Wolfire Games Forums

I've recently gotten rid of this real bitch of malware off my laptop, I could not possibly be happier right now about it. However, my sister also got it on her "new" laptop. (It got transferred when she moved all of her files over I suppose.) Just as I finished fixing mine and began trying to fix her's against my will, her computer won't start windows xp. The laptop itself turns on, but a small way through trying to begin xp, it freezes. (A small way into the loading bar when trying to turn on safe mode.) I would blame this on the malware but that doesn't seem to be it's purpose. It was Internet Security 2010, evidently designed to block you out of your programs so that you think the program is trying to help you (who actually falls for this bullshit...) and then forces you to buy the program, sending them your credit card details so the infected systems can be cleaned. I don't see why this would cause the computer to stop functioning, as it seems to defeat the whole purpose of it unless there's something else I'm not aware of it doing.

Does anyone know of a possibility to fix this? I can tell you right now I'm not very computer savvy but more so than anyone else in my family. It's a used laptop, about two years old, we got it from my uncle who does private buisness through ebay or something, but it was very cheap. He did a clean install before we got it. We do NOT have the disc to do that again, we could get it but it would take awhile, also it seems has though it would be impossible to use in this circumstance anyway. Any help is appreciated! If you need any more information I'll try my best but I'm not sure what technical aspects I could get of it. Thanks!

Blame Malware! It's quite possible you didn't get it all removed and it trashed windows out of spite ... ive seen them do that before

A) Find a Windows XP disc. You do not need a product key--if you lost the disc, I'd "acquire" a copy and burn it to a CD.

B) Insert the disc, change your boot device to your CD drive in the BIOS.

C) Press Enter when it prompts you to set-up Windows XP

D) Don't choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".

E) Accept the licensing agreement.

F) Select the installation you want to repair and press R. If repair isn't one the options/R doesn't work, you messed up. Do not continue with the installation if this is the case.

G) Once the repair finishes, it will reboot. Do not boot from CD--just let it go and don't press any keys.

H) It should work now--you basically restored all of your system files while leaving your programs/settings intact.