Repairing XP Prof

[all1care]

Due to viruses and lots of other problems, my system is extreamly slow. My
icons on my desktop will not even display and I cannot backup my documents
either. My IE has been hijacked also.

I have used anti-virus to no avail, short of doing a full reinstallation
and loosing all my documents which I cannot back up anyway, I decided to do a
repair,however when I try do a repair using the Window XP cd it asks which
windows do I want to use first of all I'm not sure if there should be 2
windwos - c:\windo or c:\windows, no matter which one I choose it asks for an
administrator password which I do not have.

How do I bypass this to do a full repair of the OEM.

Also would using SP2 do the trick.

Alli12
--

 

[Leonard Grey]

A re-installation of Windows won't remove a malware infection. If you
cannot remove the malware you will have to erase your hard disk and
reinstall your software.

To backup your documents (and possibly remove the malware), place the
infected hard disk into a known-good computer that has effective,
updated and comprehensive anti-malware software. Use the good copy of
Windows to backup your files and the anti-malware software to possibly
remove the malware.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Due to viruses and lots of other problems, my system is extreamly slow. My
icons on my desktop will not even display and I cannot backup my documents
either. My IE has been hijacked also.

You say "viruses" (plural). You also say that IE has been hijacked. If
you have multiple infections, doing a full clean reinstallation of
Windows is very likely necessary. How many viruses do you have and
what are their names? How do you know you have them?

I have used anti-virus to no avail,

*What* anti-virus program. They are far from equally good, and the two
most popular (Norton and McAfee) are the worst.

short of doing a full reinstallation

A full clean reinstallation is very likely required, and the only way
for you to get back to normal. It's seldom possible to successfully
deal with a computer with multiple infections any other way.

and loosing all my documents which I cannot back up anyway,

If you have documents of value to you and you don't back them up
regularly, you are playing with fire. Waiting to back them up until
you have a problem is the *worst* possible thing you can do. If your
problem were a hard disk crash, for example, you almost certainly
couldn't get to anything on the drive.

Why can't you back them up now? How have you tried to do it? Whether
you can do it now or not, I'm not sure, but I wouldn't rule out the
possibility yet; if your systems runs, even if extremely slowly, you
should at least be able to copy the important document files to
external media.

I decided to do a
repair,

It's *highly* unlikely that a repair installation will solve any of
your virus problems, let alone all of them.

however when I try do a repair using the Window XP cd it asks which
windows do I want to use first of all I'm not sure if there should be 2
windwos - c:\windo or c:\windows, no matter which one I choose it asks for an
administrator password which I do not have.

Your administrator password is probably blank. Just press the Enter
key.

How do I bypass this to do a full repair of the OEM.

See above, but as I said, a repair installation won't come close to
solving your problems.

Also would using SP2 do the trick.

No. But did you never install it? If not, that's another example of
your playing with fire.

 

[db.·.. >]

well, when you state
you have used an a.v.
to no avail,

this may mean that you
don't have an infection
and perhaps you are
experiencing issues that
are created when users
do not perform general
maintenance on the disk
and file system.

for example, you may be
short on disk space and
the file system is heavily
fragmented which includes
your registry files, system
files and the master file table.

perhaps, your machine device
drivers require updating since
they were first installed or
created by your computers'
maker.

perhaps, you simply installed
incompatible software and
has destabilized your o.s.

as you can see from the above
sometimes the issues a computer
may experience are not the
result of an infection but by
user error.

my suggestion is to boot up
in safemode and see if the
o.s. is stable in this safe
environment.

if so, then the o.s. is probably
not infected, just misconfigured.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces