Chris, THANKS for the offer brother! I wouldn't want you to make a trip here just for this but that is an awesome offer. Worst case I will drive up there

kris,
THANKS for the info. That may be what I end up doing. Does this kit let me hook up to the computer or do I need to remove the hard drive from it? EDIT: Ok looks like I just remove the HD from the desktop and connect it to this. How do I make sure the virus doesn't get transferred?

I am going to try the unbuntu right now and will post up what happens.

 

Ok I just tried this and nothing. I downloaded the unbuntu and burned it to a CD. Went into the set up mode on the bad computer and made the CD-Rom drive the Boot drive. Installed the CD in the drive and rebooted. (Tried with unbuntu and my windows installation CD) and I get an error "Diskette drive 0 seek failure. Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

If I try F1 it just keeps repeating the error.

 

I had this happen to one of my towers a while back. Kids picked up something that messed it up pretty good. Believe it or not I got so mad a punched the side of the tower in and damaged the motherboard, stupid thing fired right up after that. It would not perform a lot of functions cause of the damage but I was able to recover pictures, then scraped the whole thing. Oh yeah that was with windows 98 as the newest operating system.

Good luck.

 

I have wanted to smack this thing so bad, I know how you felt! I just shut it off again, I need to enjoy my turkey day now and deal with this thing later!!

 

i hate it when this happens.. i usually format it back to the stone age when it does

 

F-2 during boot I think activates the automatic restore on Dell's.

Dells usually also have Symantec PC Restore, but you would want to get all your data off first. Hit CNTRL F11 while it is attempting to boot and it should give you a screen with the option to cancel. If you continue, it will reinstall Windows and the rest of the software it came with, erasing all your data and returning the computer to the condition it was in when you bought it.

PC Restore should work even if the machine won't boot properly, in theory, as long as the hard drive isn't physically damaged with bad sectors or whatever.

 

PS,

If you can get it to boot, you might try downloading and running the free version of this:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

I recently picked up SUSP_IRP_MJ_CREATE DDS.C!.men virus, and the malwarebytes software caught and deleted a bunch of files. That at least got me to the point I could dump stuff to an external hard drive, but it left the system unstable so I nuked it with the PC Restore feature.

Pain in the tush to get the tons of Windows updates, security suite updates, and reinstall all the other software...

 

Thanks for the info! Right now I dropped it off to a friend of a friend that has the adapter listed on the first page to see if he can fix what I need. If not it wil be the format everything and start over

 

Take your hard drive out and stick it in a external enclosure. Find a friend running OSX or Linux. They will be able to see the drive and not be susceptible to the virus'. Pick what files you want to keep off the hard drive.

Stick it back in your box and wipe it.

 

I have done that ^^^ It works. Very simple very easy.

Actually have your friend with OSX or Linux format the drive. No need to take it out of the enclosure before it has been sterilized. With OSX you have an option of doing a secure format which writes over every bit of data with a zero as opposed to just removing all the pointers, which is what standard formatting does. On a windows platform it is actually still possible for the virus to re-visit after a format. The virus is actually still there is just does not have anything referencing it's location. Very easy and efficient way to write a new virus is to just search an existing hard drive for info that is there, just not references.

Writing over all the data ensures a clean, safe hard drive with every 'bit' written to. No future surprises that way.

Heck Blake is not all that far from ya. Take a trip, get your computer fixed and have someone to make fun of all day. Can't think of a better deal. Except maybe driving up here, we could set up iChat, make fun of Blake and fix your computer...

 

That is another option. I just don't know anybody (yet) that is running OSX or Linux that could do this. I'm sure I could find somebody though.
I really like this option!!

 

Unplug the floppy disk drive from the motherboard, then go into the BIOS and disable legacy support for the floppy. When an error message refers to a "diskette" drive, it means the floppy. Presuming you correctly identified your optical drive as the first boot option, it's possible the virus has hammered the system hardware identifiers enough to change the drive labels, causing your optical drive to actually read the FDD, and/or vice-versa.

Also, try the Ubuntu disk in your working computer to see if it'll work. I had to burn it three times to get one that would actually read correctly. There's no risk as it runs the OS from the optical drive and doesn't install anything unless you direct it to do so.

 

UPDATE Time!

Again thanks for all the suggestions and info.
I gave my PC to a guy that runs an IT department. He said he could fix it. Well he actually found 3 viruses and cleaned them. I bought an external HDD so he could transfer all my info before wiping the thing out and starting over. (And I can continue doing back ups now!!)

He loaded a few updated programs, replaced both CD-Rom and DVD RW drives and upgraded it from 512mb RAM to 1 gig of RAM all for free

Now I am just working on getting my roadrunner email straightened out. The time warner geek had no clue so after 30 mins, I told him I had to leave and would call back! Hope I get someone better

 

Glad you got it running again but next time use the 12 gauge solution. Your computer is an antique.

 

Nice! Thanks for the update.




Kris