System Recovery failure?? wtf
 

about 3 days ago I contracted a virus. apparently a bad fucker. I spent 2 days going thru about 6 different malware/spyware/antivirus programs following several guides on the internet including ones from hijackthis and bleepingcomputer. the result? i spent 3 days and got nowhere.

system restore also fails everytime including attempts in safemode


so now i want to do a full reformat and system recovery.

Ive got a 3 year old Gateway computer that came with a partition D drive containing system recovery junk, and a System Recovery CD/DVD. Ive tried 3 aproaches to getting into the system recovery and all end with an error and my computer shuts down. ive tried using the microsoft system recovery from the start menu, F11 on computer startup, and booting from the CD/DVD.

Everytime it will go thru the pre-steps where i select if i want to enter the system recovery (press R) and it will start to load the gateway system recovery screen. but just before it does, it pops up an error and crashes.

i suspect my virus has attacked the D partition as some of the scans pointed to things in that drive


i tried calling Gateway and they want $59.99 to speak to them for 30 minutes. ungoddamnbelievable


what do i do now?

Have you tried scanning etc etc in safemode?. I know this might sound repetitive, but have you used Superanti-Spyware? :/ When you scan it did you disable internet (unplug ethernet cable)?

Anyway, where's "Invisible Soul" when you need him?

It sounds like you may have a hardware problem ...

ive run AVG, Adaware, SuperAntispyware, Malwarebytes, SpybotS&D, Combofix, and a few others.

i believe the virus is reader_s.exe which seems to be popping up on everyones computers within the last week. several tech support forums are being flooded with people asking about it. no fix seems to be available. i dont even know if thats the only one i have. when he avg resident shield spotted it, it had turned my firewall off and windows update off, and changed my internet securities all to low or off.

the scanners and antimalware programs cant remove it live. so they require a "remove on restart" but they arent able to remove it and it comes back on the restart.

according to the interwebs, even searches in safemode wont get it done.

Ew.. your tainted goods now... That's what you get for sticking your software in dirty ports.

Berz out.

well if ur files are not important try a format in dos mode then install windows back

ive got backups of the only stuff i want to keep (pictures). everything else can go.

i wish i had a regular windows CD. im afraid to do a regular format and have the Gateway CD not be what i need.



the error im getting is the Stop:0000021a {fatal system error} which means that god hates me. i am unsure as to why im getting this when im trying to load a recovery CD, not into the OS.



im slowly googling my way thru things, but this worm is slowing my junk down so much. :(

im pretty sure u can find some drivers for ur laptop on gateway's website

i think you can format your c drive and then use ur recovery cd to install windows

That's a pretty bad "Vundo" virus. I caught a Vundo few weeks ago, It disabled my windows updates and stuff and made a copy of "explorer.exe". It kept trying to send hidden data(key logs) to some IP and lagged my computer. Luckily I downloaded SAS and it got rid of it. :/ I guess you got some bad luck. Sometimes the viruses are hidden in your system restore. So (delete) Uncheck system restore and check it again after you deleted the viruses.

Try this virus scanner before you format: http://www.free-av.com/

I've had a similar problem with a laptop before where both the recovery partition and the recovery DVDs would result in an error...

And yeah, I think you already know, but one way to get around it is to just use an OEM Windows CD. If we're talking about WinXP here, you can even use a copy from other manufacturers like Dell and it'll work just fine.

I guess your two options are either continue plugging away to try and get rid of the malware, or find an OEM Windows CD to re-install with.

That's why my laptop is strictly for surfing the web and playing WoW.

My old desktop does all the download off torrent for me.

ran SAS, Malwarebytes, SpywareS&D, and Combofix. and AVG8. all in safemode with my ethernet cable discoed. SAS, MWB, SSD and CFX all found the viruses and 'fixed' them. but they are still there. AVG found nothing. SSD attempted to block them at startup but no success.

tried to run the system recovery disk after all that, and it still failed.

ive got 2 reader_s.exe files and service.exe popping up.

deleted the D partition and tried to run the recovery disk again and it worked.

Hmm... good job on figuring that one out, because there's little reason to think that's what would be causing it to fail previously... just one of those things, I guess.

Good stuff!!! :thumbsup: I'm glad things are working out for you. :)