Computer help please

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:07 pm

Are there any Computer experts about. I know Spot knows his way round them with his eyes shut.

This may take some time ( and so put many off :p )

Windows XP Pro

I have two internal HDDs. One with the OS and the other for my media ie films, photos, music.

I found myself with a particularly nasty virus which I apparently acquired via a p2p or torrent application. I managed to rid myself completely of the virus but not before it damaged some .exe files, in particular, the computers drivers and my ability to connect to the web. The virus was one of those polymorphous thingy's. Great fun trying to catch it up

I proceeded to re-install windows BUT what do you know??? This big galloot formatted and reinstalled on the wrong drive. PILLOCK !

So. I used my daughters laptop and downloaded the drivers onto a memory stick so that I could install them on my nice new Operating System (with SP 3 installed ).No such luck. I seem not to have the USB drivers installed. The PC will not recognise or pick up the USB memory stick.

I'm in a catch 22 situation. I need to install the drivers to connect to the web but I cant install the drivers cos the memory stick cant be recognized.

Will I have to start again and reinstall windows ?

Thanks in advance

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:08 pm

Chezzie is an excellent cp whiz...IMO:)

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:10 pm

qsducks;1157739 wrote: chezzie is an excellent cp whiz...imo:)

chezzie

Chezzie · Post by **Chezzie** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:21 pm

Snowfire;1157737 wrote: Are there any Computer experts about. I know Spot knows his way round them with his eyes shut.

This may take some time ( and so put many off :p )

Windows XP Pro

I have two internal HDDs. One with the OS and the other for my media ie films, photos, music.

I found myself with a particularly nasty virus which I apparently acquired via a p2p or torrent application. I managed to rid myself completely of the virus but not before it damaged some .exe files, in particular, the computers drivers and my ability to connect to the web. The virus was one of those polymorphous thingy's. Great fun trying to catch it up

I proceeded to re-install windows BUT what do you know??? This big galloot formatted and reinstalled on the wrong drive. PILLOCK !

So. I used my daughters laptop and downloaded the drivers onto a memory stick so that I could install them on my nice new Operating System (with SP 3 installed ).No such luck. I seem not to have the USB drivers installed. The PC will not recognise or pick up the USB memory stick.

I'm in a catch 22 situation. I need to install the drivers to connect to the web but I cant install the drivers cos the memory stick cant be recognized.

Will I have to start again and reinstall windows ?

Thanks in advance

Remove one of the hard drives and turn it into a external drive and ghost it???

Norton Ghost is a good application:-6

Sorry cant think of anything else, some other techies may be able to help more:D

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:40 pm

Do not panic. Babies and small children should be placed in special cocoons. Survival means every man for himself.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:43 pm

If you just want to see the memory stick as a removal drive you need to be in computer management, then disk management then look for it and and change the drive letter so you will be able to see it(of course have it in USB port at the time).

GO TO:

CONTROL PANEL

ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS

COMPUTER MANAGEMENT

DISK MANAGEMENT

At the bottom you will see all your removable drives you can give your stick a new letter so you will be able to see it and use it.

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:43 pm

What OS are you using?

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:50 pm

CARLA;1157756 wrote: If you just want to see the memory stick as a removal drive you need to be in computer management, then disk management then look for it and and change the drive letter so you will be able to see it(of course have it in USB port at the time).

GO TO:

CONTROL PANEL

ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS

COMPUTER MANAGEMENT

DISK MANAGEMENT

At the bottom you will see all your removable drives you can give your stick a new letter so you will be able to see it and use it.

I did that Carla and as far as the pc is concerned, it aint there. Further more the light doesnt come on the stick either. I do know the USB ports were working before all this. I think its the USB controller driver

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:51 pm

OpenMind;1157757 wrote: What OS are you using?

XP Pro

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:59 pm

Snowfire;1157761 wrote: XP Pro

I take it that all your important files are backed up on the second hard drive.

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:04 pm

OpenMind;1157765 wrote: I take it that all your important files are backed up on the second hard drive.

actually they are on a third external but unstable hard drive. By that I mean the files are accessable from this HDD but the HDD itself is unstable. Which is why it was removed from the pc

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:07 pm

Snowfire;1157766 wrote: actually they are on a third external but unstable hard drive. By that I mean the files are accessable from this HDD but the HDD itself is unstable. Which is why it was removed from the pc

The important thing is that you can access those files at will when needed. Can you do that?

