Can't boot Windows 7 after printer uninstallation

[essenbe]

I don't know if this will work. take the hard drive out of the laprop and put it into the usb. With the usb connected and no hard drive try to boot the installation DVD. If you can and it will show the USB hard drive, at the first wndow hold down shift and push F10, if you get a command prompt, type diskpart in a second it will reply diskpart. Type list disk it shuld show only one, the USB if it works on the left there will be a number it should be 0. Type select disk 0 it should say disk 0 is the selected disk. type clean all and then go have lunck. when it finishes (it will take several hours) close out the DVD, reinstall the hard drive into the computer and you should be able to boot. That will wipe out any virus on your computer.

 

[kimouette]

Essenbe I tried what you suggested (and thought it was a very good idea by the way!) but unfortunately with no hdd inside my computer the Windows DVD would not load.

BUT

Guess what?

I;m currently writing this post with my PC!!!


I took the new HDD (the one corrupted by my image recovery attempt) and plugged it into my Mac, after hours of trying to run drivers that would allow my Mac to format an external hdd in NTFS format, I gave up and simply ran Virtual PC, which does not always work smoothly and often is soooooooo slow that I never know whether it's frozen or just normal! So I ran virtual pc (that has Windows xp installed) and the 3 partitions from my hdd were detected, So i right-clicked on each of them (one at the time) and selected format (NTFS, 4096 bytes) and after 4 hours the 3 partitions were formatted. The I put back my, now clean, hdd in my Pc and could run my Windows DVD!!

So now my computer is empty... but it;s working!! Let's hope something weird does'nt happen in the next few weeks!

By the way Im going on vacation tomorrow and realllly needed to access my computer BEFORE I left, so even though it;s a little bit last minute, the timing works fine for me!

Thanks to each of you who took the time to make suggestions and to everyone who took the time to read my 48239732 posts!

 

[essenbe]

I'm glad you got it working and hope it will stay that way. Get a good Anti virus program installed so you don't get another virus! And, be careful what you download and from where. Good luck.

 

[gregrocker]

If you're prone to infection in addition to a good lightweight AV like free Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast 6, I'd also run the paid version of Malwarebytes to get the real-time shield. At the least, run a full scan monthly.

 

[essenbe]

What Greg is suggesting is a good recomendation. That is what I use MSE and Malwarebytes. I also run a full scan with both at least once a week. Many here recommend those programs.

 

[Magron]

If you're prone to infection in addition to a good lightweight AV like free Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast 6, I'd also run the paid version of Malwarebytes to get the real-time shield. At the least, run a full scan monthly.

Seriously? The conventional wisdom for years has been to avoid multiple AV programs running at the same time. The unique way they handle security can be a problem when they bump into each other.
Not trying to be rude or anything but I like to get to the bottom of it when 'wisdom' changes.
MSE does have a realtime shield BTW.

 

[gregrocker]

MSE is an Anti-Virus.

Malwarebytes is not.

They play well together and are used in tandem by many of us here.

 

[Magron]

MSE is an Anti-Virus.

Malwarebytes is not.

They play well together and are used in tandem by many of us here.

? it is according to their website

Malwarebytes products have a proven record of protecting computers by completely removing all forms of malware, including viruses, Trojans, spyware, adware and rootkits.

But I suppose a proven track record of playing well together does make the point moot.

 

[gregrocker]

I've asked our top security experts to comment on this as they can explain it better and will correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for bringing it up so we can get it clarified and not just work from Forum's hearsay.

 

[essenbe]

Greg, heresay or not, I use them both and have never had a virus, like many of the others here. It has been proven to work well. To me, that removes it from the catagory of heresay. Of course paying attention to where you go, and what you download and from whom helps too.

 

[Magron]

Absolutely. And in any case, 'Forum Hearsay' in a place like this is usually pretty dependable. A proven track record of these two particular AV programs playing well together, as observed by people who have an idea what they're looking at, pretty much answers my original question.
As hoped, a bit of discussion has enlightened me.
Thanks.

 

[essenbe]

Absolutely. And in any case, 'Forum Hearsay' in a place like this is usually pretty dependable. A proven track record of these two particular AV programs playing well together, as observed by people who have an idea what they're looking at, pretty much answers my original question.
As hoped, a bit of discussion has enlightened me.
Thanks.

That's why we are all here. I learn something every day, from the best 'experts' on the internet. If you're like me, hang around, you'll learn alot of things. When I first found the site, I started reading the tutorials. After the first couple I said 'I had no idea you could do that with windows 7', and I thought I knew it pretty well.

