It's all gone horribly wrong

Honestly don't know where to start with this one… A few months ago my laptop had an issue with a windows update. For some reason it wouldn't update and triggered some fairly severe system instability and the genuine windows check kept coming up. I managed to sort the windows check out but couldn't do anything with the update. The stability issus sorted themselves out at that time. I thought everything was OK. Since then i haven't been able to update AVG, Spybot or Ad-aware. The update process starts but always fails at some point. Unfortunately my next thought was to uninstall and re-install the programmes and it now won't allow me to re-install anything. Yesterday while browsing forums for a solution i have managed to pick up a virus ( the 100k search one that redirects google searches). Of course I can't run anything to get rid of it as i can't install any software…. I would seriously consider a full reinstall of Vista but the laptop i have was already preloaded and i don't have any of the discs needed. Any help would be greatly received as I have been tearing my hair out over this for a while now and cannot seem to make any progress at all.

Some info on my system Windows Vista Home premium 32 bit Intel Pentium Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16 GHz 2.17 GHz HP G70 Notebook PC 3 Gb Ram The laptop is about 2 yrs old

If you have "managed to pick up a virus", then this is no time to be updating Vista.

Do you have your important documents, pictures, media, and files backed up to external hard drive or DVD?
If not, your first order of business should be to secure those things you want to save.
A live Puppy-linus boot loaded system can give you all you need to securely save those items
http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows-vi…disk-vista.html

After your important files are secure:

1
If you are seriously ready to restore the machine to Factory Default, you may still be able to use the Recover Partition method to run a factory restore from the hidden partition that is on most pre-loaded Vista systems.
Press F12 when booting up your machine to see the Advanced Boot Options list.
Select the item that indicates to reinstall or restore to factory settings.

2.
If you are not ready to restore your machine to factory original condition, then you need to clear up any virus, spyware infection prior to any other activity.
Consider posting in our Malware Removal Forum.
Read here: http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=106388
Post here: http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showforum=27

Best Regards

HI Doug
I was looking the Q + A's over in the forum as I usually do and noticed the link you provided.
I have Win 7 64 bit and wondered if such an amazing tool is available for this O.S. too?
Thank you
Peter

http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows-vi…disk-vista.html

Yes.

puppy linux is a complete operating system(linux) in and of itself,

it installs from a cd/usb and runs in system memory alone so doesn't need a hard drive(so no chance of writing over data your trying to save) or cd drive(if pc has enough memory so that can be used to write the saved data too) after install.

that is why it is a good tool to use for recovering data from any/all pc's that use any operating systems including windows 7.



http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20and%…g%20Started.htm

This is one of the most interesting reads I have ever had the plearure of performing. The content was like a whole new world.and I am a bit envious that I am not a candidate for a few reasons, one being skill. I am just holding my own with Win 7. and have not gotten into trouble for a while. For those who are technically inclined it is an amaing program or should I say O.S. If I began to get involved I would be here for advice every day so we will not go there. I am going back to read the contents and the links again. Thank you for sharing.