Hello, I really hope someone can help me!
A friend of mine asked me for help because she had been having problems with viruses and malware in her laptop. I decided to follow the 8 steps to remove viruses and malware, so as part of step 1 I downloaded Avast. At the end of the installation process it gave me the option to restart Windows to perform a boot scan, I did it.
The scan found a bunch of infected files, some of which were system files. When asked what to do with them I selected "Move to chest". When they were Windows files it warned me that they were system files and gave me the option to move them to the chest or ignore them, I chose to move them to the chest. When the scan was over Windows was loaded, however only the wallpaper appeared, no icons, no taskbar, ctrl+alt+del got no response, so I shut down the laptop with the power button. .
When I boot in normal mode the "Choose user" screen appears, no matter which user I select only the wallpaper is loaded, I can't do anything, ctrl+alt+del has no response, there are no icons, no taskbar.
I tried booting in safe mode, it shows the screen in which you select the user, but when I choose any user it looks like it's going to load ok, it shows "loading your settings", but then it shows "saving your settings" and goes back to the "Select user" screen. It keeps doing this, so I can't boot in safe mode. An odd thing is that the first time you try to boot in safe mode only two users appear (Administrator and Teph [owner], this is the way it should be because these are the only users), but after you try loading one, when it goes back to tthe "Select user" screen another user is added (VAIO, obviously it is a Sony Vaio).
Is there any chance I can save it or do I have to reinstall Windows and lose everything?
It has Windows XP Proffesional.
Thanks a lot for your help.
A friend of mine asked me for help because she had been having problems with viruses and malware in her laptop. I decided to follow the 8 steps to remove viruses and malware, so as part of step 1 I downloaded Avast. At the end of the installation process it gave me the option to restart Windows to perform a boot scan, I did it.
The scan found a bunch of infected files, some of which were system files. When asked what to do with them I selected "Move to chest". When they were Windows files it warned me that they were system files and gave me the option to move them to the chest or ignore them, I chose to move them to the chest. When the scan was over Windows was loaded, however only the wallpaper appeared, no icons, no taskbar, ctrl+alt+del got no response, so I shut down the laptop with the power button. .
When I boot in normal mode the "Choose user" screen appears, no matter which user I select only the wallpaper is loaded, I can't do anything, ctrl+alt+del has no response, there are no icons, no taskbar.
I tried booting in safe mode, it shows the screen in which you select the user, but when I choose any user it looks like it's going to load ok, it shows "loading your settings", but then it shows "saving your settings" and goes back to the "Select user" screen. It keeps doing this, so I can't boot in safe mode. An odd thing is that the first time you try to boot in safe mode only two users appear (Administrator and Teph [owner], this is the way it should be because these are the only users), but after you try loading one, when it goes back to tthe "Select user" screen another user is added (VAIO, obviously it is a Sony Vaio).
Is there any chance I can save it or do I have to reinstall Windows and lose everything?
It has Windows XP Proffesional.
Thanks a lot for your help.