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:13 pm

OpenMind;1157768 wrote: The important thing is that you can access those files at will when needed. Can you do that?

When I'm up and running I can plug the external HDD into a caddie and plug it in by USB. Those files can then be transfered. I and a few family members have done this with the music and films

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:14 pm

Snowfire;1157770 wrote: When I'm up and running I can plug the external HDD into a caddie and plug it in by USB. Those files can then be transfered. I and a few family members have done this with the music and films

Ok, good because you need to reformat your main OS drive.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:26 pm

Yep you have lost drives for everything. Like OM suggested you may need reformat your main hard drive and hope it reinstalls all the necessary drivers.

Does your CD DVD DRIVE work?? you can put driver on it and install from there as well. All you need to do is get network and your can download all other drives necessary.

Have you tried a system restore??

[QUOTE]I did that Carla and as far as the pc is concerned, it aint there. Further more the light doesnt come on the stick either. I do know the USB ports were working before all this. I think its the USB controller driver[/QUOTE]

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:32 pm

Firstly ensure that your important files are securely saved. Hard disk, floppy disk, whatever. Don't use CD-RW - can be dodgy. CD-R is secure.

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:45 pm

CARLA;1157780 wrote: Yep you have lost drives for everything. Like OM suggested you may need reformat your main hard drive and hope it reinstalls all the necessary drivers.

Does your CD DVD DRIVE work?? you can put driver on it and install from there as well. All you need to do is get network and your can download all other drives necessary.

Have you tried a system restore??

That seems like a sensible approach. My CD DVD Drive works. DVD drives, I think , have a sort of inbuilt default drive so you dont need to install one for it. I could use my daughters laptop to burn the drivers and then install them on my pc.

That would save me the trouble of reinstalling windows again

Thanks Carla

Post by **spot** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:52 pm

Good lord.

The third drive with the final last fall-back copy of your user files that can't be recreated from anywhere else. Put it somewhere safe and don't touch it again until everything's back to normal. That's a shocking thing to be reduced to.

You've a formatted data drive, you've a screwed up operating system drive, From what I read you've re-installed onto the operating system drive which is good but the data drive's empty and you've no drivers.

As has been said, if the daughter's laptop has a CD or DVD writer then get hold of any writable (of, if it's all you have, a re-writable) CD or DVD and copy all of the drivers to it. Put an antivirus product like Avast or AVG onto the CD or DVD as well.

Start your computer and try installing all the drivers and the antivirus from the CD or DVD. That should get you back to normal, able to use the network and the USB ports.

Run Windows Update to get all of the security patches.

How much of that can you manage?

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:03 pm

spot;1157811 wrote: Good lord.

The third drive with the final last fall-back copy of your user files that can't be recreated from anywhere else. Put it somewhere safe and don't touch it again until everything's back to normal. That's a shocking thing to be reduced to.

You've a formatted data drive, you've a screwed up operating system drive, From what I read you've re-installed onto the operating system drive which is good but the data drive's empty and you've no drivers.

As has been said, if the daughter's laptop has a CD or DVD writer then get hold of any writable (of, if it's all you have, a re-writable) CD or DVD and copy all of the drivers to it. Put an antivirus product like Avast or AVG onto the CD or DVD as well.

Start your computer and try installing all the drivers and the antivirus from the CD or DVD. That should get you back to normal, able to use the network and the USB ports.

Run Windows Update to get all of the security patches.

How much of that can you manage?

Good Lord indeed.

Thats not a problem for me. Should have thought about burning the drives to a data disc before. I have a subscription anti virus/ anti spyware.

The HDD drive with my media is safe and wont be transfered untill I'm all tickety boo.

People should be aware though that this pretty nasty virus was aquired quite innocently via a torrent client while real time protection was activated on my anti spyware/virus programme. I had to uninstall that AV and install another, recommended for the purpose. By that time the damage was done.

So be careful !

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:04 pm

There again, while a re-install takes longer, providing you have all your important data backed up, it can be a lot more reliable.

Post by **spot** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:11 pm

Snowfire;1157816 wrote: People should be aware though that this pretty nasty virus was aquired quite innocently via a torrent client while real time protection was activated on my anti spyware/virus programme. I had to uninstall that AV and install another, recommended for the purpose. By that time the damage was done.

So be careful !

Definitely so.

