Vista Installation Dissapeared

[simon3456]

Last night i pressed the sleep button, the computer reported a fatal error,
dumped then rebooted with the message winload32 missing/corrupt. I have tried
the repair option from the DVD but there is no OS listed, it seems to run
through a limited number of Checks then reboots to the same error message.
The Striped Raid disks seem to be ok as i can see all partitions, folders,
from the search for drivers option. I have tried bootrec tools they find no
windows installations.
Vista was a clean install in May
Have been googleing all day, but not got anywhere, does anyone have any
suggestions, should i try to install on top of the existing, if it is still
there?
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated
Thanks

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Part of the problem is that you are or were infected with a trojan.
Winload32 is a password stealer, not a part of the operating system. Have
you tried accessing Safe mode? Have you tried a command line System Restore?
Mbrfix?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[simon3456]

Hello, thanks for the reply
I may have misinformed you-system32\winload.exe missing or corrupt, status:
0xc000000f. winload32 must have planted itself in my mind, (hopefully not the
computer) from the searching.
When i try system restore from command prompt it says no restore points have
been created.
bootrec/fixmbr says operation completed successfully.
bootrec/fixboot element not found
bootrec/scanos total identified windows installations :0
if i load notepad from the command prompt folders seem to be on the disks
with files inside except the windows folder which is reported as being empty.
is this due to virus/trojan etc.? ihave had defender and av running, with
auto updates since day one.
Any more help would be great, thanks

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Unsure as to why you are getting what you are seeing. I've not seen a virus
that would delete the contents of the windows directory of Vista (though
such did exist for Win3.x/95). I would do a parallel installation to a new
folder, you will at least be able to regain access to data folders.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[simon3456]

Hi,

Unsure as to why you are getting what you are seeing. I've not seen a virus
that would delete the contents of the windows directory of Vista (though
such did exist for Win3.x/95). I would do a parallel installation to a new
folder, you will at least be able to regain access to data folders.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com



hello

is it possible that the windows installation is still there but just not
being recognized?
I have been trying to think what else happened that day, i used the safely
remove hardware to unplug a usb hard drive, i dont normally bother.(usb mass
storage device) would it be possible for windows to remove the wrong drive
and not see itself?
Also i live in a rural place, we have flickers in the power every now and
then, i didnt notice anything, but could this cause a problem?
Could there be a hardware problem, is it worth taking some of the memory
sticks out, i have tried unplugging all usb devices, but that made no
difference.
Is this forum the best place for the problem or should i try another?
thanks for the help

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

This forum is as good as any as far as that goes (many of us trying to help
out actually cover several of them).

Yes, it's possible that it's there and not being recognized for whatever
reason. Could be file corruption, a problem with the mft, or something else
entirely. Difficult to diagnose without actually being there. It could have
been a power glitch, but just as easily be a software issue. I would highly
doubt that using the USB removal process would be the cause, the volume
housing the installation is fairly well protected from alteration without
elevated privileges.

From what you've told me, the Windows directory appears empty, so this is
why winload.exe cannot be found. Without knowing why or if its actually
empty, the easiest way to regain the system is a reinstall. Were it on my
workbench I would likely still do this to determine exactly what still on
the drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[simon3456]

Hello,

I decided to go for the fresh install but . . ."windows is unable to find a
system volume that meets its criteria for installation" The partitions are
still as was on the first install, so why are they now unsuitable?
I still find it hard to accept that the whole previous installation can just
vanish, is there no way of trying to relocate it? having to reinstall all
software, copy all data etc. isnt very appealing, unfortunately my acronis
backup was not up to date (a lesson learnt).
Are there are suggestions of how to find out what has happened and how to
sort it? is this a common occurance?

Many thanks for the help

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Sounds like a corruption of the file system. You aren't going to be able to
recover from this without wiping the drive (delete and recreate the system
partition) and reloading if this is indeed the case. I would pull the drive
and slave it in another machine to try and cherry pick the data off, or
image it before wiping.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[simon3456]

Hello
thanks for the reply, will that be possible with striped raid disks? do you
know of any software i can use to boot up and copy the disks before i remove
and reformat?
There would have been better ways to spend christmas !!

 

[simon3456]

Hello

Just taken the back off the computer and unplugged the backup drive,
rebooted but received the same error message(no winload.exe). booted from
dvd, it showed the vista installation with an option to repair. So i ran
repair, rebooted, i did the same again, it repaired the loader and now i'm up
and running again.

i have just run the system file check, some items were not repaired. Can
anyone point me towards instructions for fixing these.

The one good thing about problems is solving them!

Happy xmas to all