[Laminar]

I am cleaning up an old Viao for a friend of my sister, and I wanted to make sure I have all of my bases covered. It's running XP SP3 and all updates are current, but it was running very very slowly and messages about viruses kept popping up. It turns out there were about 3 or 4 anti-virus programs installed, one of which wanted me to buy the full version to delete the 7 viruses it detected. I uninstalled all of the virus-related programs I could find and install the free version of Avast. It found about 6-10 piece of malware right off the bat and cleared those out. I'm installing Ad-Aware right now, so we'll see what that finds.

Besides the viruses, I installed Firefox and I'll tell them to use that from now on, I'm putting passwords on their previously unprotected administrator accounts, I'm going to double the RAM (only about $17), and I emptied the Recycle Bin, which freed up almost 2 gigs of hard drive space and really helped with the computer being sluggish, since the hard drive was almost full. It used to take about 10 minutes to start up and be usable, but I have that down to just a minute or two now.

Do I have all of my bases covered? Should I check anything else?

[Dakar V]

*the first asshole who chimes in that wiping Windows off is the solution*

[Laminar]

And in record time, although I wouldn't expect anything less from you.

[Dakar V]

Odd, I'm all about declining expectations.

[Spheric Harlot]

Damnit.

Beaten to the punch.

Oh well.

[Laminar]

Well, Ad-Aware has found 614 infections so far, and it's about halfway done.

[Big Mac]

LOL. I hope you're getting paid for all that work, considering that's it's not even a family relationship.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

LOL. I hope you're getting paid for all that work, considering that's it's not even a family relationship.

I am - they said they'd pay "whatever I wanted" so I'm thinking about $30 + the cost of the RAM. That probably exceeds the value of the computer, but it's fine, it's something to do before my job starts, and it will put food in my belly.

[ghporter]

Get rid of the "uninstall NT update" backup files. The SP3 uninstall file alone will be enormous, and every stinkin' patch, fix, update or tweak generates one. They are typically in the /Windows directory. You should be able to mass delete them. However, sometimes you'll find that some sort of file or other from one or another of those uninstall folders is in use-it is NOT critical to XP's operation, but it was loaded in the last boot. Fine. Delete everything you can and then dump the Recycle Bin again.

Now is a good time to defrag the living snot out of that drive too (after dumping the uninstall folders and emptying Recycle again, of course).

[Laminar]

I've run into a bit of a snag - it turns out some genius decided it would be a good idea to partition the 60GB hard drive into a 15GB FAT32 parition and a 40GB NTFS partition. Everything is being put on the 15GB partition, which is why it filled up. There's no need for two partitions - is there any easy way to combine them, or do I need to back it all up, repartition, then re-install?

They gave me a 250GB hard drive to use if I need to back up anything, except that it's USB and this computer doesn't have USB 2.0, so transferring anything takes forever.

[@pplejaxkz]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

I am - they said they'd pay "whatever I wanted" so I'm thinking about $30 + the cost of the RAM. That probably exceeds the value of the computer, but it's fine, it's something to do before my job starts, and it will put food in my belly.

There you go! Every once in a while I'll clean up a PC here and there for a family member or even a friend. I don't mind it really.

On the subject though about the 2 partitions, I think it would be best in the long run to back up and repartition. That way it's a fresh clean install. I hope it goes well!

[seanc]

Is the Alt OS forum closed? This belongs in there...

Backup and nuke and pave - best thing for it considering the partition issues.

Those 'Antivirus programs' sound more like Malware themselves to me, I've seen a lot in the past few weeks and need to clean a pc up tomorrow. I'm blaming the recent *publicised* IE 7 exploit (there will ALWAYS be one).

Check this first - make sure you're logged in as an Admin:
Go to Start > Run > type "regedit" and press enter. Does it run or does it tell you it's been disabled by your administrator? If it tells you it's been disabled - don't even bother trying to fix it, it's going to take too much time.

The formula for cleanup seems to be:
Run The Avenger
Run Hijack This and try and fix some infections/issues
Run Malware Bytes and do a full system scan
Run Super Anti Spyware

Of course all of this relies on you knowing what you're looking for, since the infectious files are almost always named random strings, it'll be hard to find them.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by seanc 

Is the Alt OS forum closed? This belongs in there...

I figured that because the Lounge is just my personal blog, it'd be fine here.

Backup and nuke and pave - best thing for it considering the partition issues.

A fresh install was my first choice, but they weren't able to find their restore CDs. I did find what I believe is the serial number in the My Computer properties, but I don't have a disc with XP home to use. I'm using Clonezilla to clone the whole hard drive to the external USB drive over an SSH connection with my Mini - much faster than trying to copy with USB 1.

