Infections EVEN after formatting and installation?

[JeromeBeckett]

Hello,

I've had a lot of problems with my computer recently, for example, not being able to boot up and system repair not working and many more. I reinstalled my system, transferred my files from the external hard drive back onto the computer but still the problem occured, only even worse. This time I managed to reach the system recovery menu by booting from a disc, and this time, formatted the drive from the command prompt option, copied my files to an external hard drive from the 'Load drivers' option on the disc and then booted from a reinstallation disc and completed the reinstallation. Nope. It worked for a few days after transferring my files but then got slow and NOW, I cannot reach system repair, it just hangs for ages on the screen (over 1.5 hours I left it before giving up), when trying to actually boot it, it just tells me 'Failed to configure Windows updates' which just hangs there aswell. Obviously, after formatting and reinstalling, it must be my personal files themselves that are infected. The only way to salvage my files is to take out the hard drive. So my question is, is there a way to not delete all my files or something?

 

[richc46]

Welcome
The virus is probably in the files that you transferred to and from the external.

 

[codekiddy]

you can scan windows7 installation using kaspersky rescue disk:
What is Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10?

note that you'll have to update virus database.

 

[pawprint]

Hello,

I've had a lot of problems with my computer recently, for example, not being able to boot up and system repair not working and many more. I reinstalled my system, transferred my files from the external hard drive back onto the computer but still the problem occured, only even worse. This time I managed to reach the system recovery menu by booting from a disc, and this time, formatted the drive from the command prompt option, copied my files to an external hard drive from the 'Load drivers' option on the disc and then booted from a reinstallation disc and completed the reinstallation. Nope. It worked for a few days after transferring my files but then got slow and NOW, I cannot reach system repair, it just hangs for ages on the screen (over 1.5 hours I left it before giving up), when trying to actually boot it, it just tells me 'Failed to configure Windows updates' which just hangs there aswell. Obviously, after formatting and reinstalling, it must be my personal files themselves that are infected. The only way to salvage my files is to take out the hard drive. So my question is, is there a way to not delete all my files or something?

Are you positive it is a security issue? I would not rule out a hardware failure. This sounds similar to many hard drive failures I have seen in the past---especially with the slowness, the hanging while installing/booting Windows, or having a fresh installation of Windows work only for a short time before having problems again. Have you run any hardware diagnostics on this machine?

 

[riotkayak284]

Sounds like hardware failure

 

[Borg 386]

Try running Check Disk and see what it comes up with. Make sure the boxes for "Automatically fix file system errors" & "Scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors" are checked.

Another possibility could be RAM error. I had a bad stick a while back that caused several strange things to happen.

And, as richc46 stated, it's highly likely that a virus migrated to your system from the files you transferred back.

It wouldn't hurt to try the following tools to see what they find:

Norton Power Eraser

http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/npe.aspx

http://www.superantispyware.com/