The crisis comes from most users having Administrative Rights while they run day to day processes like torrents. Without those any imported virus is impotent. I've heard that Microsoft are setting their defaults more and more toward user-restricted accounts and deliberate invocation of administrator rights when they're needed but I suspect most users, even so, if asked to give administrative rights to a request, will say yeah sure why not issa computer innit. There's no cure for that. Meanwhile, and for most people, running continually as an administrator ought to be a terrifying thought but it's the norm.

Post by **spot** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:48 pm

Snowfire;1157816 wrote: People should be aware though that this pretty nasty virus was aquired quite innocently via a torrent client while real time protection was activated on my anti spyware/virus programme. I had to uninstall that AV and install another, recommended for the purpose. By that time the damage was done.

So be careful !

I just had a look at how bad it's getting. Every file on this snapshot is a virus. People typing in the full name of a track they're looking for won't see any difference between the virus listing and the track itself. It's Pandora's Box in there these days.

Attached files

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:00 pm

I leave well alone now. I wont touch a torrent site. I use a few sites for music and film that I trust.

The virus, if your interested was win32.virut56 if I remember correctly. It directly attacks .exe applications and then runs like a bull in a china shop through the lot. It rewards the original architect with the satisfaction of a dead pc and a screaming operator. Nothing financial as far as I can tell

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:16 pm

Snowfire;1157924 wrote: I leave well alone now. I wont touch a torrent site. I use a few sites for music and film that I trust.

The virus, if your interested was win32.virut56 if I remember correctly. It directly attacks .exe applications and then runs like a bull in a china shop through the lot. It rewards the original architect with the satisfaction of a dead pc and a screaming operator. Nothing financial as far as I can tell

If you have legitimitely signed on to a torrent site and you can prove that your virus or whatever humdinger knackered your PC came through that site, you can sue the torrent site. P2P transfers are no longer the realm of bogus macks and is now a legitimate method for file transfers.

Think on this, SF.

Post by **spot** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:23 pm

OpenMind;1157930 wrote: If you have legitimitely signed on to a torrent site and you can prove that your virus or whatever humdinger knackered your PC came through that site, you can sue the torrent site. P2P transfers are no longer the realm of bogus macks and is now a legitimate method for file transfers.

Think on this, SF.

The trial in Sweden's been interesting. No torrent ever touches any torrent listing site, all the torrent listing site does is lists torrents while giving huge displayed warnings saying the content isn't their responsibility. It can't be, the torrent site never sees the content, never handles the content, never accesses the content. The service they provide is to list third party torrents.

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:37 pm

spot;1157938 wrote: The trial in Sweden's been interesting. No torrent ever touches any torrent listing site, all the torrent listing site does is lists torrents while giving huge displayed warnings saying the content isn't their responsibility. It can't be, the torrent site never sees the content, never handles the content, never accesses the content. The service they provide is to list third party torrents.

An interesting state of affairs. As such, the Internet is a P2P network but having said that, the programs used for downloading data in 'torrent' mode is specific making those torrent providers responsible for what is transferred through their gateways.

Post by **spot** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:50 pm

OpenMind;1157950 wrote: An interesting state of affairs. As such, the Internet is a P2P network but having said that, the programs used for downloading data in 'torrent' mode is specific making those torrent providers responsible for what is transferred through their gateways.

Gosh no, none of the programs are produced by the torrent list sites. The torrent providers are the users themselves, you know that. By all means monitor the IP addresses of the torrent providers but you'll have hundreds of them for any one virus you pick up - how on earth do you allocate responsibility among them? How do you demonstrate which of them gave you the particular kilobyte that brought your computer to its knees? The real culprit is the person who packaged the virus but they're nowhere in the loop.

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:03 pm

spot;1157961 wrote: Gosh no, none of the programs are produced by the torrent list sites. The torrent providers are the users themselves, you know that. By all means monitor the IP addresses of the torrent providers but you'll have hundreds of them for any one virus you pick up - how on earth do you allocate responsibility among them? How do you demonstrate which of them gave you the particular kilobyte that brought your computer to its knees? The real culprit is the person who packaged the virus but they're nowhere in the loop.

I must confess that I don't have the time to use these sites as it locks up my PC for too long. In Bedford I had 2 PCs connected but this is not the case now.

I shall refer this matter to a friend of mine who indulges a lot in P2P transfers (took me years to simply convince him to get connected let alone rip off the music community:-5).

He's ofay with P2Ps now having since discovered the personal benefit to himself (though it took several conversations just to explain what P2P actaully meant).

