I have a gateway XP home edition system which was hit by a virus and the
Userinit.exe was deleted. Now I can no longer access WINDOWS. I also cannot
access safe mode with the Command Prompt. Is there any way in this situation
that I can make a backup of my system using the CD that came with the
computer without access to WINDOWS? If so, how would I do that? I read the
info on making backups with the wizard, but not being able to access WINDOWS,
I am also unable to use the wizard. Any recommendations will be appreciated.

Silk

"silk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4430A4E1-1290-4B09-8348-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a gateway XP home edition system which was hit by a virus and the
> Userinit.exe was deleted. Now I can no longer access WINDOWS. I also
> cannot
> access safe mode with the Command Prompt. Is there any way in this
> situation
> that I can make a backup of my system using the CD that came with the
> computer without access to WINDOWS? If so, how would I do that? I read the
> info on making backups with the wizard, but not being able to access
> WINDOWS,
> I am also unable to use the wizard. Any recommendations will be
> appreciated.
>
> Silk


Remove the drive and place it in another machine or in a USB enclosure
connected to another machine..

Save all of your important stuff..

Replace the drive into your computer..

Start over..


--
Mike Hall - MVP

Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

Why would you want to do a backup if Windows was/is corrupted by a virus?
All's this would do is backup Windows with the virus included.

You could boot from the XP CD and opt to do a repair install, this may get
Windows back for you but the virus could still be there.

"silk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4430A4E1-1290-4B09-8348-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a gateway XP home edition system which was hit by a virus and the
> Userinit.exe was deleted. Now I can no longer access WINDOWS. I also
> cannot
> access safe mode with the Command Prompt. Is there any way in this
> situation
> that I can make a backup of my system using the CD that came with the
> computer without access to WINDOWS? If so, how would I do that? I read the
> info on making backups with the wizard, but not being able to access
> WINDOWS,
> I am also unable to use the wizard. Any recommendations will be
> appreciated.
>
> Silk

"Mike Hall - MVP" <mikehall@remove_mvps.com> wrote in message
news:upaY%(E-Mail Removed)...
> "silk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:4430A4E1-1290-4B09-8348-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I have a gateway XP home edition system which was hit by a virus and the
>> Userinit.exe was deleted. Now I can no longer access WINDOWS. I also
>> cannot
>> access safe mode with the Command Prompt. Is there any way in this
>> situation
>> that I can make a backup of my system using the CD that came with the
>> computer without access to WINDOWS? If so, how would I do that? I read
>> the
>> info on making backups with the wizard, but not being able to access
>> WINDOWS,
>> I am also unable to use the wizard. Any recommendations will be
>> appreciated.
>>
>> Silk
>
>
> Remove the drive and place it in another machine or in a USB enclosure
> connected to another machine..
>
> Save all of your important stuff..
>
> Replace the drive into your computer..
>
> Start over..
>
>
Yes...in my opinion that's the best thing to do...
I just wanted to add that you should perform a virus scan on all the backed
up data...just to be sure it's ok

"silk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4430A4E1-1290-4B09-8348-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a gateway XP home edition system which was hit by a virus and the
> Userinit.exe was deleted. Now I can no longer access WINDOWS. I also
> cannot
> access safe mode with the Command Prompt. Is there any way in this
> situation
> that I can make a backup of my system using the CD that came with the
> computer without access to WINDOWS? If so, how would I do that? I read the
> info on making backups with the wizard, but not being able to access
> WINDOWS,
> I am also unable to use the wizard. Any recommendations will be
> appreciated.
>
> Silk

The short answer is probably no, because DOS and Win9x boot disks can't read
NTFS-formatted partitions. And your system very likely has an
NTFS-formatted partition.

In any case, you don't want to make a backup of a corrupted or infected
system. You would want to back up your data, including documents, photos,
music, mail and addresses.

An easy way to do this is to attach the drive to another XP system that has
up-to-date antivirus software, scan your drive for viruses, then simply copy
your data over to the host system. You can then burn it to DVDs.

Once that's done, you can put the drive back in your system and do a repair
install with your XP CD. That should fix the userinit problem.

HTH
-pk

This sounds like an easy fix, silk.

If you're only missing userinit.exe then just copy one back.

Once windows can boot to safe mode run a virus scan.

Obviously you now have more questions, so fire away.


ju.c


"silk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:4430A4E1-1290-4B09-8348-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have a gateway XP home edition system which was hit by a virus and the
> Userinit.exe was deleted. Now I can no longer access WINDOWS. I also cannot
> access safe mode with the Command Prompt. Is there any way in this situation
> that I can make a backup of my system using the CD that came with the
> computer without access to WINDOWS? If so, how would I do that? I read the
> info on making backups with the wizard, but not being able to access WINDOWS,
> I am also unable to use the wizard. Any recommendations will be appreciated.
>
> Silk