I don't have the Windows CD, I don't know what happend to it.

Thanks

[starman]

http://www.neowin.net

Post there. More PC users, and good people, too.

Mike

[theCleaner?]

Thank you starman, that place looks good, but I don't have access to my email, meaning I can't register with that forum to post and ask questions.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

Simple solution:

Create a new user account. Instructions are here.

Be sure to give the new user account Admin. privileges so you can install programs as needed, make system changes, etc.


When you log into the new account, you should find that voila, Windows is automagically back to 'just installed' working order. Previously installed programs should run as if just installed.

(All of this assumes that Windows isn't so hosed that even new accounts will also be hosed. It can take quite a bit of damange and still create pristine new user accounts.)


In the future, (IE: after you finish whatever is urgent) save yourself a lot of trouble, re-install windows and NEVER use the initial Admin account. ALWAYS leave the Admin account alone, create a user account, and use that. If that account gets hosed by spyware, you can just create another from the pristine Admin account which is never used for normal operation, and it's generally as if the 'hosing' never happened.

[OSX Abuser]

Reformat, reinstall.

[theCleaner?]

I created a new user account, and it's still the same, no program will open. I also keep getting explorer.exe errors. I can't even get into pest patrol even in safe mode, keeps giving me the 'has generated errors and will be shut down" errors. I guess I screwed it up really good. Guess I will have to go out and buy another copy of windows and try to reformat my hard drive.

[Oneota]

Originally posted by theCleaner?:
I created a new user account, and it's still the same, no program will open. I also keep getting explorer.exe errors. I can't even get into pest patrol even in safe mode, keeps giving me the 'has generated errors and will be shut down" errors. I guess I screwed it up really good. Guess I will have to go out and buy another copy of windows and try to reformat my hard drive.

Why buy another copy? Just use the copy you already have and don't screw it up this time.

[vmarks]

boot into safe mode. repeatedly press f8 on boot and select safe mode when the menu comes up.

Run your pest patrol from there, as well as an anti-virus scan.

Also, check your hosts file and make sure the only entry is 127.0.0.1 localhost.

Run your anti-virus program.

Also, I recommend spybot search and destroy and ad-aware instead of pest patrol and avg anti-virus (free edition.)

[wolfen]

Without knowing any more, it's hard to say. Safe mode is definitely the way to begin.

Scan for viruses if you haven't, already.

Next I'd remove the stupid Pest Patrol or whatever. I don't use it and I don't know anyone who does. Also remove any and all unneeded programs via Add/Remove.

Next I'd uninstall IE via the Windows Components option in Add/Remove programs. Just remove that from the equation. At the least you should be able to drop down to factory defaults. Then see what happens.

Next go into the registry and remove all your startup items that don't look kosher. Remove all of them if you still can't boot right. HKLM and HKCU -- /Software/Microsoft/Windows/Run. Anything that points to a suspicious file? If so, find that file and rename it with an XXX extension.

If you're still screwed, you probaby wiped an important key or file. You can then wipe/reinstall. It's faster than spending an entire day trying to figure out what the problem is.

[olePigeon]

http://store.apple.com/

[theCleaner?]

can't even get pest patrol to run even in safe mode, if I could, I could undo the damage from removing them from quarintine. I don't know what happened, but i think i broke it big time.

[theCleaner?]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
http://store.apple.com/

LOL, I here ya olepigeon, this is just my work machine. I have to use it for work, becuase the software I use to recieve all my service work for the day runs off winblows only.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by theCleaner?:
LOL, I here ya olepigeon, this is just my work machine. I have to use it for work, becuase the software I use to recieve all my service work for the day runs off winblows only.

What software do you run?

[theCleaner?]

It is a program developed by the owner of the company for the data base and scheduling and I have a sister program to it that he also developed that links to it, they email me my work for the day, I launch the sister program and it brings up the work for the day and I just print out the invoices. I'm in charge of four counties that is over 100 miles from our main office, if I can't get it running by monday, we don't work. It's gonna be a long night and day tomorrow, becuase I can't sleep that crappy thing is back up and running.

BTW: reason why I might have to buy another copy of windows is becuase my of windows (2000NT)cd is lost.....and I think i'm getting a ulcer

[Sven G]

Are you sure there isn't a hidden product recovery partition - which you typically can access by pressing some F-key at startup (displayed together with the BIOS, etc. settings F-keys) - on your computer? For example, on "my" IBM ThinkPad there is a whole 1.4 GB partition, not visible or explorable from Windows, which enables to reset the whole computer to factory defaults (Windows XP + IBM software, in this case): such an option, if present, would probably allow you to restore a clean Windows without the need for any CDs, after backing up your data. (Haven't ever tried it myself, however...)

[powerbook867]

I used to do windows admin, so here is what I woould do in this case. If no apps are running at all and you can't get the data backed up on CD or something, check around with friends and family to find a copy of 2k to do a repair of the disk. If you can't find a copy, you may have to buy one. What about stopping in at work and getting one of their copies? Do you have a friendly comp admin you could hit up for help?

If none of those options are available, I would do a parallel install of the OS in another directory. What this buys you is a fully functional install of 2k or xp in which you can install a CD burning app to get the data off, and a clean installation to run adaware, virus scan etc. I would not try to launch any other apps even in the clean install except the burning software and the virus/ad protection since you don't know what the virus is attached to/or is triggered by...

After doing the parallel install and getting all your data off, hopefully the virus software/ad software will clean up the mess. When you do the installation of the software in the new istall, make sure it all points to the NEW installation of xp/2k and a temporary application folder (do custom installs of the apps; like install it all in c;\newapps). If you install them in the default 2k app folder it will overwrite the apps installed for the original 2k install and cause lots of probs when you try and reboot into the original.....


whew!!! hope this helps!! I know what a pain this can be!!!