A Little Help

[tallefred]

I got a virus on my pc earlier tonight. Something came up which I had to take care of, so I turned off my computer. Now when I turn it back on I get up to the log-in screen, but I cannot load the log-in screen. I tried going through safe mode but this doesn't work either. Is there some way i can restore my computer or fix this in some other way? I have a lot of schoolwork on there that I would really hate to lose. I have Windows Vista.

[Xez]

ok, this is what i would do.

boot a knoppix livecd. you can get it here:

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html


use it to access you windows partition and copy your data to an usb stick, disk whatever.

after that format that drive and re-install vista as you cannot trust a system once it got compromised.

[Zwarp]

boot with another harddrive, take your schoolwork stuff and format the thing

[alfaroverall]

You won't be able to fix it without introducing some other parts or software into the situation, but as others have said, there are ways to get at your files.

[tallefred]

I'd like to fix it if that is possible, but in the worst case I would at least want to get my info back. How would I boot up through a second hard drive? Would I risk infecting the second hard drive as well?

[alfaroverall]

You'd need to put another hard drive into your system. I'm not quite sure what decides which one the system boots from if you don't have master-slave relationship (which you don't have with SATA drives, which is to say most modern drives).

And assuming none of your schoolwork that you would be copying over is infected, you won't infect the second drive. If it is, you're pretty much fucked, unless the virus in question doesn't affect Linux and does affect Windows and you use Linux to get the files off (which, by the way, is a decent idea).

[tallefred]

How would I format the old hard drive when I was done? Thank you guys for the replies by the way.

[Xez]

How would I format the old hard drive when I was done? Thank you guys for the replies by the way.

it is a step during the vista installation. so you won't need special software.

[tallefred]

Thanks Clownfoot. I don't know what I would do without your genius here to help me. :P

[ClownFoot]

Thanks Clownfoot. I don't know what I would do without your genius here to help me. :P

I have no idea what you are talking about strange man who is strange. I never posted in this thread.

[alfaroverall]

Just remembered how you would set the other drive to boot:
Boot the computer with the drive plugged into your power supply and your motherboard. Go into the "setup" that your screen shows (this will be some key that you press such as F1). This will take you into your BIOS. From there, have the computer auto-detect the drive, then put in a Windows CD and shut the computer back down. Boot from the CD and select the new drive.

This is assuming you don't go the Linux route. Having not tinkered with Linux, I wouldn't know how to explain the specifics of that, but they're probably similar.

Also, tallefred and ClownFoot are obviously identical, oh snap!

[Niles]

Stop downloading crappy porn, go for the good stuff damnit!

[tallefred]

Stop downloading crappy porn, go for the good stuff damnit!

True that, I'm sticking to Red Tube for my masturbating needs from now on.

@ Clownfoot: I know you posted here before. I don't know what you're doing but I'm watching you.