Tricky Situation

[ArcheyFB]

Hello all,

Yesterday evening, I was using my computer when Windows Defender popped up and warned me that it had detected a trojan horse. I decided to run a scan in Windows Defender and then went back to what I was doing. About 5 mins later, a blue screen appeared and then before I had a chance to read what it said, my computer turned itself off.

I turned it back on in the hope that I would be able resolve the issue and I was taken to a screen that said 'We apologise for any inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully...' (I'm sure you all know what screen this is). It gave me the following options: Safe Mode, Safe Mode With Networking, Safe Mode With Command Prompt, Last Known Good Config, Start Windows Normally.

Whichever option I choose, the following happens: the Windows logo appears with a loading bar beneath it, then the screen goes black and my monitor displays 'no signal'. The computer then restarts itself and returns to 'We apologise for any inconvenience...'.

Due to the nature of the problem, I'm unfortunately unable to post any kind of log.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

[Mr_JAk3]

Hello ArcheyFB :)
Okey sounds bad.

So you've tried to restart with all of those options?
It gave me the following options: Safe Mode, Safe Mode With Networking, Safe Mode With Command Prompt, Last Known Good Config, Start Windows Normally

If none of the above work - I'm afraid that you'll need to do a repair install -> Instructions for Xp repair install (http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm) (I assume that you have XP)

or a clean install.

Do you have backups of all the important files?

[ArcheyFB]

Thanks for the reply Mr Jake.

Yep, I've tried all of the available options but the same thing happens each time.

I do have some files backed up but unfortunately not all of them. :sad: Is there no possible way of retrieving the files or resolving the issue in a different way?

Do you have any ideas about what might have caused this problem? Could an infection cause this kind of issue or is there a possibility that it could be hardware related?

If there's no alternative then I'll attempt the repair install but I just wanted to make sure that it's the only option because I will end up losing some work that I've done recently.

Thanks again for your help.

[Mr_JAk3]

Hi :)

Well you could attach the harddrive to another pc as a slave and copy files that way. Or you could try if the computer boots from a linux cd.

It could be hardware related but I think that it is software. It is hard to say as the pc won't start. Maybe something vital got removed or corrupted.

:bigthumb:

[ArcheyFB]

Hi there,

Hmm. Doesn't look like I have too many options. :)

Would it be possible for me personally to carry out any of the options you've suggested or would I need to take my computer to an expert? If I were to attach the hard drive to another PC, would there be a chance that that PC could then become 'infected'?

I do have 2 hard drives in my PC; one of them is a WD Raptor which has the OS installed on it, and the other is a large drive for general storage purposes. Would this be any use to you?

This is such an annoying problem! If only I could get back to the desktop...

Thanks again.

[Mr_JAk3]

Hi :)


Would it be possible for me personally to carry out any of the options you've suggested or would I need to take my computer to an expert? If I were to attach the hard drive to another PC, would there be a chance that that PC could then become 'infected'?
Well you'd need to ground yourself, open the case, remove the hard drive, set it as slave and install it to the other pc (and you'd need to choose the correct hd cable etc.) so it isn't an easy task. And yes there is the possibility that the other pc becomes infected aswell as we don't know what kind of an infection we're dealing with.

The other option is to try using a linux cd to boot the pc and get the files that way.

Third option is the repair/complete re-install.

Ask me if you got any questions :bigthumb:

[ArcheyFB]

Hi Mr Jake,

I wasn't really sure about removing the hard drive myself so I decided to speak to a local computer expert. He told me that I'd caught one of the worst infections possible. :sad: He said that it was something that would 'destroy the ability of my hard drive to boot up'.

His suggestion was that I should do the following:
- remove the infected hard drive
- buy a cheap drive, install it and install windows on it
- attach the infected drive as a secondary drive
- try to save some of the files from the infected drive by transferring them to the new drive

Does this sound like good advice to you? Also, do you know the name of the infection? As I mentioned earlier, it apparently targets the boot files which makes it impossible to access Windows.

Thanks again. :)

[Mr_JAk3]

Hi :)
Sorry for the delay.

Well that is one option that you can try. That's a lot of work - I don't know how important data you have on that hard drive...

Well I can't be sure about the infection as we don't have any logs.

:bigthumb: