PC Crippled Assistance Needed

Hello. I originally posted my probelm in the 'Malware Removal' section of the forum but was told in a response to post here first and then the 'Malware Removal' section as it may or may not be malware related. To save time, I"ll just type what I posted in the aforementioned section.

I have some major problems with my PC. I'm not ready to reformat yet so I really hope someone has another viable alternative/solution.

First off, the 'Start' button is missin along with the rest of the taskbar. My drive won't recognize blank cds/dvds, I can't run JAVA-based apps, proggies, etc. There are 2 or 3 critical processes missin under the 'Processes' tab in Windows Task Manager, I can't copy/paste, I can't drag/drop, I can't run any online virus scanners and I can't access System Restore. I tried runnin it through command line but I always get a message sayin 'System Restore is not able to protect your computer. Please restart your computer, and then run System Restore again.' Yea, did that about 10 times and the same message keeps poppin up. I tried accessin it through safe mode but that didn't do any good, either.

Hell, even the Windows key is disabled. Oh and yea not to mention Windows Installer. So I can't install/uninstall anythin. Also, all the default desktop icons are missin. I tried to re-enable some of the stopped services through the System Config Utility as well as a few other tricks, but they all failed. If someone can help me get my PC back up to snuff I would be ever so grateful.

 

WOW!!! There's no way all these problems just appeared at once. It looks like many smaller problems were ignored for a period of time until things got real bad.... well, regardless... The first thing I'd do is reload Windows 'over the top' of itself. You won't lose any data (if done properly), all your programs will be there, and doing so should fix about 80% (or more) of the problems you're having...

hd2k

 

Thanx for your response.

Actually they did happen all at once. My PC was runnin fine until I accidentally clicked on a pop-up ad. I was tryin to click on the 'X' but clicked on the ad instead. Too fast for my own good, I suppose. I should've put my pop-up blocker on the highest setting. I've never had a problem with it just bein on the default setting until this happened.

When you say 'reload' Windows do you mean doin an upgrade installation? If so, I was thinkin of doin the same thing but was hesitant as I have 100+ gigs of data and wanted someone, other than the system itself, to assure me that it won't be lost. Are there any special precautions I need to take before proceeding? If by 'reload' you didn't mean an upgrade installation, I would greatly appreciate if you could tell me the necessary steps I need to take to resolve this.

 

Hi Wham,
In your thread in malware, you said that your cd/dvd drive doesn't recognize empty cd's. Does it recognize full ones? If so, put your Windows CD into the drive and see if you can get the computer to boot up from the CD. If so, try to run a repair install. If that can't be done, try to back up your data, in case you have to reformat. Because of how quickly you lost everything, it seems like it might be possible to get things back.
abri

 

Yea, it recognizes the XP CD. Before I do a repair install, however, I want to know from someone with firsthand experience, were you able to successfully retain all of your data and/or settings after completing the in-place upgrade? I was doin some research and I found an article that said you have to delete 'Undo_guimode.txt' if you want to prevent any loss of data. Has anyone had positive results upon doing this? This is very important for me to know as this is the only alternative I have at the moment. Thanx.

 

More then once I have done a repair of an XP install and in each instance I have retained my files.

Boot from the XP CD, but don't select the Repair Console . . . instead choose to install Windows. The set-up program should search the hard-drive for existing installations of Windows, and if it finds one it will offer you the option of repairing it . . . select this option. Doing it this way should preserve all your personal files on the hard-drive - it always has for me. You will, however, have to download and re-install all the security updates that came out after your particular version of windows was released. I can't recall for sure, but you may have to re-input your Windows key as well.

Not sure what you mean by settings - any OS settings will be at their default levels.

 

Aight, I'm on another PC because the one that's havin problems just got a little bit worse. When I ran repair installation I received the following message when I have 39 minutes remaining: "An error has been encountered that prevents Setup from continuing. Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error. The setup log files should contain more info.

Error: The signature for Windows XP Professional Upgrade is invalid. The error code is 426. The service has not been started."

Worse yet, no matter what I try to do, be it reboot and take the disc out or reboot into safe mode, or even turn the power off, it keeps looping back to the setup menu with this error. I tried to rename the file in question through a cmd prompt window via Shift+F10 at the error message, but it continues to do the same thing. I really hope I didn't lose any data through all of this. That would be devastating. At this point, I'll just be EXTREMELY happy if someone can help me circumvent the Setup menu so Windows can load properly.

 

i didn't notice if it's a desktop or a laptop. if it were me, i'd take out the h/d, then install it in another comp (friends, or one your on), and try and get all the data that you can off of it. i've had to do this a few times for friends/family. i'd intall it as a "slave". just check your jumper settings (master/slave, etc.), on my comp i have to use "cs", as it doesn't like the master/slave configuration. if your comp is password protected you might need to follow the instructions in this link.

like i said, if it were me, i'd get what i can off of there (post above), then wipe the h/d clean, and reinstall the o/s. (and, hopefully you have your os key, if not, it should be on the label on your comp). anyway, g/l - sos

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&sd=tech <-- How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

 

Yea, that's somethin I was hopin I wouldn't have to do. But I can't believe there's not a way to override Setup. Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about doin so, assumin there is a way?

 

>> When you say 'reload' Windows do you mean doin an upgrade installation? If so, I was thinkin of doin the same thing but was hesitant as I have 100+ gigs of data and wanted someone, other than the system itself, to assure me that it won't be lost. <<

Take it from someone who knows, first hand...

If the 100+ gigs are VERY precious to you - You should really have them backed up already - or at least give some thought consider doing so as soon as possible, regardless of the outcome of your current dilemma.

I know this from experience and I currently use a 250 gig "exterior" hard drive for backup after I had previously ignored some minor problems and occasional BSODs (blue screen of deaths) problems that eventually turned into an unrecoverable BLACK Screen of Death.

Exterior drives can be bought for a song on eBay and Craig's List and they are very inexpensive these days, especially when you consider the consequences of what might happen without sufficient backup foresight.

And they are easier to set-up and use than you might think - all you do for setup usually is plug it into the electrical outlet, plug it into the USB connector on the back of the computer and install the included software setup disk and you're good to go!

Good Luck!

 

compuable (you might have missed this, "I can't copy/paste, I can't drag/drop"). that's why i suggested that wham takes the h/d out and put it into another comp, to retrieve what's there. yeh, i would have done that along time ago as well, as i've been under the fire working on friends comps (spyware/antivirus scans going south on me), but came out smellin' peachy!

bottom line, if it's that important, retrieve it now. even if you do get your os reinstalled (non-destructive reinstallation), i have a bad feeling your gonna have to do a destructive reinstallation, and you'll have to backup your stuff anyways. g/l, sos

 

Oh I know I should've backed it all up years ago, but I never really encountered any problems serious enough to warrant buyin an external hdd. Ironically enough, I had my sights set on purchasin one for well over a year now.

The problem never was about how potentially difficult it might be to go this route, as I'm relatively tech-savvy when it comes to things like this, it has more to do with it bein a huge pain in the *** to reconfigure and install everythin again which obviously comes with havin to reformat. I was thinkin maybe a repair installation would do the trick but alas, I was wrong. Thanx for everyone's input and suggestions, it really meant a lot.