XP will not reboot to safe mode

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Mazrim

Posts: 139   +0
On my sons' computer, against my wishes one of them got on Limewire, and got a trojan: lanmanwrk. So I followed the directions on how to get rid of it, until I got to the part where I was supposed to reboot into safe mode to delete some bad files (Cant remember the step, was with smitfraud or something).

I can't boot into safe mode, I cant access the CD drive to use the windows disk, I cant even SEE the Hard Drive anymore, and things are only getting worse. I'm out of ideas here, as each day, something else poofs from the system to access.

Is that HD just fubared? Or can I actually FIX this?? Someone please help!
 
what happens when you try to reboot?

do you not get the option to press f8 for advanced booting options?

What kind of PC is it? IF it's a dell there are some advanced System tests foryou to try if you can hit f12 / f10 (can't remember which one it is) when the bios first starts up at the very beginning of the boot sequence to see if the HDD is fubared or if there is a chance you can get back into the system.

it's weird that your AV didn't pick up the download from limewire before it was too late.
 
This is a custom PC: AMD 3700+ 2.0 GHZ, 3 GB pc 800 ram, Geforce 7950oc, WD 500GB HD. Runnin Win XP Home edition.

I get NOTHING on boot up. It simply goes straight to windows acct selection screen. Pressing f8 does nothing. I cant even get into my bios anymore.
 
Mazrim said:
This is a custom PC: AMD 3700+ 2.0 GHZ, 3 GB pc 800 ram, Geforce 7950oc, WD 500GB HD. Runnin Win XP Home edition.

I get NOTHING on boot up. It simply goes straight to windows acct selection screen. Pressing f8 does nothing. I cant even get into my bios anymore.
Click to expand...

that's strange, even on custom computers, i am still able to see the bios for at least a few seconds.


if you insert the win xp cd, can you boot to it to try recovery console at all?

my only advice would be to take out the HDD and make it a slave on another computer to see if you can extract anything off of it important. Then I'd just reinstall the HDD in the original comp (change jumpers back to master or cable select) and just reformat the thing.

sounds to me like the virus did a nice little number on the boot sector of the HDD.
 
Problem is, I cant reformat this HD since I cant get access to anything to DO so such as the CD drive, the HD itself, and I just tried rebooting off the win CD, and even though bios is set to boot from CD 1st, when the "press any key to boot from CD" command pops up in cmd prompt right before windows starts, nothing happens when I press just about every key on the keyboard. So at this point, I dunno if it would be best to just buy a whole new HD and install it.

Oh yea - can't get into recovery console at all either. =(
 
OMG! This is exactly my problem also. Its like my whole hard drive is gone. Now I have NOTHING! No desktop icons, no taskbar Nothing! I have a huge red background. I also have limewire and my brother installed some PC games on there and after that I started receiving all types of pop-ups. The even broke through my pop-up blocker. Now I cant do anything. I keep getting a message that whatever i click on has no file to access it and i need to create one in Folder Options. Is that going on with you?
 
That was happening to me, but following the directions on removing malware from this site, I fixed all but the most important: Access to the HD, CD rom, and boot sector. they're all gone, and aside from throwing this HD away and starting from scratch, I have no clue what to do.
 
I also got a message stating that spyware is blocking my hard drive and causing my files to be inaccessible.
 
Well, im trying to get rid of it, but I have to head to work. I'll post again tonight once I try the idea I have. Involves running msconfig from the run option in the start menu, and choosing diagnostic startup. Should force it into safe mode.
 
Ok, here's what I did: From start menu, click run, then typed 'msconfig'. The config panel pops up, and on the 1st pane there are 3 options for startup. Click on 'diagnostic startup', and click apply. Another option will pop up, asking to restart. Click restart to reboot computer into safe mode.

But before you do that, try to follow the directions on removing malware on this forum. Once youre at around step 10 or so where it asks you to DL 3 different tools, run the 1st one then do what I mentioned above to get into safe mode. That should get rid of the main cmd scripts that are causing 1/2 the problem.

The other problems I'm still having. I still can't access the HD without going through the admin options pane, I can't directly reboot into safe mode uding f8, and I can't access the CD rom nor boot off my windows CD. So I'm still stuck kinda, as I'm about at the limit of my knowledge atm. If anyone has a suggestion, I'm all ears. Otherwise, looks like I still would have to scrap this HDD altogether because I can't reformat it.

Why do people program crap like that, to destroy random peoples' stuff? Just seems pointless to me.
 
I doubt malware is responsible for your BIOS issues, it is probably like that by design. An option in the BIOS has probably been enabled, namely a silent or quiet boot without a logo screen, this is why you can see nothing. Try powering on your machine and keep hitting del repeatedly until you get into the BIOS, then disable the quiet boot from there. If del doesn't work, try F1. After you hear the power on self test beep or the instant the POST screen disappears you should then begin hitting F8 immediately to get to the boot up options menu.
Mazrim said:
Why do people program crap like that, to destroy random peoples' stuff? Just seems pointless to me.
Click to expand...
A fact of life for the Windows user, always will be and why I use Linux as my main OS. Though to be completely honest in all the time I was using windows I had never got infected by malware.
 
Mazrim said:
On my sons' computer, against my wishes one of them got on Limewire, and got a trojan: lanmanwrk. So I followed the directions on how to get rid of it, until I got to the part where I was supposed to reboot into safe mode to delete some bad files (Cant remember the step, was with smitfraud or something).

I can't boot into safe mode, I cant access the CD drive to use the windows disk, I cant even SEE the Hard Drive anymore, and things are only getting worse. I'm out of ideas here, as each day, something else poofs from the system to access.

Is that HD just fubared? Or can I actually FIX this?? Someone please help!
Click to expand...
Hi
If you have a floppy disc drive you could try using a boot disk from one of the older OS systems like win98 or win ME. Boot up with it in the drive and then try and accessing the C: drive from the floppy with this command.
c:\ then press enter if this doesn't work the try FDISK command to completely erase the disk and start again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

D
Fortnite will finally get a first-person mode later this year, but it's not coming to...
Replies
2
Views
113
mrtraver
M
E
I have been taken over by a software called Astanda using XML to Log everything and roaming to an SQL server.
Replies
0
Views
467
eriksnyman1
E
Shawn Knight
Roadster will combine Tesla and SpaceX tech to create something that's "not even really...
2
Replies
43
Views
712
BogdanR
BogdanR

Latest posts

Back