Puter trouble

[mweitz]

i do agree with mweitz, buy an additional hard drive BUT the problem with that is that it does not remove any virus' from your machine and they will still cause problems. Also you still have to load an OS onto the new hard drive. and once you get all the data you need off the drive the ONLY way to be sure that all viruses are removed from the drive is to format it.

Correct, if that is the problem. That is why I asked him a few qualifying questions. I coulda posted a book about installing an OS blah blah blah.

BTW, Symantec isn't the Devil. There are good and bad with most antivirus applications. We use Corporate and don't have too many problems with it ... go with any of the big names I would say.

Mark

 

[wedivebc]

Foo, don't do that!

Buy a NEW hard drive and put it in. You can then put the old one back in as the "slave" to it. You will have all your data. There are a couple of gotcha's, but keep the old drive without formatting it if you can.

What OS are you currently running? What machine (specifics), how old?

Mark

Put a new hard drive in. Install a clean OS then put the infected drive in as a slave and run virus clean program on it. You can then put the original disk back in. The problem is virus software won't clean system files that are in use so that is why you boot off a new OS.

 

[mweitz]

Put a new hard drive in. Install a clean OS then put the infected drive in as a slave and run virus clean program on it. You can then put the original disk back in. The problem is virus software won't clean system files that are in use so that is why you boot off a new OS.

You can boot from the Symantec CD and run AV against the original hard drive ... might be worth a try.

Mark

 

[Scubatooth]

Foo if you are in or near dallas i can get any of the data off it you wish so that you can retain your files so that a clean format can help, because it looks like winblows has gotten its self all screwed up.

on thing about symantec products is that removing them is very hard to do via the unistall routines that come with it, i do it the hard way i remove all its files one at atime including the registry files which takes forever (have done it twice, its no fun).


also after you get this fixed pick up a copy of ghost or ghostwalker and image the drive so that in the future if something happens you can roll back the OS to a functioning state (i say OS only as i have documents on a different drive then the OS, just personal preference) and get by just about anything that trys to get at the pooter


lol on the mac comment, but lets not start that conversation set as thats a whole other issue


FWIW

Tooth

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Foo if you are in or near dallas i can get any of the data off it you wish so that you can retain your files so that a clean format can help, because it looks like winblows has gotten its self all screwed up.

on thing about symantec products is that removing them is very hard to do via the unistall routines that come with it, i do it the hard way i remove all its files one at atime including the registry files which takes forever (have done it twice, its no fun).


also after you get this fixed pick up a copy of ghost or ghostwalker and image the drive so that in the future if something happens you can roll back the OS to a functioning state (i say OS only as i have documents on a different drive then the OS, just personal preference) and get by just about anything that trys to get at the pooter


lol on the mac comment, but lets not start that conversation set as thats a whole other issue


FWIW

Tooth

Tooth, how are you feeling, better I hope :nurse:

 

[SquintyPete]

One thing I have found to help a lot was a program called RegSeeker. When I had the problem w/ Symantec similar to that I just uninstalled it ran reg seeker so that it got all the registry entries that were invalid and reinstalled it. Also helps to speed the computer up a bit (by clearing out the invalid etc etc blah blah)

 

[Foo]

Everyone has offered some very helpful advice, thank you all! I did talk with Sharkdiver last night on the phone and she gave me some help. Although we didn't get it figured out completely while on the phone, I tried something she suggested, then monkeyed around with it a bit more and ended up getting it working. Wow, are you believing that?

I'm thinking that it probably still has some problems (duh), and there is a guy at work that works in our technology dept. that is going to come over soon and see what he can do. I'm really grateful to all of you who have come out of the woodwork to help me figure this out. Is the RegSeeker program available online, Jacob? I did clean up some registry items tonight, but I don't know enough about it to try much on my own. Also, the Ghost program, Scubatooth- is it user friendly, because I understood only about half of what you were saying. ;o)

Once again, mucho kissos to all of you who helped.

Foo

 

[SquintyPete]

Jacob? I did clean up some registry items tonight, but I don't know enough about it to try much on my own.
Foo

Thats the great thing abot RegSeeker. It automatically creates a system restore point and is pretty much fool proof.
I use it quite a bit heck even got my dad to start using it and he has to call me to ask how to put a link on the desktop sometimes...

 

[Foo]

Okay, SquintyPete, question- I found Regseeker on the net (Freeware), but as it turns out I already had the program on my puter. So I ran the scan and it looks like I have 637 invalid entries on the registry (!!!!!!). So what do I do now? I can't figure out how to delete them or whatever I'm supposed to do...

 

[Scubatooth]

Foo, depending on the version(most recent version) is user friendly, but if your looking at it and it get confusing ask one of the IT guys because they should be very familiar with it. sorry about going geek on you, its just something that happens(since i have worked on computers so long) when im dealing with computers i sometimes have to slow down and explain it or i wil gove over someones head.

Tooth