Help needed to avoid format!

[Markellos]

Ok pals, here is the situation. It started when I noticed that my pc wasn't behaving as it should be. I cannot become more specific about how I realised that, just felt that the pc was performing on the 50% of its real potential. The first thing that crossed my mind was to instal an antivirus program to check the HardDrivers for a virus,worm,...The strange is that, when after a successfull installation I tried to launch the program's *.exe, the window that opened, after a couple of seconds was dissappearing!After some research I found that whichever *.exe file I tried to launch within the AntiVirus program folder it was dissappearing from the folder!As you realise I can't scan my pc for viruses as I cannot run an antivirus program!Furthermore the Alt+Ctrl+Del combination does not work!

In my opinion the most possible cause of this misfunction, is a virus,worm,...
I am not so keen on formatting my pc so I would appreciate any help that could make me avoid that.Maybe a DOS-Antivirus?

[Koepi]

Fetch Stinger from http://vil.nai.com/vil/averttools.asp - it'll help remove the virus in 99.99% of all cases. After that, your antivirus program will run correctly (or the virus didn't get removed).

If that's the case, ask here for further assistance, we'll sure collect some links of working "first aid virii removers".

Good luck & regards
Koepi

[Neo Neko]

Yeah alot of moddern virii detect and disable AV. But you should not be so adverse to formatting. You should always try to keep your system backed up so re-formatting is not a problem. Next time you get ready to format go out and get Ghost or one of the similar software. Once you re-install then ghost the drive and that should keep you from ever having to "format" again. Also if you have a large HD dedicate 10Gb or so to aplications and then use all the rest of the space to create a data storrage partition. Then if you have to format the aplication partition it is not such a pain.

[The Ethereal Being]

Dear Markellos,
Do not be alarmed at formatting, I have done mine recently and had no problems. In the past I have had someone with me but recently I have been alone and at that time put down 98SE and it was quite simple.
If you have this OS, when you format select FAT32 File system when it asks you. If you have XP or win2k Pro, select NTFS file system. During formatting and putting down win2k pro, I had some problems when it asked me some things, so I just yes to them as I had no idea. When it completed that step it came back with "Can't be done" reason. So in some way the format is protected so you don't totally wreck it. Don't ask me as I have no idea how this works. I just know it does. I formatted this hard drive 5 times before I got the darn thing right. I ended up with 98se and win2k pro on my hard drive, so had to do it again. How did I do that? Who knows, I just know I ended up with 2 OS's, Anyway, all is well now and I have only the one.
HINT: If possible have a friend standby as this is done. Then with a tape recorder recording state aloud every thing you are doing; read aloud everything on the screen plus all the choices given; then state what number has been chosen. I did this and typed out all the info so I would know what to do in the future.
Although some of this is now defunct as I did this for 98se, it still works in theory for win2k and is now my Bible when I format.
Good luck mate.
TEB

[crahak]

Originally posted by Neo Neko
(...) Next time you get ready to format go out and get Ghost or one of the similar software. Once you re-install then ghost the drive and that should keep you from ever having to "format" again. Also if you have a large HD dedicate 10Gb or so to aplications and then use all the rest of the space to create a data storrage partition. Then if you have to format the aplication partition it is not such a pain.

Exactly my way. Nice to have a updated clean install of windows within 3 minutes :D Couldn't survive without ghost. The other thing I do is a bit like the tape recorder. After made the image (a "temporary" one), I play a lot with the new install and write down everything that highly annoys me that I forgot to change (screen saver, no sounds, specific registry tweaks and what not), then at the end of that week long of messing with it, I put the clean image back on it and fix all those annoyances and make a "keeper" image. Saves a lot of hassle and time.

[Markellos]

Hey, with all these in my head head I forgot something: MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you!

And now back to the topic, the problem is not that format is a complicated task(I had done it 4-5 times before) but that I will have to reconfigure the whole system again,install all the games, programs and so on. I heard about Ghost in the past but never tried that. I think I will try it after I clean the mess in my pc.

