IRC Trojan, now XP computer wont start!!!!!

[bradfn]

I received a IRC Trojan alert and my computer locked up. When i tried to restart my computer it simply wouldn't. 1 out of 100 tries it will start up but locks up in less that a couple minutes. I run XP. i tried putting in the XP install disc but the computer won't boot from that either!

Do I need to buy a new HD because of this?? I really don't care if I lose all my data, i just want to be able to use my computer!

Please Help!

 

[linney]

What gave you the alert and was it able to remove this Trojan or worm?

If you can't start your machine normally it seems that you are heading for a reformat and re-install of windows. This will clean your hard drive of everything. Make sure you delete all partitions and recreate them incase you have anything nasty in the Master Boot Record etc.

Will your machine start in Safe Mode? If it did and you know the name of the Trojan exe, you have nothing to lose by deleting it and trying to get windows going. Alternatively you can use the Recovery Console to delete with, or even DOS if you are a FAT32 setup.

Again if you can load into Safe Mode you could go to

http://www.diamondcs.com.au/

(while your there have a look at their anti trojan suite TDS-3) They also have a freeware IRC Worm cleaner called "IRClean" on their "our releases" page. This might be able to run in Safe Mode and help you.

Other things to try whilst in Safe Mode are the "Last known good configuration" option.

As to not being able to boot from XP. Is your bios set up to boot from the XP CD? Is this a XP CD or a Recovery Disk you have? Can you boot from a Floppy startup disk (windows 9x version) and access your XP CD that way?

Let us know how you get on.

HOW TO: Start Setup from MS-DOS in Windows XP (Q307848)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/8/48.asp)

HOW TO: Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP (Q313348)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q313/3/48.asp

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

 

[bradfn]

thanks a ton for your help and time, but unfortunately nothing seems to works, not even the 9x startup floppy. It even hangs when i enter dos and try to format the drive.

So i took the drive out and proceeded to smash it with a hammer. feels good to take out some aggression on something that causes so much!!!

So i guess i'll just buy a new one tomorrow and start anew!

thanks again.

 

[FosTech]

bradfn,

It seems that I am a few hours too late for my two cents, but I was going to suggest that you remove the drive and install it as a secondary drive in another computer. A scan with Norton AV (with current defs) could have saved the use of the hammer.

Maybe next time...

-Brett

 

[aces0]

>So i took the drive out and proceeded to smash it with a hammer. feels good to take out some aggression on something that causes so much!!!

So i guess i'll just buy a new one tomorrow and start anew!

thanks again.<

i told you to take it out and put it as a slave in another machine and reformat it hours ago, on the other part of this forum why did you do that so quickly?

 

[bradfn]

because a) i don't own another pc, for reasons we won't start on i am a loving mac user. and b) my fingers were getting sore restarting and shutting down the beast.

still appreciate all the help guys!!