Repairing/replacing corrupt system files

[Barb and Ray]

Have been working with an old computer (HP 8760c, 128MB RAM, WinXP Home
Edition SP 2) that was top-of-the-line in 1999 and is still running (barely)
and still online "off and on." We plan to increase the RAM to 384MB.

It has never had an antivirus program installed. When we installed AVAST!
Free a couple of days ago, it found 131 trojans, viruses, etc. All infected
files were moved to the Quarantine chest, and it now indicates that the
following are system files:

C:\command.com
C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winsock.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsock32.dll

We "restored" these files through AVAST and they now all indicate "no
virus".

Our question is now . . . how do we get these files back into the operating
system without having to reformat and reinstall since the Recovery CDs are
so old? We have a WinXP Service Pack 2 CD.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Andrew E.]

Actually 128MB of ram is below xps min.requirments to operate,348MB is
pushing it..Either way in xp,install xp cd,exit the menu screen,go to
run,type:
cmd In cmd type:Sfc /Scannow Once its thru,type:CHKDSK C: /F Agree to
restart,type:EXIT Remove cd,restart pc...Also,if xp does ever need
reinstall,
if youre xp is upgrade,simply run the hp cds,format & recover,once
thru,install
xp cd,upgrade to xp thru windows explorer.If xp is still somewhat available (
corrupted files,etc),then you may boot to xp cd,install in MS-DOS
(preffered way).

 

[Anteaus]

You can get these files from the i386 folder of the SP2 CD. The important one
is the kernel file, and this must be of the same service-pack as the
installed system. The winsock files are for network communication, and not
quite so urgently needed.

The files with a '_' on the extension are compressed, you use the Expand
utility (also in the i386 folder) to unpack them. This is a commandline
utility, which you can run from DOS (or on another PC in a commandprompt) if
Windows won't start, which it likely won't without the kernel file.

If you can get the system running then you could also try 'sfc /scannow'
which will check your core system-files for authenticity.

 

[Twayne]

Have been working with an old computer (HP 8760c, 128MB RAM, WinXP

Home Edition SP 2) that was top-of-the-line in 1999 and is still
running (barely) and still online "off and on." We plan to increase
the RAM to 384MB.
It has never had an antivirus program installed. When we installed
AVAST! Free a couple of days ago, it found 131 trojans, viruses, etc.
All infected files were moved to the Quarantine chest, and it now
indicates that the following are system files:

C:\command.com
C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winsock.dll
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsock32.dll

We "restored" these files through AVAST and they now all indicate "no
virus".

Our question is now . . . how do we get these files back into the
operating system without having to reformat and reinstall since the
Recovery CDs are so old? We have a WinXP Service Pack 2 CD.

Thanks for any help.

You're better off, IMO, to just bite the bullet and do a complete
rebuild from new partition/s on up. 99% likely to be faster and no
malware as long as you use the original CD codes.

--
--
Regards,

Twayne

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