Repair Reinstall starts over and over

http://forums.whatthetech.com/browser_corrupted_t96566.html

LD Tate was helping me remove malware from the computer but some malware thing has compromised or corrupted the OS . The main problems were : My Computer , when you click on the icon the screen is blank except for swiveling flashlight , for 2 or 3 minutes before the icons for the fixed and removable drives appear , once they show , you can click on them to go to any folder or file , but if you climb up the folder tree back to my computer , it hangs again before opening . Also the save file to utility freezes if you try to change the default folder , but you can save it to that folder only . One of my disc burner programs , NTI , can not navigate from drive to drive to choose files to burn , but the other one , Nero , still can do so . My Adobe Photoshop will not now open properly , it just hangs ,probably is related to My Computer . Cannot download any e-mail , or send . If I open browser window and try to go to a web page on the net , the browser freezes , have to close with unresponsice program box . I was still connected to the internet because some of my malware cleaner programs downloaded updates after the malware infection . I set up my old laptop to get to Whatthetech forum to get help , and I used a thumbdrive to get fixes from the laptop drive to the infected desktop drive .

After several days of malware cleaning , I installed Firefox which worked OK to let me get to web pages on the net but didn't cure any of the other problems , then just last Saturday the computer somehow started working OK by itself , I downloaded e-mail , chose any file to burn to disk , saved downloads to any folder , but if I opened IE , it still froze , but I just decided to only use Firefox since the computer otherwise seemed normal . I just don't know how or why it was able to fix itself .Then , after about 2 hours of good operation , I installed a Firefox add on , and when the computer restarted ALL the problems returned ! Again I dont know how or why , but I was connected to the net and malware could have re-installed (no firewall)

I went out and bought a new Microsoft OEM XP disk with SP3 (the infected computer is an Acer desktop with pre-install only) to use the scannow and ie.inf fixes that LD Tate suggested (didn't fix the problems), and I decided to try a repair/reinstall from the new disk . I did not want to fully reformat as I have a lot of files saved on the HDD and no backup . I used the laptop and found some webpages to guide me through this . I encounterd the 34 minute hiccup , and spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening trying to work around . I found a couple of drivers on the net and was able to get them into the infected computer with my digital camera SD chip . I finally got the reinstall to finish just this morning , including putting in the new product code and the time settings . The install COMPLETED and the computer rebooted , and I went into the bios settings to make sure it booted from the hard drive and not from the disk . But it proceede to go right BACK into the repair/re-install , including the prompt to put in the XP disk , which I did . At this very moment the re-re-install is back to hanging at the 34 minute mark Installing devices . One of the workarounds talked about getting a log of the set up which I did and I found that apparently it had problems with

WAN miniport PPTP driver

netrasa.inf

I have used DOS commands very little before , can you tell me how to get to C:\windows\inf with the dos command , how to find netrasa.inf and how to delete the inf file when I get there ?

Any idea as to why the reinstall completed but the computer can only boot up into the reinstall mode ?

Hello bkstr7,

I do not know what help you followed to reinstall your OS, but the following link may help you to repair it.
If you register on the forum you will not get advertisements, but you are at liberty to follow the link without becoming a member of the forum. Scroll down a little way after the link opens.

Post back if you need more help as others will come by to assist if the above link does not work for you.

kind regards,

Hi tallin . The pages used to guide me through the repair/reinstall on my Acer desktop are here :

http://www.informationweek.com/news/window…cleID=189400897
Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option

I stumbled through it and encountered the common error of the hang up at 34 minutes . I also have a laptop and I found some fixes , including some drivers which I manually installed . The repair completed to the end and asked to put in the new product key from the XP home with SP3 disk which I bought just a few days ago to repair the pre-install . I did this and the re-install ended . The Langa page said to make sure that the system rebooted from the hard drive and not the disk , so when the computer rebooted at the end of the reinstall , I entered the bios and changed the boot sequence from disk to drive . But the computer booted up back into the Blue screens of the reinstall program and asked me to insert the XP disk , which I did . But it has stopped again at the 34 minute mark while installing devices .

So the repair has installed COMPLETLY , but I can't get out of the repair boot mode .

I dont know how to abort/cancel the repair boot mode so I can return to normal boot .

I don't know how to force this second reinstall to go forward , except by the method I mentioned above , and I need some help with the dos commands .

Also , I did read that Geeks to Go page , I think the Langa page is an expanded version of that , and I think I completed the repair as both pages describe .

If you weren't running XP Home with SP3 beforehand, a repair install won't successfully work, as far as I've been told through memos at work.

The repair install has to be the same service pack level that was previously on the system, and obviously the same variation (home/pro).

Hi bkstr7,

I have contacted a senior staff member to step in for you……..Please be patient as it is Sunday over your way, Monday here….your post will be replied to as soon as possible.

kind regards,

I personally think too much has been done to recover back out, and that Raktor is right too - doing a repair and upgrade at the same time is probably not a good idea. My advice would be to install your HD in another computer as a slave, NOT as the boot drive, or attached in an enclosure, then retrieve any data you do not want to lose. Then format/partition the drive as you want from there, reinstall the drive into your computer and install Windows SP3 on the freshly formatted drive.

Thank you for the advice , yes , the problem computer has XP Home with SP2 , so you think installing SP3 would be an upgrade ? Are there any threads among the forums that I can reference about installing Windows on a new HD ? . Do I have to worry about malware migrating to the new drive from the old drive ? Does malware infect motherboards or cpu or memory ? I do not plan to connect the computer to the Internet until I am sure it is clean of malware , then I will install a firewall and only then will I reconnect my dsl modem . I have never used a computer with 2 hard drives before , what I plan to do is install a new hard drive in the same case that the infected drive is in now . Connect the old drive as a slave drive in the same case and install the Windows OS on the newdrive , from the new disk I have been using , XP Home with SP3 . Then will I be able to access the files on the old drive with the OS onthe new drive ?

Thank you for the advice , yes , the problem computer has XP Home with SP2 , so you think installing SP3 would be an upgrade?

Yes.

Are there any threads among the forums that I can reference about installing Windows on a new HD ?

Not sure. Put in the new drive, remove the old one, make sure the BIOS is set to boot from CD. Boot from the CD, install to an NTFS formatted partition on the new drive (the install CD walks you through this). Enter in your details, like license key, username, timezone, update Windows once it's installed, and then connect the old drive while the PC is off. I recommend doing it this way so that you don't accidentally install onto the old drive and damage it further.

Do I have to worry about malware migrating to the new drive from the old drive ?

As long as you don't run any executables from the old drive, you should generally be fine - it won't migrate without you running an infected file.

Does malware infect motherboards or cpu or memory ?

No.

I do not plan to connect the computer to the Internet until I am sure it is clean of malware , then I will install a firewall and only then will I reconnect my dsl modem .

Smart plan. Once you connect it to the internet, go do some Windows Updates as well. Make sure you have yourself some antivirus too - search around the forums to find what different users recommend.



Sorry for the thread hijack, Digerati.

Sorry for the thread hijack, Digerati

Seems on track to me.