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I don't even quite know how to explain this...help, please?
First of all, I'm really grateful that there's a forum like this for help-I'm just about tearing my hair out over here I've mucked up my computer so badly.
So, thank you to anyone who reads this.
Secondly, I'm seventeen years old with enough computer confidence to really, really mess up, but that's about it. I'm crap at fixing stuff. So...yeah.
This is appalling. I was impulsive. Gulp.
To begin this saga, I was using Bitlord and I believe I downloaded a virus. Of course, I also downloaded an iso file for a game I did buy, but which was stolen from my dorm room.
And then I tried to open said iso file to run the game. I mean, I’m not sure if one can open an iso file, per se, because I've never known how exactly they work. This should have stopped me, but at that point I searched the web and found I could get it to run with MagicISO. But then I realized I lacked a blank cd, so I decided to forgo that process and download ISOBuster. Upon having major problems with my stupid game (I did get it unzipped, but it wouldn't -work-), I called up my boyfriend at Carnegie Mellon (he's a theater techie, though, so quite the wrong sort to actually help).
He tells me to download Magic Disk. I do. It's the wrong Magic Disk program, not the one by MagicISO, but one involving a description regarding computer security that makes me vaguely queasy. I proceed to panic. I download the right Magic Disk program. I try to mount it as an extra drive or whatever it is that Magic Disk does to help me run the game Now, I use DOSBox as a game emulator. That, too, involves disk mounting. But alas I do not understand what I am doing there-I am nothing more than a trained monkey with a love of Betrayal at Krondor...but at least the whole hardrive/disk/whatever mounting thing is familiar lingo. This only serves to put me at ease and push me further down the dark path to computer wreckage.
Anyway, as I am dealing with Magic Disk, the computer shuts down. Yikes.
I panic.
I restart. It doesn't load past the blue 'Windows is loading' screen.
It doesn't load. It doesn't load five times.
At this point, I am praying my father will not kill me for abusing my new (!) laptop. I am praying I can fix it before he returns from Minnesota. I am praying I do not have a virus from Bitlord. I am praying yet harder I do not have a virus from an unsavory website I may have been visiting while Bitlord was merrily humming away (I am praying also that God is a girl and will totally not be angry at me for being the worst representation of my gender, ever.)
At this point, I am guessing I may or may not have a virus from the game, from that weird Magic Disk program (the first one), my surfing habits, or from some sort of celestial punishment. Grimace.
So I turned to the web. I took my windows cd, went into the repair console, and tried half-following the first google result for "repair windows xp" and then I fully followed the shortmedia 8-step guide (sorry, I can't post links as a new user). Well, in following the second set of directions, I created some massive problems. Firstly, I assumed my computer was Windows XP Home Edition. It's Professional. Yikes. And then, it turns out that there's this funny F drive business. But...I don't have an f drive. I guess after Magic Disk I do. Hmmm. So I just repeat the last set of commands again when the recover console prompts for them for the f drive. Poo. I try to re-load Windows at the end, and...
Disaster.
There's a boot menu.
I have the option to load either a) Windows XP Home Editions, b) Windows XP Home Edition (again?!? Damn F-Drive), and c) Windows Pro.
****!
So, here I am now. The boyfriend hates me. My father will skin me alive. My computer has super important files for everything from college admissions to my homework. And...loading one XP home causes the comp to blue-screen and crash. Loading Pro causes it to linger in limbo, as before. Loading the second Home Edition does work-but only sorta. the taskbar is gone. Everything looks funny. I'm not on the network. Soooo...if anyone could help me save my files, or tell me how to fix windows, or help me with the virus, or provide a decent excuse-or, ensure there's nothing secretly being transmitted to the desktop I'm on now-I would be eternally, wonderfully grateful.
Thank you all so, so much.
-EY
So, thank you to anyone who reads this.
Secondly, I'm seventeen years old with enough computer confidence to really, really mess up, but that's about it. I'm crap at fixing stuff. So...yeah.
This is appalling. I was impulsive. Gulp.
To begin this saga, I was using Bitlord and I believe I downloaded a virus. Of course, I also downloaded an iso file for a game I did buy, but which was stolen from my dorm room.
