Stuck in Startup Repair Loop after running Avast/No safemode option

[Flusterated]

Okay, I'm looking for anyone to help me... this is sort of a long story. First I noticed my background picture had disappeared and was just black. My immediate thought was oh great, I bet I have a virus. Other than that there were no other noticeable symptoms. Anyway, I ran Spybot and it found malware called "smitfraud-c.generic". I told Spybot to fix the error, it looked like it did, then said I needed to restart, but after restart I ran Spybot again to make sure it was gone, but it kept coming back each time I restarted. So, I called a local computer guy who said I should get rid of Spybot, download SUPERantispyware and AVAST, and shutdown system restore from system properties because when I restart the system restore keeps putting the virus back on the computer. Of course when I shutdown system restore it removed all previous restore points, which it warned me of, but thinking the smart computer guy said to do it so I did it. Then I ran SUPERantispyware which found numerous tojans! I was shocked because my computer hadn't been running slow or anything. I had only noticed my background picture was gone. After SUPERantispyware was finished I told it to fix the problems and restarted my computer. It started up fine. I then ran Avast to make sure there wasn't anything lingering that SUPERantispyware didn't find. Avast did find another trojan and what I think was some kind of rootkit. I told Avast to fix the problems, it did and told me I needed to reboot the computer which I did, but it wouldn't finish startup. I have been stuck in a Startup Repair loop for 3 days now. f8 is not working to start in Safemode. The only thing I have been able to get it to do is I can hit esc at the HP screen and I get a Startup Menu with the following options:
System Information
System Diagnostics
Boot Device Options
BIOS Setup
System Recovery
Continue Startup
None of these options have a Safemode option, but if I hit enter to continue startup then immediately hit esc again the Windows Boot Manager comes up and has an option to press f8 to specify an advanced option for my Windows 7 OS choice but when I hit f8 startup continues and gets stuck in the Startup Repair Loop once again. I also went into System Recovery and did a system restore to the backup I made right before I ran Avast (which is the only restore point option I have since shutting down system restore removed all of my previsou restore points). It says it was successful and reboots the computer, but yet again I get stuck in the Startup Repair Loop.
Can anyone help? Any ideas? Or am I totally screwed here? I am assuming that when Avast removed the virus it also removed important system file(s).
I do have some pictures of my kids that I hadn't moved to my external drive yet, but I have been afraid to back them up right now for fear of the virus still being on the computer and infecting the external drive?
Any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[DustSailor]

Hello flusterated, and welcome to Sevenforums

Try this tutorial by Dzomlija and see if it helps you with your problem: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html

If you can escape try this one: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139810-sfc-scannow-run-command-prompt-boot.html by Bare Foot Kid

Let me know how it goes.

 

[Goodrich]

Hello, I'm actually having the same problem. I ran Avast, it removed a few viruses, and told me I needed to reboot. So I did, but then when it restarted, it went to startup repair. It stayed in a loop and I decided to cancel it and do a system restore. I've done a system restore to as far back as I can which is 2/11. This occurred on 2/19, but still, no dice. I've done all that command prompt stuff from Dzomlija, but it still didn't help. I only have the Windows 7 upgrade disc, and it doesn't seem to be compatible with my system for some reason because when I click repair my computer and then go to repair your computer, it shows my OS, but won't let me access it. I don't have access to my PC right now, but I know it says something along the lines of "this is not compatible with the current system" or maybe something different, I don't remember. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance,
Kyle

 

[mgorman87]

Hello, I'm actually having the same problem. I ran Avast, it removed a few viruses, and told me I needed to reboot. So I did, but then when it restarted, it went to startup repair. It stayed in a loop and I decided to cancel it and do a system restore. I've done a system restore to as far back as I can which is 2/11. This occurred on 2/19, but still, no dice. I've done all that command prompt stuff from Dzomlija, but it still didn't help. I only have the Windows 7 upgrade disc, and it doesn't seem to be compatible with my system for some reason because when I click repair my computer and then go to repair your computer, it shows my OS, but won't let me access it. I don't have access to my PC right now, but I know it says something along the lines of "this is not compatible with the current system" or maybe something different, I don't remember. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance,
Kyle

Please start your own thread

 

[DustSailor]

Hello Goodrich (Kyle), and welcome to Sevenforums.

Both tutorials didn't work and you did them exactly? You might double check. Make sure you read up on everything in each.

If it doesn't work, you may have to reinstall the OS. Please don't use Avast!, it causes problems. For an antivirus, you might consider microsoft's MSE.

You might consider waiting to see if someone else may have an answer for you on what you could do to potentially save your system.