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Dr. Boogie Dr. Boogie is offline
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Old Mar 3rd, 2009, 03:02 PM        Windows recovery installation leaves computer in shambles
In the middle of trying to get some viruses off my computer, I think my antivirus software nixed some important windows file, so I did a recovery installation to get the file back.

Now, my PC has rolled back to Service Pack 1, and for some reason, it's not loading the drivers for my video card right (that is, the drivers are installed, but the desktop resolution won't go higher than 640x480, and the color depth is at 4bit). Also, I don't know if it's not detecting the dual core processor or what, but System Properties isn't showing anything except the OS and the ram.

Anyone have any idea how to pull this thing out of the crapper?
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Old Mar 3rd, 2009, 03:09 PM       
I would go ahead and bring it back to service pack 2 and most likely it will find the missing drivers. Pack one may be too old for dual core. I can't remember.
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Old Mar 3rd, 2009, 11:18 PM       
I'm having trouble getting even that much done. I managed to download the second service pack, but it just hangs during the "checking for space" portion of the install.

And the viruses are still present as well, but I'm having trouble getting them off because the antivirus programs and tools keep freezing (possibly because they're dealing with only a fraction of the processing power they normally would).

And I'm even further confounded by the fact that I can't open any folders in Safe Mode. I've never seen a PC this fucked up before, and frankly, I have no idea what to do next.
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Old Mar 4th, 2009, 05:50 PM       
I think we all know what has to be done
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Old Mar 4th, 2009, 08:15 PM       
Yeah, I know: kill myself and hope I'm reincarnated as someone who knows something about computers. I'm trying to hold off on that for the time being.


It's sure looking like the recovery install was a big mistake. It doesn't seem to have fixed anything. When I let the Service Pack run for a while, it crashed and gave me a "Generic Host Process" error.

Do I need to just reinstall windows at this point?
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Old Mar 4th, 2009, 08:24 PM       
I think so. I'm not even sure that service pack 2 would fix it. You could try to reinstall windows over windows but that in my opinion would provide you with many headaches.
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Old Mar 5th, 2009, 02:31 PM       
format and reinstall

oh and back up stuff you wanna keep first :o
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Old Mar 5th, 2009, 03:06 PM       
To be honest it'd probably save you a lot of time and effort to just format and re-install Windows a-fresh.
Dump any files you want to keep onto a flash/external drive, but make sure you install AVG before trying to retrieve them.
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Old Mar 5th, 2009, 03:12 PM       
Before you format, make sure you have your windows key. If someone put your comp together for you, they might not have given it to you. The is an easy way to get it off your hard drive if need be.
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Old Mar 12th, 2009, 09:33 PM       
I would recommend wiping the computer whenever it becomes infected with a virus. If I were to write a virus, one of its first tasks would be to destroy your virus scanner software in a way so that it looked like it still worked.

You can keep pretty much any file that isn't intended to run or install such as music, videos, pictures, etc. If you keep install files then you risk re-infecting your computer.

I would also recommend Avira AntiVir. They have a free version of their virus scanner that just pops up an add every time you update. It has been MUCH better for me than AVG.
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Old Mar 12th, 2009, 11:59 PM       
I did wind up reformatting in the end. Managed to get most of my stuff off safely, too.

The one thing that bothers me is that every now and then, AVG will say that there's a virus on my external HDD, but only in pop-up form, and in a folder that doesn't exist (i.e., not a hidden folder either). When I do a scan, there's no reading anywhere.
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Old Mar 20th, 2009, 07:49 PM       
This situation is very suspicious. I think your computer is still infected. Perhaps the virus is concealing itself using a rootkit, but I am not sure.

There is not much I can do to help you, but I suggest reformatting everything again including the external HDD. Burn the files you want to save to a CD first. Do not keep any files the virus can infect.
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Old Mar 24th, 2009, 10:23 AM       
Don't ever use system restore. It's a joke and a waste of resources.
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Old Mar 25th, 2009, 08:55 PM       
I don't know, Eric - it worked for me so it's not completely useless.

Briefly, I had a fatal error after a "security update" went south. I kept getting the "blue screen of death" with an entire book on a single page that was visible for only about 1.5 seconds. (Thank you Bill Gates - that was real useful information for us non-speed readers.) The sequence repeated ad infinitum.

So I restarted in "Safe Mode" and used the system restore function - good as new. Go figure.
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Old Mar 25th, 2009, 09:30 PM       
I use sys restore after I get a password off a hack site.
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Old Mar 26th, 2009, 11:36 PM       
Well okay let me rephrase.

System restore is useless provided that you have an AV scanner and don't visit virusmart.us on a daily basis.
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