[ghporter]

Go to Bart's PE CD site and download what you need to build a Bart's Preinstall Environment boot CD. Then go to this site and download the PartitionMagic plugin. Add the plugin to the CD. Boot the machine from the CD. Use the PM tool to merge the partitions.

It is way simpler than it sounds. PartitionMagic is your very, very good friend in this endeavor!

[MacinTommy]

I heard that this Rickardo Rollardo program was the best of the best for this type of situation

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Go to Bart's PE CD site and download what you need to build a Bart's Preinstall Environment boot CD. Then go to this site and download the PartitionMagic plugin. Add the plugin to the CD. Boot the machine from the CD. Use the PM tool to merge the partitions.

It is way simpler than it sounds. PartitionMagic is your very, very good friend in this endeavor!

It sounds like you need something running Windows to create that CD. The only thing I have running Windows right now is the computer I'm working on, and it's anything but a pleasure to work with - I'd rather use a Mac-based tool, but if PartitionMagic can non-destructively merge FAT32 and NTFS partitions, then it would be worth the effort. The hard drive is 50% backed up using CloneZilla.

[seanc]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

I did find what I believe is the serial number in the My Computer properties

That won't be the Windows licence key you'll be asked for when re-installing

Download Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder and run it. It will find all of the Microsoft license keys on that computer. Save the text file somewhere for safe keeping.

Also, there may well be a recovery partition on that laptop. Try tapping F11 after the BIOS screen.

What model of laptop is this?

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by seanc 

That won't be the Windows licence key you'll be asked for when re-installing

Download Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder and run it. It will find all of the Microsoft license keys on that computer. Save the text file somewhere for safe keeping.

Okay, that's good to know.

Also, there may well be a recovery partition on that laptop. Try tapping F11 after the BIOS screen.

What model of laptop is this?

No laptops here, it's a Sony Vaio PCV RX-540. There didn't appear to be any recovery partitions when the disk was viewed from the disk management app, just the 15GB FAT and 40GB NTFS.

[ghporter]

Magical Jelly Bean is apparently a very capable tool, and should help you out a lot. Unfortunately, I can't help you out on anything Mac-based that will handle Windows partition tables. PartitionMagic WILL however merge and convert partitions safely and smoothly.

[seanc]

Oh it's a desktop PC. I'm used to Vaios being laptops, it's rare to run into Vaio desktops.

[shifuimam]

Laminar, just use a keyfinder to get the original OEM license key for Windows XP (if it's not on a sticker on the computer itself, which it should be...) and wipe the hard drive. If you're concerned about data recovery from this person (which I doubt they can really do), you can zero out the drive by finding the make of the drive (should be in the device manager) and downloading that manufacturer's bootable hard drive utilities disk image.

Kill the 15GB FAT partition and make one big NTFS partition. Download and install all Windows updates, install Firefox 3.0, and use Avast! free for your antivirus.

If this is a computer your sister's friend owns (as in you're fixing it up for her), just make sure to back up files on the desktop, the My Documents directory (usually C:\documents and settings\$username\my documents), her bookmarks (if she has any - same as the previous directory but \favorites instead of \my documents), and find out if she's been saving stuff anywhere else. Burn it all to a disk and format that mofo.

Also, don't install device drivers from the disks that came with the computer. Just go to Sony's website and download all the latest drivers and install them.

[seanc]

I usually find it's best to grab the entire user folder from Documents and Settings, this way you're sure to catch any PST or Outlook Express dbx files hidden away in Application Data. The issue you might run into is that NTUSER.DAT and a few other files will be in use. Best to create a new admin account, reboot, login as new admin and copy previous user folders over - this way the files will not be in use. Alternatively use xcopy (or even xxcopy) on the command line but this has a learning curve.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

Well, Ad-Aware has found 614 infections so far, and it's about halfway done.

And, at least 612 of those are probably tracking cookies. Ad-Aware includes tracking cookies among it's count.

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by seanc 

I usually find it's best to grab the entire user folder from Documents and Settings, this way you're sure to catch any PST or Outlook Express dbx files hidden away in Application Data. The issue you might run into is that NTUSER.DAT and a few other files will be in use. Best to create a new admin account, reboot, login as new admin and copy previous user folders over - this way the files will not be in use. Alternatively use xcopy (or even xxcopy) on the command line but this has a learning curve.

Good call.

Even better, just download an Ubuntu LiveCD, boot off it, and copy everything over (if it has two CD drives, you can burn to another CD, otherwise just back up to a thumb drive), so you KNOW you won't have any conflicts.

