Unclean, Unclean!
 

As some of you know I was asking input on replacing a Hard Drive as my computer was working overtime when it shouldn't have too.:begging
Turns out it was loaded with Viruses, Trojans, Adware, Spyware & after removing 83 infections in a marathon 6 hour scan last night, I think my computer may be toast before long.:tissue

I may need to reformat and start from fresh.

So for now I am, "Unclean, unclean!":oops

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

The best thing to do is boot the computer with the Windows CD and do a clean install sometimes.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Did a boot scan last night that ran overnight & I am cautiously optimistic!

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

I have tried to boot the computer sometimes & all I get is a sore foot!:foottap

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Ahhhhhhhh, the computer froze & I rebooted the computer & now that's all it wants to do is reboot---continuously!
Yup, I probably have a virus in my BIOS!:foottap

I dug out kids old Gateway computer, it's about 10 years old!

Viruses!!!!!:smack

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Did you use the program I told yuou to download? it's free and its the best

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

While there have been a few virus which can actually corrupt your BIOS, there are no virus which actively "live" there. Simply booting into the CMOS screen and resetting the BIOS to its factory defaults is one thing you can try.

After that, start hitting the F5 key when the computer boots up. The timing can be tricky but this should take you into Safe Mode. Choose Safe Mode by itself or "With Networking". Your window screen will pop up but it will be mostly black with larger icons since it did not load your normal graphics driver (or very few drivers period). Run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from this screen and do a FULL scan.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Sounds like the Arnold Schwarzenegger Virus. It has terminated your PC. And if you remove it, it will be back.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Yes I did Prax, thanks so much. It was that program that exposed the extent of the problem.
I have AVG was going to be enough to protect my computer.

I was wrong.:nah

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

I tried that & this is what happened, I disabled the constant rebooting & yup you guessed it, I got a blue screen with this message on it.

"A problem has been detected & windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

**unmountable_boot_volume

If this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new install ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any new updates you may need.

If problems persist, disable BIOS memory options such as caching, or shadowing.
If you need to use safe mode to restart your computer agian, blah, blah,"

Tech info***(stop:0x000000 ed,0x000000,0x864aced,oxc000009,0x0000000,0x000000 0)

Any translators here?:nah

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

You are probably right, say, he was here at the start of the Olympics!:foottap

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

I've had problems with AVG free on other PCs so I replaced them with Avast (free), but you need more than AVG. I have at least 2 spyware programs. Spybot S&D which also tries to protect your browser from online hacks, which is where most virus's come from nowadays. You go to a website and a script tries to download a dropper to your system, which in turn tries to download more bad stuff.

You want a good fire walls, a good uptodate virus scanner that is actively monitoring downloads and a couple spyware programs

At the first sign of trouble I run malwarebytes program, it is not a proactive protection (the free version), but it will zap most bad stuff.

One trick I learned is to have a second user account installed. Log into that instead of your normal account, and then run it.

Also it's often best to run it in safe mode, but I've never had to.

You can take that HD out and install it into another PC and then use that PC to scan the entire HD also.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

unmountable boot volume? Did you try booting to the last known good configuration?

Do you have a windows CD? what were you trying to do? Sounds like an install gone bad

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29286

Do you have a Win xp CD? Or even a friends?

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

My computer is a HP Pavillion Desktop a1510n & it has a recovery partition.
I think I have 3 discs around someplace as well that I created from that first boot up.

The computer also will not allow me to change the boot sequence to CD Rom.
When I opened up the recovery partition it told me, whoa, wait a minute, run PC Doctor first.
I did and it passed every test except the it failed on the short test?

Can a virus do this?
Can I use the Recovery disc to maybe fix just the Winders XP files that may be out of whack?
Is it all a lost cause?

Will we ever make it back to Kansas before we defeat the wicked witch?:foottap

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

I thought you were asking if I had friends!!!
Wheww, that goodness for rent a friend!

Yes, my friends have Windows XP discs as well as software to recover missing registry keys.

That reminds me, when I ran avast, it found a lot of viruses,adware, trojans in the Reg keys.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

The recovery CDs might be able to fix the problem, if not they will do a format and reinstall everything. You might lose your files.

IF there is a recovery partition you should be able to hit a key at boot time and it will recover from that instead

Any bootable CD in the CD tray should boot up, if not you need to enter into the sys bios. You'd need to shut down completely and as soon as you turn the PC on hit the DEL key, If its not that it would be some other key like f11

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Avast? I thought you ran Malwarebytes? Also I thought you had AVG?

You should never have more than one anti virus program installed

According to this link the rebooting problem could be the boot.ini file which you need that windows cd to boot to the recovery console to fix

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Thanks, I'll give it a try later. I have to go pick up my wife from work.:begging

I will buy a box of tissues as well.:reaction

I have an external hard 500 Gig Hard Drive where I backed most of my computer to.

Guess what? It failed as well it will not spin!:tissue

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

I got Malwarebytes when you told me too. I have AVG from 4 years ago when I purchased my computer.
I just got Avast when a friend recommended it over AVG.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

you ran both? I would have ran just malwarebytes it won't take long.

BTW the external drive may be infected, however it might not be spinning because there is no USB connection since you can't actually boot the PC.

You can plug it into any PC and scan it

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Actually, I had a friend bring over his lap top & he had a cable with a connector
to connect to the hard drive & then with the side open of my computer he used my connections for the internal hard drive to see if it was spinning.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

make sure the hard drive cable is securely plugged in as well as the power cable both on the hard drive and on the main board (ground yourself)

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

May not be a virus in the BIOS - usually after an epic adventure such as this, what I've seen is that the antivirus programs have changed a BIOS setting when they yanked stuff out, changed something in Boot.ini - or most likely there's some sort of link in the Registry hive that now has its object deleted because that object was infected.

Booting from your OS CDs as RW suggested will bring you back to happiness. You can experiment. Boot and try to run the Windows "Repair an Existing Windows Partition" ... or if you're just tired of it all, just do a clean install and acknowledge the "Formating this Partition" warning.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Welllllll, I tried to boot from CD/Rom with an XP Disc & it won't work.
It says, boot disc failure, please insert disc & press enter.

Then I found the system recovery discs & it starts to load up & the screen comes up with an error message that it can't run.

I have started to run with the recovery program in the protected sector on the hard drive & it looks like it will work, it will reformat my hard drive though, which is a high cost.

What is a smart short test failure error code HD 521-2W that I get under diagnostics?

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

If you're getting SMART failures then the Hard Drive is toasty. Time for new toys. Sorry.

You can try running the longer and more thourough test... but you'd be better off with a new HDD.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

SMART is an industry wide standard for testing Hard Drives and reporting on predicted failures. With a small software package from the HDD manufactuers you can actually read the date and time when the Hard Drive is predicted to fail. Of course it does end up being something of a moving target, but for those with large server farms and huge libraries it is helpful.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Ron did you make sure the HD cables are secure since you opened the case and used another PC to test that HD?

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

:lalala I can't hear you!


Seriously, has all my data gone to the twilight zone & can never be retrieved?:dunno

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

I will recheck but I think so.

Re: Unclean, Unclean!
 

Prax is right.. I am skipping and assuming things. But even if the drive is "bad" there are still things you can do to recover data. But you need a good system up and running.