Tweak
RCTalk Addict
Hey again guys. Had to drop off the board for a month or so- got involved in a big move and (as the thread name states) recover after some major damage to my computer.
Now I have a problem- and am hoping to find a few solutions here.
To make a long story short- I got a hold of a really bad virus. How, I am not completely sure. I don't download (much) and I know my way around a computer pretty well. I am usually able to isolate and deter any problem that might come about, but this thing took me down hard. It was a simple replicating virus that simply displayed a small bubble near the task bar stating that my computer was infected and I need to download the program from the site that I got the virus from to clean my computer. Ironic? lol. Needless to say, this could not stand. If any of you get curious you can actually see the product from ***.UltimateDefender.*** (asterisks in place of the URL prefixes simply because I don't want to link it. I am not really sure if going to that site is safe) Well- I thought I had it taken care of. deleted some files, stopped some processes and so on. Then.. it came back. So, I went deeper- cleaned and cleaned. And it came back. It WILL NOT go away. I truly believe the only way to get rid of it is in all honesty a complete reformat.
Either way- it came back. And back. and back again. finally- it started to replicate itself INSIDE my windows system files. In short- this caused my antivirus program to recognize traces of a virus in my windows subfolders and after I scanned I simply hit "delete all"... not a good idea on my part. I completely destroyed my windows system. After trying to repair via the utilities on the restore disks and some other odds and ends it was my only choice to go and buy XP Pro (I WILL NOT use Vista and do a clean format and reinstall. No More Virus!
Now- on to the actual problems. We all know that simple things Microsoft loves to do- For those of you have ever heard of DEP, it is wrecking everything. It simply will not go away and after hours (and hours) of goggling I cannot seem to find a way to shut it off.
Also- I had actually never used an internet browser without some kind of spyware/pop-up blocker in place, but I had no chice- I had to use IE7 to access the drivers and programs I need- that was my biggest mistake. Literally, the SECOND I opened IE7 my machine slowed to a crawl. I can find at least 40 different folders and crap that when deleted just pop right back into existence. Along with the annoying bars and pop-ups, they disable any administrator access to my system. No Task Manager, no Control Panel. I have been through the editing the registry rings and even the user-group profiles were useless. I have to get these things off my computer BEFORE I try to edit the registry or they just repopulate in seconds, tenfold worse that the previous run.
And last but not least- my main problem. When I reformatted and installed Windows XP Pro I used the regular set peramitters for partition space. It dropped the actual windows folder in C; (where I am used to having all the program files, drivers and other goodies) and moved all the programs and things to D:, a second partition. Only thing is- the partition it alloted for the entire windows system was less that 5 gigs. I have a 1 terebyte HD but I cannot even update windows because the partition is far to small to even get past SP1, much less onto SP2. In order to make the partition larger- am I going to have to format and reinstall everything? Please tell me I am wrong in thinking that is the only recourse?
If I could just find a way to get my system control back I would actually be happy. I could simply reroute the registry to look for the updates on my D: partition- no big deal, but this virus/spyware crap is just overloading me.
I have no access to a decent quality program to remove this kind of stuff since my old one was lost in the crash and all the crap out on the net is a free trial that you have to pay for before you can actually remove the stuff you need to get rid of.
This is really frustrating
Now I have a problem- and am hoping to find a few solutions here.
To make a long story short- I got a hold of a really bad virus. How, I am not completely sure. I don't download (much) and I know my way around a computer pretty well. I am usually able to isolate and deter any problem that might come about, but this thing took me down hard. It was a simple replicating virus that simply displayed a small bubble near the task bar stating that my computer was infected and I need to download the program from the site that I got the virus from to clean my computer. Ironic? lol. Needless to say, this could not stand. If any of you get curious you can actually see the product from ***.UltimateDefender.*** (asterisks in place of the URL prefixes simply because I don't want to link it. I am not really sure if going to that site is safe) Well- I thought I had it taken care of. deleted some files, stopped some processes and so on. Then.. it came back. So, I went deeper- cleaned and cleaned. And it came back. It WILL NOT go away. I truly believe the only way to get rid of it is in all honesty a complete reformat.
Either way- it came back. And back. and back again. finally- it started to replicate itself INSIDE my windows system files. In short- this caused my antivirus program to recognize traces of a virus in my windows subfolders and after I scanned I simply hit "delete all"... not a good idea on my part. I completely destroyed my windows system. After trying to repair via the utilities on the restore disks and some other odds and ends it was my only choice to go and buy XP Pro (I WILL NOT use Vista and do a clean format and reinstall. No More Virus!
Now- on to the actual problems. We all know that simple things Microsoft loves to do- For those of you have ever heard of DEP, it is wrecking everything. It simply will not go away and after hours (and hours) of goggling I cannot seem to find a way to shut it off.
Also- I had actually never used an internet browser without some kind of spyware/pop-up blocker in place, but I had no chice- I had to use IE7 to access the drivers and programs I need- that was my biggest mistake. Literally, the SECOND I opened IE7 my machine slowed to a crawl. I can find at least 40 different folders and crap that when deleted just pop right back into existence. Along with the annoying bars and pop-ups, they disable any administrator access to my system. No Task Manager, no Control Panel. I have been through the editing the registry rings and even the user-group profiles were useless. I have to get these things off my computer BEFORE I try to edit the registry or they just repopulate in seconds, tenfold worse that the previous run.
And last but not least- my main problem. When I reformatted and installed Windows XP Pro I used the regular set peramitters for partition space. It dropped the actual windows folder in C; (where I am used to having all the program files, drivers and other goodies) and moved all the programs and things to D:, a second partition. Only thing is- the partition it alloted for the entire windows system was less that 5 gigs. I have a 1 terebyte HD but I cannot even update windows because the partition is far to small to even get past SP1, much less onto SP2. In order to make the partition larger- am I going to have to format and reinstall everything? Please tell me I am wrong in thinking that is the only recourse?
If I could just find a way to get my system control back I would actually be happy. I could simply reroute the registry to look for the updates on my D: partition- no big deal, but this virus/spyware crap is just overloading me.
I have no access to a decent quality program to remove this kind of stuff since my old one was lost in the crash and all the crap out on the net is a free trial that you have to pay for before you can actually remove the stuff you need to get rid of.
This is really frustrating