[ghporter]

I agree with shifuimam here. It sounds like there's a buttload of crapware complicating this project already, and the fastest, bestest way to preserve the user data is to boot from a live CD and copy the data to a device on the network, burn a CD, or otherwise save it. After that, it's relatively trivial to just flatten the drive and start over with ONE partition. After you recover all the program keys, of course.

[Laminar]

The only problem is that this is XP Home and the only copies of Windows that I have are XP Pro and Vista, so even with the right product key, I still couldn't reinstall Windows. Or so I think.

[shifuimam]

No, you can't. But I'm sure you can figure out how to work around that.

Remember, you have a right to legitimately install Windows XP Home with your valid license key...so get yourself a copy of Home (OEM is probably better if i you can find it) and go for it.

[zerostar]

600 some isn't very much, i've run across computers with thousands.... I usually clean then install Avast! and Spybox S&D on there (update them both and run the spybot immunizations) None of my clients complain about major problems after that.

I also have a lot of custom scripts for getting rid of Vundo, MyWay Search, Toolbars, etc.

I also recommend Dr Web Cureit as a nice tool to have on hand, do the FULL SCAN it will take a while but I can get a computer that is infected to the hills clean in a few hours with the right stuff :-)

With only 600 (as was said maybe 599 of those are cookies, etc.) its easier to clean and un-install crap, clean registry then to re-install and you always loose something and some keys!!! blah :-) Just my advice....

[ghporter]

Oh wait-it was AdAware, not an antivirus like McAfee or Norton? That's different. AdAware can clean up most of that stuff with one pass, especially since, as Wiskedjak points out, most of 'em will be cookies. Cleaning it up will be a much more efficient issue than if Norton was coming up with over 600 virus-infected files...

[Laminar]

Welp, I went ahead and reinstalled XP home, and the difference is dramatic. It was working okay after being cleaned up, but the mouse would "tear" ever few seconds which got very irritating. I documented every extra piece of software on the computer and backed it up three different ways. I'll get it all put back together tomorrow.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Why I Love My Apple Computer Reason #28: This thread

[Laminar]

Okay, I scp'd important folders and such using a Ubuntu Live CD to an external drive connected to my Mini, and after reinstalling XP and re-creating the users, I rsync'd the user directories and other stuff back (it wasn't as easy as it sounds).

Two problems -
I copied the Sony-specific applications and support files back, but they won't run because they only run on a Vaio. I'm guessing there's something hidden in the OEM Sony XP install that tells applications it's a Vaio, but I don't have the old restore discs. I don't know if they even use the Sony apps though, so it might not be an issue.

Also, I checked out the RAM specs, and it's supposed to take up to 256MB PC133 SDRAM chips. I picked one up from OWC for about $17, but it's not recognized. I thought Macs were supposed to be picky about memory, not other computers. Any suggestions?

[Laminar]

Scratch that second one, it turns out that RAM doesn't work well when it's not plugged in all the way. Oops.

[Laminar]

Okay, I have everything done and figured out minus one problem. I left passwords off of all three users to make my job easier. The last thing I did was add a password to each user. Now, when the computer starts up I can log in as any of the three users without issue. But when I log out of one account, when I click on another name to log in, the password entry field pops up, but I can't type anything into it. If instead of logging out I just switch users, I can log in fine, but once all users are logged out, I'm unable to log back in again until restarting. Man, I love Windows. Thoughts?

[Hg2491]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

Also, I checked out the RAM specs, and it's supposed to take up to 256MB PC133 SDRAM chips.

Laminar, how old is that computer?

Edit: Answering my question -- at least 2001.

[Laminar]

Well, it turns out this computer has an odd issue that just popped up in the past week. Pages in FF and IE will load about 99% of the content, but will never fully "load," it constantly says it's trying to load the page. He can still navigate and click on links, but nothing ever fully loads. Also, the iTunes store will load about 99% of the way and then fail, I'm not sure the exact error given. Any thoughts? The computer is used for iTunes and basic internet use, and nothing out of the ordinary has been installed since I cleaned it up and gave it to them. Is this a firewall or network issue?

[seanc]

Clear the caches, change the DNS entries to use OpenDNS - 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220.

[residentEvil]

Originally Posted by seanc 

Clear the caches, change the DNS entries to use OpenDNS - 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220.

or: 4.2.2.1, 4.2.2.2, 4.2.2.3, 4.2.2.4, 4.2.2.5, 4.2.2.6

easier to remember; for me anyway.