System restore not working

[Big RonG]

I have been hit hard by some piece of malware. (Defender, Panda, etc. have
all failed to stop the damage.) I believe that the malware has been
eliminated by hunting it down and deleting it. However, it left me with a
nearly non-functional Start menu and various permissions problems. Yes it
was VERY nasty.

If I could use a restore point, I think that I could cure my woes - BUT....
System Restore is not functional. The only way that I can run it is from
SAFE Administrator mode and then it cycles repeatedly (hopelessly) through
the initial question. Search, Task Manager and other system tools return
this error - A Runtime Error has occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line: 0
Error: Object expected.

I really can't afford to wipe and re-install as I have years of business
data on this computer in my home office. Hopefully, someone has seen this
type of damage and can give me a roadmap to survival.

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

I have been hit hard by some piece of malware. (Defender, Panda,
etc. have all failed to stop the damage.) I believe that the malware
has been eliminated by hunting it down and deleting it. However, it
left me with a nearly non-functional Start menu and various
permissions problems. Yes it was VERY nasty.

If I could use a restore point, I think that I could cure my woes -
BUT.... System Restore is not functional. The only way that I can
run it is from SAFE Administrator mode and then it cycles repeatedly
(hopelessly) through the initial question. Search, Task Manager and
other system tools return this error - A Runtime Error has occurred.
Do you wish to debug? Line: 0 Error: Object expected.

I really can't afford to wipe and re-install as I have years of
business data on this computer in my home office. Hopefully, someone
has seen this type of damage and can give me a roadmap to survival.

Your years of business data should be OK because it will be on those
external backup drives/CDs/DVD etc that you regularly do won't it?

Assuming that you do not perform regular backups to external storage devices
the remove the drive from the machine and place it in an external enclosure
and connect it to another machine and back up the data (you could also place
it a a slave drive inside another machine to back up the data).

Once the data is backed up and readable you take steps to fix your problem.

Did your machine come with a proper XP CD? If so then try a repair install
:-

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

If your machine came with a reovery partition or recovery CDs the check with
the manufacturer to see if what they supplied will permit a repair install.

 

[Gerry]

Ron

The simplest approach could well be to re-install but you should
recover your business data first.

Place the hard drive in another computer as a second hard drive and copy
the data to removable media. A small computer repair shop will do this
for you if you do not have easy access to another Desktop computer.

Malware often targets windows features like Task Manager, Event Viewer ,
System Restoreetc which help a user to undo whatever damage the malware
intends to do.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Kelly]

Have you tried to reset System Restore? Is it set to automatic here:
Start/Run: services.msc

Also do a search for sr.inf and sr.sys - right click install.

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

SupportSpace
www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner

 

[Big RonG]

Have you tried to reset System Restore? Is it set to automatic here:
Start/Run: services.msc

Also do a search for sr.inf and sr.sys - right click install.

Search, Task Manager and other system tools return
this error - A Runtime Error has occurred. Do you wish to debug?
Line: 0
Error: Object expected.

Good ideas Kelly - but as you see from my initial post, those routes have
been removed.

Big RonG

 

[Big RonG]

Your years of business data should be OK because it will be on those
external backup drives/CDs/DVD etc that you regularly do won't it?

Assuming that you do not perform regular backups to external storage devices
the remove the drive from the machine and place it in an external enclosure
and connect it to another machine and back up the data (you could also place
it a a slave drive inside another machine to back up the data).

Once the data is backed up and readable you take steps to fix your problem.

Did your machine come with a proper XP CD? If so then try a repair install
:-

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

If your machine came with a reovery partition or recovery CDs the check with
the manufacturer to see if what they supplied will permit a repair install.

What I don't understand is why the OEM CD will not do the repair install?
Who is the multi-million dollar idiot that said to remove that feature from
the OEM release?

 

[Daave]

What I don't understand is why the OEM CD will not do the repair
install?
Who is the multi-million dollar idiot that said to remove that feature
from
the OEM release?

Many times, the OEM CD *will* do a repair install. Of course it depends
on the type of CD you have. What is the make and model of your PC? What
type of CD do you have?