Windows doesn't boot (ArmUI.ini malware)

upomper · 13 Dec 2015

Hi everyone,
I am having severe issues with my Lenovo Thinkpad, Win7.
All of a sudden Windows doesn't boot, but goes directly into System Recovery.

I ran the system startup repair, but it tells me that windows can't do the repair by itself.
I also tried all of the available boot options (savemode, debug mode etc.) nothing worked.
I booted a diagnostics program from Lonovo from an usb disk to check all of the hardware. No error was found.
When I ran the system recovery though, I get an 0x80070002 error message that D:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Temp\ArmUI.ini
could not be replaced by the original copy.
Google tells me that ArmUI.ini is a malware.
Could anybody tell me what to try next? How to maybe remove the malware and run a successful system recovery?
There are important data on my computer that I would love to restore, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks!

whs · 13 Dec 2015

Before you do anything else I would save my data. Here is one way of going about that:

Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS

Then you can reinstall the system which is the safest way to get rid of any malware.

upomper · 14 Dec 2015

Hi whs,
Thanks for your help. Sounds good, I will try that.