Apart from that I will try the link of Koepi and let you know what happened!

Thanks for the replys!
Mark

[theReal]

I think sometimes reformatting is not as bad as wasting a lot of time with a messed up system :rolleyes:

I am so much used to reinstalling Windows that I always consider it an option. Just keep all the installation files ready on a separate partition, keep Windows and installed programs on a seperate partition each and you're done with reinstalling in about 2 hours. Of course you won't have your old system config back completely in two hours, but the most important installations will be done. Then install other stuff as soon as you need it and you won't regret the little extra work for the sake of a "brand new" system :D

[Markellos]

Guess what, I followed the link Koepi submited and found that the behaviour of my pc matches exactly as if the W32@klez....worm has infected my pc!I'm now downloading the stinger!I have a very good feeling about that...

"I think sometimes reformatting is not as bad as wasting a lot of time with a messed up system "

Yes I agree although I believe that you learn a lot when you actually fix something than going for the solution of a format. I don't know why but I feel defeated by the problem its time I cannot fix something and come to a deadend and I'm forced to format my pc. On the other hand format gives you a brand new pc(at least from the software point).

[theReal]

W32@klez - oh oh, bad worm!!!

I once tried to get rid of this thing in a network full of ignorant users. It was impossible!! Once you had cleaned one PC the damn thing had spread through the network again and infected every single other PC...

The only way to get rid of it was to disconnect all network cables and run DOS scanners on every single pc at night when nobody was working...

[crahak]

Originally posted by Markellos
And now back to the topic, the problem is not that format is a complicated task(I had done it 4-5 times before) but that I will have to reconfigure the whole system again,install all the games, programs and so on. I heard about Ghost in the past but never tried that. I think I will try it after I clean the mess in my pc.

That's exactly the point of using Ghost. Saves so much time and hassle it's unbelievable. Ans for when you have no choice but to do a "clean" install from scratch, it's nice to have an unattended setup with all the patches slipstreamed onto it and a few goodies. I made a bootable DVD with Win XP unattended on it, all the nice updates, and a few things like unattended setup of office as well. It does most of the job on its own in reasonable time.

Originally posted by theReal
I think sometimes reformatting is not as bad as wasting a lot of time with a messed up system :rolleyes:

Exactly :) Some usually answer this "why, can't you fix it?" like you don't know sh*t, but usually, when you have to reformat, it's because your system is really messed up (codec pack problems, registry is a complete mess, tons of apps that didn't install or uninstall properly, ...) and also, most PCs after a while get pretty bloated and slow (registry becomes huge, like 5000 fonts installed and what not) so it's better to just reghost anyways. Lots of times it's fixable but it's not even worth spending the time at it. It's like, why bother get your car fixed if the dealership would hand you keys to a brand new car within 5 minutes instead?

[Edit]
I forgot to add, just another nice tip that makes it even faster, is by keeping your bookmars and documents on another partition so you basically have nothing to backup before ghosting. I never liked the "C:\My Documents\" idea much anyways.

[Markellos]

The stinger thing did it!!!

Now I have a healthy pc and many programs that didn't worked before now they have no problems!I feel like my pc took a 50% boost over its previous performance. Now I'm searching for a reliable antivirus but I will make a search in the forums before I post a new reply for this matter.And I will certainly try GHOST.

MANY THANKS TO KOEPI ABOUT HIS HELP AND ALL THE MEMBERS FOR THE FEEDBACK!!!

Mark

[theReal]

Now I'm searching for a reliable antivirus but I will make a search in the forums before I post a new reply for this matter. A good, free AV Prog is AVPersonal ( www.free-av.com ), it has always been a good solution for me.

[ammer]

one possible solution for this scenerio would be to have an extra hard drive, make a new os with scanner then scan the drive. b)have a buddy scan it for you. more answers, if it helps. also partitions and ghost could help for os failures.