WinXP Pro catastrophe

[Guest]

Please no comments about how crappy Norton AV can be...

We have a machine running XP Pro SP1; past several days it had been running
dog slow, and acting very much like it was infected. Running NAV in normal
Windows didn't find anything; Spybot also didn't find anything. Then tried
running NAV in safe mode. Immediately, NAV began finding tons of files that
were 'infected'. According to the NAV status screen, NAV was finding AND
fixing these files (in truth, as we found out later, NAV was just
quarantining them). In the directories NAV had started in, approximately 1
in 6 files was 'infected' (red flags raised, but we let it run anyways,
because NAV *said* it was fixing these.

At about 10 to 15 minutes in, the scan crashed and the scan window closed on
its own. The main NAV was still up, but we discovered then that we couldn't
restart the scan at all, even after killing NAV and restarting the main
program. As we were poking around we happened to go into the NAV Quarantine
area, where we discovered 2,858 files(!) had been dumped in here. As we
were looking around, I noted that most if not all of these files were
c:\windows directory-related files. But before I could even suggest
restoring these, regardless of whether they were actually infected or not,
the system crashed.

Now we can no longer boot up this machine. Worse yet, we previously made no
NAV recovery disks that MIGHT allow us to get NAV up and running in the hope
of restoring the quarantined files. In trying to restore XP, we discovered
that XP doesn't see an OS during the repair function of installation
sequence of the XP CD, but DOES see an OS (I guess; there's one reported to
the screen for us to choose) when we invoke the Recovery Center. However
great it felt to actually get the Recovery Center running was tempered by
the fact that it's totally useless given the amount of files we'd have to
figure out and attempt to copy back over.

Since we can't get NAV to run without an OS since the OS is missing critical
files that NAV locked away (tail wagging the dog? Or chasing the dog; I
can't figure out which), and we can't get the XP CD to see a Windows
installation on the HD to repair, does this mean we've reached that point
where all we have left is to reinstall XP?

It seems to be the only solution left, but I thought I'd ask smarter people
for their opinions anyways. TIA.

 

[Jack E. Frost]

Yes it does appear you've reached that point. If for no other reason than if you salvage the system from it's state it will still be a damaged/scared system.

Is there a reason for all the wasted work and time that could have been spent in a simple 'clean' reinstall?


Please no comments about how crappy Norton AV can be...

We have a machine running XP Pro SP1; past several days it had been running
dog slow, and acting very much like it was infected. Running NAV in normal
Windows didn't find anything; Spybot also didn't find anything. Then tried
running NAV in safe mode. Immediately, NAV began finding tons of files that
were 'infected'. According to the NAV status screen, NAV was finding AND
fixing these files (in truth, as we found out later, NAV was just
quarantining them). In the directories NAV had started in, approximately 1
in 6 files was 'infected' (red flags raised, but we let it run anyways,
because NAV *said* it was fixing these.

At about 10 to 15 minutes in, the scan crashed and the scan window closed on
its own. The main NAV was still up, but we discovered then that we couldn't
restart the scan at all, even after killing NAV and restarting the main
program. As we were poking around we happened to go into the NAV Quarantine
area, where we discovered 2,858 files(!) had been dumped in here. As we
were looking around, I noted that most if not all of these files were
c:\windows directory-related files. But before I could even suggest
restoring these, regardless of whether they were actually infected or not,
the system crashed.

Now we can no longer boot up this machine. Worse yet, we previously made no
NAV recovery disks that MIGHT allow us to get NAV up and running in the hope
of restoring the quarantined files. In trying to restore XP, we discovered
that XP doesn't see an OS during the repair function of installation
sequence of the XP CD, but DOES see an OS (I guess; there's one reported to
the screen for us to choose) when we invoke the Recovery Center. However
great it felt to actually get the Recovery Center running was tempered by
the fact that it's totally useless given the amount of files we'd have to
figure out and attempt to copy back over.

Since we can't get NAV to run without an OS since the OS is missing critical
files that NAV locked away (tail wagging the dog? Or chasing the dog; I
can't figure out which), and we can't get the XP CD to see a Windows
installation on the HD to repair, does this mean we've reached that point
where all we have left is to reinstall XP?

