Computer Disaster

[Tweak]

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

 

[HeartBreak]

If you're wanting to disable DEP, the easiest (and most brutal) way of doing it is the following:

With 32bit you could edit the boot.ini file and change
/NoExecute=optin to /NoExecute=AlwaysOff

32bit meaning the "typical" Windows XP that 90% of the internet population uses.

As for recovering from a horrific infection like that (my condolences, btw), the best mannor is to get a Linux LiveCD and an external hard drive. Boot with the LiveCD and copy everything you want to keep to the external drive. Reformat and reinstall at your leisure.

When you reformat, I suggest doing a low-level format to completely wipe the snot out of the drive.

Good luck!

 

[olds97_lss]

I do not believe there is a way to change the partition without re-formatting and re-installing windows either. I have a similar partition issue at work on the new PC I was given. It doesn't have a terra byte drive, but it does have an 80G drive. The c: partition is only 30G... kind of retarded.

I talked to our main IT guy and he said there isn't a way to change the partition without starting over and formatting/re-installing XP... and I can't do that because the computer didn't come with an install disk and he doesn't have a copy of generic XP. He's pretty good with hardware. He can build a PC out of thin air and he knows a ton about software.

I bought a new 160G drive for my PC at home about 6 months ago. It came with a 40G drive and I had it over half full. It really didn't like it when I made one partition that was 160G, it wanted me to do at most, 80G partitions. I had to override some settings and whatnot. In the end, it worked fine, but I had a bunch of warnings that made me think it was going to force me to start over.

 

[Burgers8]

Get a newer and better computer. its a win win lose situation. You lose money, gain a computer and lose the virus.

i can't beleive i read that whole thing

 

[beason]

i thought partition magic would let you change partition size on the fly.

as far as ie7, user firefox.

as heartbreak stated dep can be turned off, either his way, or in the control panel (quick google should come up with the steps)

as for you infection, I've delt with that befor and there is another file that respawns the virus files every few minutes, the way i killed it was delete the infection then babysit the task manager until i saw the exe pop up and respawn the virus, then took the drive out, slaved it in another machine and deleted that file as well as all the others. but since you have already reinstalled then no worries.

on the hard drive, will 32bit windows even see a whole terabite? i know it has hell with anything over 3 gigs of ram.

 

[olds97_lss]

Maybe my IT guy meant that he didn't have anything to do it... not necessarily that it can't be done. He's like most IT folk... mildly bullheaded and doesn't want more stuff to deal with.

 

[HeartBreak]

Back in the days of Fat32, I used to use a little dos partition resizer. That was back before Fat32 could see a full 40GB. I still have the (FREEWARE) tool somewhere around here on a floppy. I doubt it'll work for NTFS.

 

[beason]

He's like most IT folk... mildly bullheaded and doesn't want more stuff to deal with.

ill take that as a compliment this time... watch it buddy!!:boxing::LoL:

 

[Tweak]

Meh. I found a couple (several hundred dollar) programs and decided to just wipe and restart entirely. the programs and pictures and such simply weren't worth all the crap I had to go through to avoid wiping the drive.

I fond a simple method. wipe the drive, then write over it several times with a single number. the first was "1" the second "2" and after I got to six I used a government tested method of writing "1234" across the entire thing. this assures the highest level of destruction to any information that was left on the drive.

All in all it's pretty much taken care of now. since my time of posting last night I have wiped, reformated, dropped in Linux and all my drivers. I am done with MS for good.

 

[TalonOne]

All in all it's pretty much taken care of now. since my time of posting last night I have wiped, reformated, dropped in Linux and all my drivers. I am done with MS for good.

I have just canceled my MS Partner subscription and I am in the process of moving my entire business to Linux.....I ...like you ...have simply had it with Microsoft's crap.

Good luck....lemme know if you need any help....I have been using Linux on the side for 10 years or so now.

 

[Tweak]

I was interested in Linux for several years before this all happened, but simply thought it was all too hard to set up. I sat and watched as month after month it got smaller, better and even more user friendly and wished I had the nads to just reformat and try- but I knew that would probably mean loosing everything I had stored on my computer. Really, I am glad this happened in a way. I was ready to call it quits with Microsoft quite a long time ago bet never had a reliable OS to go to. Just like with Firefox- I was just waiting until something better came along so I could make the move. I actually enjoy it now- everything seems to work much better... Allmost feels like I own a mac.

 

[TalonOne]

Cool....what distro did you end up with? I am using CentOS5 as I need all the server side and enterprise gear......but it actually makes for a decent desktop as well. Just about any of the popular distros are good these days.....and with open office and evolution, I don't even miss MS....not one bit. And my servers will run much faster on less hardware.....its a win all around.

 

[neobart]

I've not had any good experiences with Linux so far.

It's a little over 6 months since I tried it last, so things might have changed.

I find version tracking to be the biggest issue so far. You need a certain package installed in order for you hardware to work, and even though you find the correct version and install instructions that should enable you to install it, it still won't work. And you get no explanation as to why.

Granted if you find a distro that'll work for you out of the box, it works just great.

 

[TalonOne]

Use the live CD versions.....that way you can try it out on your hardware BEFORE you spend all of the time installing it.


Ubuntu and several others have a live cd version to try out....

 

[Tweak]

It seems some people have some drastically different times with Linux.

I actually found a site that had full instructions to load the entire OS to a 1gig flash drive and how to set your motherboard to flash the information as if you were booting from a live CD, then after you get everything working and sorted out you can save it all to a partition and keep it there. Not sure what Distro- But I can link the site in a few minutes.