Nasty Virus

[Guest]

I have a nasty virus. All my data is backed up so I can reformat, however,
XP will not let me. The virus will not allow me to get to the internet or
email. The virus will not allow me to run any of the know virus tools
available.

How can I reformat the hard drive from windows? I went to my computer,
clicked on the correct drive and clicked format and I get an errror message
that says Windows Utilities is still running, please stop all utilities and
try again. Is there a way around this?

Also, I am unable to boot to DOS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dan Edwards

 

[MAP]

I have a nasty virus. All my data is backed up so I can reformat,
however, XP will not let me. The virus will not allow me to get to
the internet or email. The virus will not allow me to run any of the
know virus tools available.

How can I reformat the hard drive from windows? I went to my
computer, clicked on the correct drive and clicked format and I get
an errror message that says Windows Utilities is still running,
please stop all utilities and try again. Is there a way around this?

Also, I am unable to boot to DOS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dan Edwards

Have you tried booting into "safe mode" and running your virus tools?

 

[Kerry Brown]

I have a nasty virus. All my data is backed up so I can reformat,
however, XP will not let me. The virus will not allow me to get to
the internet or email. The virus will not allow me to run any of the
know virus tools available.

How can I reformat the hard drive from windows? I went to my
computer, clicked on the correct drive and clicked format and I get
an errror message that says Windows Utilities is still running,
please stop all utilities and try again. Is there a way around this?

Also, I am unable to boot to DOS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dan Edwards

Boot from your Windows CD. In the process of installing Windows you can
delete the existing partitions then recreate them and format them.

Kerry

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: <Dan Edwards>; <Spokane>; "WA" <[email protected]>

| I have a nasty virus. All my data is backed up so I can reformat, however,
| XP will not let me. The virus will not allow me to get to the internet or
| email. The virus will not allow me to run any of the know virus tools
| available.
|
| How can I reformat the hard drive from windows? I went to my computer,
| clicked on the correct drive and clicked format and I get an errror message
| that says Windows Utilities is still running, please stop all utilities and
| try again. Is there a way around this?
|
| Also, I am unable to boot to DOS.
|
| Any help would be greatly appreciated.
|
| Thanks, Dan Edwards

There are anti virus News Groups specifically for this type of discussion.

microsoft.public.security.virus
alt.comp.virus
alt.comp.anti-virus



Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE to go through your
FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode.
This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor's web site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Kaspersky, Exit this menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file. http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm


* * * Please report back your results * * *

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

I have a nasty virus. All my data is backed up so I can reformat, however,
XP will not let me. The virus will not allow me to get to the internet or
email. The virus will not allow me to run any of the know virus tools
available.

How can I reformat the hard drive from windows? I went to my computer,
clicked on the correct drive and clicked format and I get an errror
message
that says Windows Utilities is still running, please stop all utilities
and
try again. Is there a way around this?

Also, I am unable to boot to DOS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dan Edwards

Boot from the Windows XP CD.

FWIW, if you backed up your data, and you intend to reinstall that data
after you reformat the computer, you *will* be putting the virus back on
your computer.

You need to first re-examine your security practices that allowed you to
become infected in the first place. You should install a reputable
antivirus scanner and
*KEEP IT UPDATED*!!!!!!

Until you do this, you will continue to get infected, and in turn your
computer will infect other vulnerable computers. Your lack of security
practices not only affect you, but affect everyone you come into contact
with through the computer, and even those you do not.

Bobby

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a nasty virus. All my data is backed up so I can reformat, however,
XP will not let me. The virus will not allow me to get to the internet or
email. The virus will not allow me to run any of the know virus tools
available.

How can I reformat the hard drive from windows? I went to my computer,
clicked on the correct drive and clicked format and I get an errror message
that says Windows Utilities is still running, please stop all utilities and
try again. Is there a way around this?

No, of course not. You're trying to format the drive containing the
system volume from within WinXP. You can't. This would be the computer
equivalent of sawing off the tree limb you're sitting on, and WinXP is
"too smart" to allow this.

Also, I am unable to boot to DOS.

Also normal. There is no way to reboot a WinXP PC into Real Mode DOS
unless you've set up a dual-boot system. The WinNT family of 32-bit
graphical operating systems, of which WinXP is the latest generation,
has never used, included, or "ridden upon" MS-DOS. The Recovery
Console's CLI (Command Line Interface) is the closest you can come to
the old "DOS mode."

Formatting the hard drive to solve a virus or spyware problem is
rather like using an axe to trim one's fingernails. Sure, it'll
probably get the job done, but it's rather messy...., and almost always
unnecessary.

However, if that's what you want to do:

Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot
devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm



--

Bruce Chambers

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