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks Steve. It will still be educational to know where the A/V leaves off and a Malware scanner takes up, or if there is even a distinction.

Many add SuperAntiSpyware for better spyware protection. Will three shields conflict at all?

 

[essenbe]

Thanks Steve. It will still be educational to know where the A/V leaves off and a Malware scanner takes up, or if there is even a distinction.

Many add SuperAntiSpyware for better spyware protection. Will three shields conflict at all?

I really don't know as I've never tried it. But I do know that MSE gets along with almost anything else. A few years ago I used Norton 360, and it said it wouldn't work with any other AV. It worked very well with MSE that I had installed also. I haven't found anything, in my experience, that MSE didn't get along with.

 

[Britton30]

All mentioned can be included under the umbrella term Anti Virus. A/V has come to mean any security software than can detect and remove viruses, Trojans, root kits, key loggers, web crawlers, spiders, bots, etc. Most of us, including me, call everything a virus.

All use different detection engines and definition files and heuristic rules, so all are not equal. some can't remove what it detects and some will detect far less than another.

I have found MSE does do well with other real-time A/Vs, that is, one which is "on" and actively scanning all the time. Most others don't, though, and will either not be dependable or crash your system. Generally though, it is not a good practice to run more than one simultaneously.

For my own systems I use Norton Internet Security but run MalwareBytes and Super AntiSpyware on demand scanners regularly. On the VM I have with XP mode on, I have only MSE installed.

Back in thw Windows 98 days, I found Norton to be really bad, slow, and a resource hog. I switched to McAfee for 98 and it wotked well. Since XP though, I've been with Norton and many have reported issues with Win 7 and McAfee.

NOTE: It is prohibited to discuss then on SF, but anti adware products are a different class of animal. They are normally very poor and make browser displays nearly unuseable

 

[Jacee]

If you're prone to infection in addition to a good lightweight AV like free Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast 6, I'd also run the paid version of Malwarebytes to get the real-time shield. At the least, run a full scan monthly.

Seriously? The conventional wisdom for years has been to avoid multiple AV programs running at the same time. The unique way they handle security can be a problem when they bump into each other.
Not trying to be rude or anything but I like to get to the bottom of it when 'wisdom' changes.
MSE does have a realtime shield BTW.

"MBAM is antimalware software that is designed to fill in the gaps left by antivirus software"
Please read this .... Is AntiMalwareBytes an Anti Virus program? - Malwarebytes Forum

 

[Magron]

If you're prone to infection in addition to a good lightweight AV like free Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast 6, I'd also run the paid version of Malwarebytes to get the real-time shield. At the least, run a full scan monthly.

Seriously? The conventional wisdom for years has been to avoid multiple AV programs running at the same time. The unique way they handle security can be a problem when they bump into each other.
Not trying to be rude or anything but I like to get to the bottom of it when 'wisdom' changes.
MSE does have a realtime shield BTW.

"MBAM is antimalware software that is designed to fill in the gaps left by antivirus software"
Please read this .... Is AntiMalwareBytes an Anti Virus program? - Malwarebytes Forum

I think we lost the terminology battle when 'hackers' became bad guys.
These days *or rather..since then... I just go with the flow.....

 

[Britton30]

Good info Jacee. this explains why MBAM finds baddies when other programs don't.

 

[essenbe]

Good info Jacee. this explains why MBAM finds baddies when other programs don't.

Yes it is. Probably as good an explanation as you are going to get.

 

[Corrine]

If you're prone to infection in addition to a good lightweight AV like free Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast 6, I'd also run the paid version of Malwarebytes to get the real-time shield. At the least, run a full scan monthly.

Seriously? The conventional wisdom for years has been to avoid multiple AV programs running at the same time. The unique way they handle security can be a problem when they bump into each other.
Not trying to be rude or anything but I like to get to the bottom of it when 'wisdom' changes.
MSE does have a realtime shield BTW.

Hi, Magron.

While you are correct in saying that multiple A/V programs, programs with real-time protection and multiple software firewall programs can cause conflicts, although Microsoft Security Essentials is an anti-virus program, the engine used for real-time protection is the Windows Defender engine. That engine provides anti-spyware protection, not anti-malware protection such as that included in Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. In addition, MBAM is not an anti-virus program. Thus, there is no conflict between the two.

As noted, the real-time protection provided by MBAM is only in the paid/licensed version. It is, however, a one-time license fee.