Computer won't boot!

[mmarrs]

So, last night I was on my laptop (Dell Latitude D620) and got a little malware pop up in the bottom right of the screen. I knew from recent previous experience that this was a baaad thing.

I started exiting out of programs, preparing to do a system restore, or try something to prevent a complete virus takeover.
Things started to freeze, and in a panic I manually shut off the computer. Then, when I tried to start it up, I get the Dell screen, but after that there was just a black screen with a white lined bar at the bottom, which seemed to start loading something, but then stopped.

I tried booting in safe mode, and when I do that, the about 7 lines of the programming or whatever appear, as usual, but then it suddenly freezes and won't continue.

I run Windows XP. I have been able to get into the windows operating system disk.
I went into Windows Recovery Console and ran chkdsk. It found something corrupted or wrong, so I ran chkdsk /r which I think fixes that?
When I restarted, I still don't get past the dell screen.

I tried booting from a Ultimate Boot disk, and that didn't seem to work either. When I said to boot to a drive, the screen just went black.

Any recommendations? Help please!!

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

It sounds to me like you've completely corrupted your Windows XP install. And at this point, since Windows Recovery Console hasn't helped you, reformatting and starting from scratch may be your only hope. If you're lucky, you might be able to install Windows on a blank part of the partition and you might be able to access your old files. But if the virus was that bad, I'd suggest a complete wipe just for your own safety. It might serve you better at this point.

You might also want to reconsider what sites you're visiting. If you visit a site or a couple of sites where hundreds of thousands or even millions of people frequent, you're opening up wide for an attack. Avoid them as best you can. I know it's difficult because of sites like Facebook or Myspace, but there's really no alternative short of not using the internet. Torrent sites and things like that are a major breeding ground for all kinds of malware and virus threats. Perhaps a better anti-virus and malware protection program might be a very good idea as well.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but in my experience, there's really no easy way to fix something like this except for a reformat.

 

[mmarrs]

Thanks, I appreciate the help.

I know the virus was from downloading torrents. I'll have to just stop doing that for good.

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

Yeah, mininova and places like that are notoriously full of infectious viruses. I had Avira turned on and visited the place once. Stuff was popping up about a new threat being contained every time I visited a new part of the site.

Either find a very good and clean torrent site, or as you said...drop it for good.

 

[Tedster]

torrents are conduits for viri.