It seems to be the only solution left, but I thought I'd ask smarter people
for their opinions anyways. TIA.

 

[Rock]

Yes it does appear you've reached that point. If for no other reason than if you salvage the system from it's state it will still be a damaged/scared system.

Is there a reason for all the wasted work and time that could have been spent in a simple 'clean' reinstall?


Please no comments about how crappy Norton AV can be...

We have a machine running XP Pro SP1; past several days it had been running
dog slow, and acting very much like it was infected. Running NAV in normal
Windows didn't find anything; Spybot also didn't find anything. Then tried
running NAV in safe mode. Immediately, NAV began finding tons of files that
were 'infected'. According to the NAV status screen, NAV was finding AND
fixing these files (in truth, as we found out later, NAV was just
quarantining them). In the directories NAV had started in, approximately 1
in 6 files was 'infected' (red flags raised, but we let it run anyways,
because NAV *said* it was fixing these.

At about 10 to 15 minutes in, the scan crashed and the scan window closed on
its own. The main NAV was still up, but we discovered then that we couldn't
restart the scan at all, even after killing NAV and restarting the main
program. As we were poking around we happened to go into the NAV Quarantine
area, where we discovered 2,858 files(!) had been dumped in here. As we
were looking around, I noted that most if not all of these files were
c:\windows directory-related files. But before I could even suggest
restoring these, regardless of whether they were actually infected or not,
the system crashed.

Now we can no longer boot up this machine. Worse yet, we previously made no
NAV recovery disks that MIGHT allow us to get NAV up and running in the hope
of restoring the quarantined files. In trying to restore XP, we discovered
that XP doesn't see an OS during the repair function of installation
sequence of the XP CD, but DOES see an OS (I guess; there's one reported to
the screen for us to choose) when we invoke the Recovery Center. However
great it felt to actually get the Recovery Center running was tempered by
the fact that it's totally useless given the amount of files we'd have to
figure out and attempt to copy back over.

Since we can't get NAV to run without an OS since the OS is missing critical
files that NAV locked away (tail wagging the dog? Or chasing the dog; I
can't figure out which), and we can't get the XP CD to see a Windows
installation on the HD to repair, does this mean we've reached that point
where all we have left is to reinstall XP?

It seems to be the only solution left, but I thought I'd ask smarter people
for their opinions anyways. TIA.

Jack, please don't post in HTML.

 

[Guest]

When, in the big scheme of things, is a clean OS installation EVER 'simple',
given that the OS usually becomes the least of the worries?

In truth, I reached this conclusion (time to redo XP) early on, but for the
sake of this computer's user and our operations budget we went ahead and
tried to fix things first. We ultimately spent (wasted, as you bluntly
pointed out, but not so obvious when we STARTED, mind you) about 2 1/2 hrs
trying to salvage his computer rather than resign ourselves to the day or so
reinstalling XP and the multitude of applications that were on this
computer. Ideally, it would've been nice if there was a backup box ready to
go (we're really not big enough to afford THAT kind of licencing cost), but
this particular machine is/was so customized, even a backup with many of the
standard apps pre-installed would've required hours to config.

While I was able to copy all data and work files off his HD (by slaving the
drive to an extra Winbox), it would've been (financially) beneficial if we
didn't have to redo all the MSFT, Adobe, Autodesk, sundry utilities and
security, scanners, printers, tablet, color calibrations, etc., etc, and all
the rest of seemingly countless (to me) applications he has installed, not
to mention having him spend time going through and doing what customizations
he needs done to his workstation for his work. Generally we've found that
for our most experience designers and drafters getting a workstation back to
where they feel comfortable with its config is horribly time consuming.

So <<sigh>>, we try to fix rather than start over from scratch, which does
work from time to time.


Yes it does appear you've reached that point. If for no other reason than
if you salvage the system from it's state it will still be a damaged/scared
system.

Is there a reason for all the wasted work and time that could have been
spent in a simple 'clean' reinstall?

 

[Plato]

Please no comments about how crappy Norton AV can be...

Uninstall NAV and put in a better scanner.