And then I tried to open said iso file to run the game. I mean, I’m not sure if one can open an iso file, per se, because I've never known how exactly they work. This should have stopped me, but at that point I searched the web and found I could get it to run with MagicISO. But then I realized I lacked a blank cd, so I decided to forgo that process and download ISOBuster. Upon having major problems with my stupid game (I did get it unzipped, but it wouldn't -work-), I called up my boyfriend at Carnegie Mellon (he's a theater techie, though, so quite the wrong sort to actually help).
He tells me to download Magic Disk. I do. It's the wrong Magic Disk program, not the one by MagicISO, but one involving a description regarding computer security that makes me vaguely queasy. I proceed to panic. I download the right Magic Disk program. I try to mount it as an extra drive or whatever it is that Magic Disk does to help me run the game Now, I use DOSBox as a game emulator. That, too, involves disk mounting. But alas I do not understand what I am doing there-I am nothing more than a trained monkey with a love of Betrayal at Krondor...but at least the whole hardrive/disk/whatever mounting thing is familiar lingo. This only serves to put me at ease and push me further down the dark path to computer wreckage.
Anyway, as I am dealing with Magic Disk, the computer shuts down. Yikes.
I panic.
I restart. It doesn't load past the blue 'Windows is loading' screen.
It doesn't load. It doesn't load five times.
At this point, I am praying my father will not kill me for abusing my new (!) laptop. I am praying I can fix it before he returns from Minnesota. I am praying I do not have a virus from Bitlord. I am praying yet harder I do not have a virus from an unsavory website I may have been visiting while Bitlord was merrily humming away (I am praying also that God is a girl and will totally not be angry at me for being the worst representation of my gender, ever.)
At this point, I am guessing I may or may not have a virus from the game, from that weird Magic Disk program (the first one), my surfing habits, or from some sort of celestial punishment. Grimace.
So I turned to the web. I took my windows cd, went into the repair console, and tried half-following the first google result for "repair windows xp" and then I fully followed the shortmedia 8-step guide (sorry, I can't post links as a new user). Well, in following the second set of directions, I created some massive problems. Firstly, I assumed my computer was Windows XP Home Edition. It's Professional. Yikes. And then, it turns out that there's this funny F drive business. But...I don't have an f drive. I guess after Magic Disk I do. Hmmm. So I just repeat the last set of commands again when the recover console prompts for them for the f drive. Poo. I try to re-load Windows at the end, and...
Disaster.
There's a boot menu.
I have the option to load either a) Windows XP Home Editions, b) Windows XP Home Edition (again?!? Damn F-Drive), and c) Windows Pro.
****!
So, here I am now. The boyfriend hates me. My father will skin me alive. My computer has super important files for everything from college admissions to my homework. And...loading one XP home causes the comp to blue-screen and crash. Loading Pro causes it to linger in limbo, as before. Loading the second Home Edition does work-but only sorta. the taskbar is gone. Everything looks funny. I'm not on the network. Soooo...if anyone could help me save my files, or tell me how to fix windows, or help me with the virus, or provide a decent excuse-or, ensure there's nothing secretly being transmitted to the desktop I'm on now-I would be eternally, wonderfully grateful.
Thank you all so, so much.
-EY
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Comments
Apart from your problems (which we hope to solve), that was an interesting first post I must say.
OK, I'll help you clean any viruses or spyware that may be present. If there are still some Windows problems after that we can look for additional help.
I'll need to see a HijackThis log.
Click here to download HJTsetup.exe, and save it to your desktop.
- Double click on the HJTsetup.exe icon on your desktop.
- By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Hijack This.
- Continue to click Next in the setup dialogue boxes until you get to the "Select Addition Tasks" dialogue.
- Put a check by Create a desktop icon then click Next again.
- Continue to follow the rest of the prompts from there.
- At the final dialogue box click Finish and it will launch Hijack This.
- Click on the "Do a system scan and save a log file" button. It will scan and then ask you to save the log.
- Copy and paste the log here
DO NOT have HijackThis fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless or even required.