I'm posting this for my father looking for a little help. He has a dell with XP installed. After having some virus problems he decided to actually go out and pay for some protection. Went online and got Norton's Internet Protection, he had a old expired version that was installed via disc on his computer. So because he was installing via download this time he was told over the phone with Norton that he had to remove it. So he connected remote with Norton's agent. After removing Norton in the attempt to install the new download version the guy ran into a problem with Spybot interfering and not allowing it to install properly. So the guy went and removed it via Add and Remove Programs then rebooted. Following reboot Spybot was no where to be found but still running, and still available in the Add & Remove Programs. He couldn't get it removed so informed my father he needed to do it in safe mode. So he entered my father into safe mode and everything looked right, until the icons appear then suddenly a blue screen of death as people call it. Since then he hasn't had a computer to talk back to the guy so has had no contact with him since. So he called Norton again and got a different representative they ran him through somethings but nothing worked. So as informed by some friends he played with the bios a little went through dells trouble shooting chart but never could get to even the welcome splash screen without the blue screen. I then tried every option under F8 for him and same results all around. So finally we looked into Windows Recovery Console and gave it a shot.
So at this point prior to using RC we were actually getting kind of stuck logging into safe mode. Even pushing F8 and choosing regular XP Home Edition we'd end up booting into safe mode. At this point theirs no blue screen of death but rather now we get after the Windows loading screen we get a screen that in the top right it says setup is loading (I think if I remember that's what it says will confirm in a few mins with screen shot). Its got some dots .... that continue moving showing its loading then without the dos screen showing the safe mode drivers are loading it goes straight into safe mode. The screen is all black with just the safe mode words on top and bottom as it normally looks. A pop up appears saying he is unable to run safe mode at this time, gives him the option to push O.K., if he does it reboots and does it again.
So we attempted to use RC following a guide we thought was reasonable. First time through we did four commands, fixboot, CHKDSK /P C: which found errors, ran CHKDSK /P C: again w/ no errors, exit. Then rebooted as normal and same results.
Then a second attempt at RC we used fixboot, fixmbr, CHKDSK /P C: which found errors, so this time we used CHKDSK /R C:, then exit. Same results once again.
So now were contemplating a remove&reformat of XP. So in his hope to save all his banking information, tax forms, and a few thousand pictures of which only half were backed up were posting here for some help. Every thing I've found similar to this resulted in at least a reformat which caused loss of data. I've had good luck on this site and with 4 or 5 bad viruses over the last several years I've only had to R&R once. Have come across a lot of good help here and hopefully will get some good help/news soon. Thank you very much I will be keeping a close eye on the thread.
So at this point prior to using RC we were actually getting kind of stuck logging into safe mode. Even pushing F8 and choosing regular XP Home Edition we'd end up booting into safe mode. At this point theirs no blue screen of death but rather now we get after the Windows loading screen we get a screen that in the top right it says setup is loading (I think if I remember that's what it says will confirm in a few mins with screen shot). Its got some dots .... that continue moving showing its loading then without the dos screen showing the safe mode drivers are loading it goes straight into safe mode. The screen is all black with just the safe mode words on top and bottom as it normally looks. A pop up appears saying he is unable to run safe mode at this time, gives him the option to push O.K., if he does it reboots and does it again.
So we attempted to use RC following a guide we thought was reasonable. First time through we did four commands, fixboot, CHKDSK /P C: which found errors, ran CHKDSK /P C: again w/ no errors, exit. Then rebooted as normal and same results.
Then a second attempt at RC we used fixboot, fixmbr, CHKDSK /P C: which found errors, so this time we used CHKDSK /R C:, then exit. Same results once again.
So now were contemplating a remove&reformat of XP. So in his hope to save all his banking information, tax forms, and a few thousand pictures of which only half were backed up were posting here for some help. Every thing I've found similar to this resulted in at least a reformat which caused loss of data. I've had good luck on this site and with 4 or 5 bad viruses over the last several years I've only had to R&R once. Have come across a lot of good help here and hopefully will get some good help/news soon. Thank you very much I will be keeping a close eye on the thread.
