Help with reinstalling windows pls

michellen34

Hiya,

If i reinstall windows over the top of the existing one will i lose everything? Namely home network etc. You may have seen my earlier post regarding my son's pc becoming infected with a virus and now it won't even start up! Could anyone please help with telling me what i have to do now please?

Thank you.

fiish

If you just reinstall Windows on top of the current installation, all your settings and files will remain, and so will the virus. The only sure way of getting rid of the virus in a reinstall is to format the hard drive and wipe everything out.

To save your data, I would remove the hard drive and attach it to another computer with a fully up-to-date and effective antivirus program, scan it and clean it. Failing that, I'd use the other computer to pull the important data off the drive and just format the thing.

Browntoa

an XP repair may allow you to get the PC to boot again , then staright away follow the malware sticky at the top of this section to remove the infection

I've done that before on PC's that were refusing to boot and had no problems

michellen34

Hi, How do i do an xp repair please? I had been trying to get th pc to boot so i could download the malwarebytes you recommended but still can't get it up and running.

michellen34

Sorry did you just mean reinstall windows over the top, then follow the info you have provided?

Browntoa

yes , when you start the PC with the XP cd it will offer an option to repair



the middle option

once done it will ask you to reboot and hopefully everything will boot ok

theres a step by step guide here with pictures

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repair-Windows-XP-t138.html

michellen34

Great, Thank you :beer: x

michellen34

Hi Again, sorry to be a pain, but i can't get windows to start normally, do i just start in safe mode or just normally? also i managed to get to the repair option then i was asked to enter which i'd like to repair, i didn't know what i had to do??

Browntoa

there should be only one installed version of XP



so just select that one

Browntoa

IMPORTANT NOTE: After running a repair, you may find that Windows Update refuses to install the most recent 80 patches. This is because the latest version of Windows Update is broken, and doesn't register some DLLs if they're previously been registered (as happens with a repair install). Here's a work around until they get it fixed:

1. Stop the Automatic Updates service. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:
      net stop wuauserv
      exit
2. Register the file that is used by Windows Update and Microsoft Update. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   2. At the command prompt, type the following command, press ENTER after the command, and then click OK when you receive a verification message:
      regsvr32 %windir%\system32\wups2.dll
      Note: for x64 machines regsvr32 %windir%\syswow64\wups2.dll
3. Start the Automatic Updates service. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:
      net start wuauserv
      exit

michellen34

Hi, I've managed to get windows repaired even though i got a lot of error messages, is there anyway i can now fix windows? I was an hour and a half into the MalwareBytes scan and it encountered an error and had to close! Feel like giving up now!! lol