While he is forever wary of modern technology, he can monitor this virus problem. All I've got to do now is work out how it will be to his benefit which is not as easy as it seems obvious. FO will be the first obstacle thrown at me.

Post by **spot** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:10 pm

OpenMind;1157974 wrote: I must confess that I don't have the time to use these sites as it locks up my PC for too long. In Bedford I had 2 PCs connected but this is not the case now.

I shall refer this matter to a friend of mine who indulges a lot in P2P transfers (took me years to simply convince him to get connected let alone rip off the music community:-5).

He's ofay with P2Ps now having since discovered the personal benefit to himself (though it took several conversations just to explain what P2P actaully meant).

While he is forever wary of modern technology, he can monitor this virus problem. All I've got to do now is work out how it will be to his benefit which is not as easy as it seems obvious. FO will be the first obstacle thrown at me.

Here, this is my torrent program's current display. There's no hint here of the torrent list provider I used to start the torrent with and I could as easily have got the list entry from a newsgroup.

The files come, as you can see, from all around the world in very small chunks.

No torrent list provider has any of the file content on any of its computers.

Attached files

OpenMind · Post by **OpenMind** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:20 pm

spot;1157979 wrote: Here, this is my torrent program's current display. There's no hint here of the torrent list provider I used to start the torrent with and I could as easily have got the list entry from a newsgroup.

The files come, as you can see, from all around the world in very small chunks.

No torrent list provider has any of the file content on any of its computers.

I do know and understand how P2P works.

In the general case, the software provided creates a ring topology that can only be accessed by those using the program. It's easy enough to create one's own program providing you know the protocols.

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:11 am

Everything is up and running.

I've set the controls to the heart of the sun

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:35 am

Good new damn viruses can ruin everything is seconds.

Rule #1 - Backup, backup, backup, backup it will save you many times.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:33 am

Snowfire;1157816 wrote: Good Lord indeed.

People should be aware though that this pretty nasty virus was aquired quite innocently

:wah:

I think we all know what that means.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:35 am

CARLA;1158131 wrote: Good new damn viruses can ruin everything is seconds.

Rule #1 - Backup, backup, backup, backup it will save you many times.

How would one do this if one were interested in such a thing muka ?

Laymans terms. How do I backup ?

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:28 am

You buy an external hard drive they usually require a USB PORT. For home users "Clickfree" is really simple and easy to use for anyone it does all the work you do nothing. You would want the portable backup drive they have one for 120GB hard drive that should do you fine $90.00, unless your hard drive is bigger than that?

QVC has them or you can go to their site. You literally plug it in it automatically backup up your hard drive, excellent for home PC users who don't want a complicated system for backing up.

http://www.goclickfree.com

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:43 pm

CARLA;1158214 wrote: You buy an external hard drive they usually require a USB PORT. For home users "Clickfree" is really simple and easy to use for anyone it does all the work you do nothing. You would want the portable backup drive they have one for 120GB hard drive that should do you fine $90.00, unless your hard drive is bigger than that?

QVC has them or you can go to their site. You literally plug it in it automatically backup up your hard drive, excellent for home PC users who don't want a complicated system for backing up.

http://www.goclickfree.com

Oh. thanks. I thought you could do it on discs or is that the old fashioned way ?

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:03 pm

Yep the old fashioned way. :wah: To time consuming and depending on the size of your hard drive could take a lot of CD's and you have to have a CD-RW drive on you computer to do it.

[QUOTE]Oh. thanks. I thought you could do it on discs or is that the old fashioned way ?[/QUOTE]

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:42 pm

CARLA;1158361 wrote: Yep the old fashioned way. :wah: To time consuming and depending on the size of your hard drive could take a lot of CD's and you have to have a CD-RW drive on you computer to do it.

I have that and I have about 10 blank cds.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:34 am

You won't be able to get your entire system on CD's put you can put your pictures, documents stuff you don't want lost on them. Just copy them to the CD's. You should have a utility with your CD-RW that walks you through that process.

[QUOTE]I have that and I have about 10 blank cds[/QUOTE]

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:33 am

I see.

Not the answer I was hoping to hear and now you have ruined my day but thank you anyway.

farmer giles · Post by **farmer giles** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 10:13 am

thanks snowfire after reading this i'm going to leave winrar well alone i dont even know what an exe. file is

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 11:59 am

Its an executable file. An application. A programme that instructs your computer to run certain tasks if you like