[gallo16]

Hello,

We have an HP Pavilion A720N w/ Windows XP. We had a bunch of viruses the other day (trojan/downloader/etc). We ran a bunch of anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, all of which said they got rid of the problem, but didn't (our home page was still being hijacked). My husband later ran (I think it's called) Reg-Cure and said there were something like 7,000ish errors (totally wrong terminology here, I know). Anyway, he rebooted, hit F10 and did a non-destructive recovery. We are now getting a black screen that says "NTLDR is compressed press Ctrl Alt Del", but it is an endless cycle. We were able to find Recovery CD's (they are not official system ones--they are blank CD's that my husband must have been instructed to make when we bought the computer). So, a couple of questions....are these the recovery CD's that we should use? And, will using them cause us to lose all of our data? Oh, also, we cannot locate our Windows XP disc--is that a problem (we are still looking!!)? Any help would be appreciated!

[coastie65]

Hi gallo16, Welcome to the forum. I'm glad your Husband made the CD's as instructed ( I didn't) as they are needed. You will need the Disk that came with the computer as well. Now the bad news. If you are unable to clean up the HDD, then the only recourse is to reformat the HDD and reinstall the OS and drivers. Unfortunately, you will lose everything on the HDD. If it is that bad, I would be reluctant to back up and save anything for fear of putting them back in when you load the saved files. If you can't find the disk, you can try and get a replacement from HP. Barring that, you can still purchase a copy of XP as I did. I think the disks that your Husband made was the drivers and maybe some apps. Ctrl Alt Del, brings up the task manager. Did your Husband run a Anti hijacking program to look for hijackers? I should have asked this at the top. I know you said he did a bunch of scans with multiple Programs, so I am curious if one looked for hijackers. coastie65

[mphenterprises]

Gallo and welcome to PCWorld. :-)




I agree with Coastie. If you are not able to successfully remove whatever viral issue that may be in your computer, I would not backup any files that were not backed up already. However, there is some good news. Since you have a HP computer, you can request (buy) a copy of your Windows XP CD. Click on this hyperlink to learn more about this option.

http://forums.pcworl...m/docs/DOC-1107

[gallo16]

Good morning,

Thank you both for responding. I'm not sure if any of the programs looked for hijackers--we ran some anti-virus and anti-spyware programs that we had on our computer already, as well as some that we downloaded from this website. Since I really know nothing about recovery, etc can someone walk me through what needs to be done and what the results will be. Do we put in the 1st (of 2) recovery discs that my husband made and then it will do whatever needs to be done on its own or walk us through what needs to be done? And, will putting in these discs cause our data to be lost? We are still looking for the Windows disc (we moved and had a baby so haven't quite gotten to finding everything again!). My main concern is not losing our data. I understand the concern about not backing up if we can't get rid of the viruses, but would really like to try to salvage our stuff. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to bring it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy or somewhere similar to have them get it running, save our data and rid it of the viruses, etc. I would hate to spend $ unecessarily, but don't want to screw this up!

[coastie65]

Hi gallo, If in fact there is a nasty bug in there, and I suspect there may be, if you try to save files and then reinstall the files after reinstalling the OS and drivers, you will just end putting the bad stuff back in there. As for a full recovery, the disks usually walk you through the process. It is good that your husband took the time to make those additional disks. I didn't do it for whatever reason and ended up losing my recovery partition by the time I got through fixing this thing when it got messed up. I believe somebody put in a link to HP where you can get a replacement disk if you can't find the one that came with your computer. I believe the disks your Husband made contained the drivers and some other Apps such as Microsoft Works. Again, the problem with saving your stuff is that you may be saving infected/ corrupted stuff and would just mess up everything all over again. There is a good Program out there called HiJack This. I don't have a link, but you might be able to find it through a search. This will do a good search for hijackers. coastie65

[VladTheImpaler1990]

Hey and Welcome to PC World,

Well i think the best rated Anti Spy is Super Anti Spy, this can be downloaded at this link:

Super Anti Spy

And then as a anti virus i recommend AVG, and can be downloaded at this link:

AVG

Both these programs are free and i think before you try reformating you must try these two programs and see if it will remove the viruses, but the other thing is i don't think you can get to the main screen, have you tried booting in safe mode, if you do not know how you can follow these instructions:
* As windows is loading and then it asks you if you want to boot with safe mode and so on, it also says on the screen to boot from last know configuration that worked and so on,
* You must select to boot into safe mode with networking and then download AVG and Super anti spy and then see if the problem still occurs.
If this does not work then its going to be one word REFORMAT,i am sorry.

And then this document will help with loading XP with the XP cd:

Help with loading XP

Hope you sought this problem out,

Good Luck

Vlad

[coastie65]

Hi vlad, she also stated that something was hijacking her start page, so that is why I recommended the Hijack this program. SuperAnti Spyware as far as I know will not look for hijackers although I might be wrong. coastie65

[VladTheImpaler1990]

Yes coastie,

I don't know if it does but i think so, i might be wrong but i think it would.

But the thing is they said that they had multiple anti virus and anti spy programs running and have tested the computer, and unless he is very very good then i don't hink he would get passed multiple protection programs?

[coastie65]

Hi vlad, If you don't have an app that is geared to anti hijacking or contains that ability, then a hijacker has an open door regardless how much stuff you have in there. coastie65

[piyushsingh]

hello!

I think you should refer to this link on the hp website. Its exactly what you are saying. The ntldr file got corrupted or something and you will be needing the recovery discs given by the hp people to repair the xp installation .

[coastie65]

Good work piyush. I got a little lazy and didn't do any checking. coastie65