Windows not working + BIOS question

Question

My computer was recently badly infected with a powerful virus that went about changing important settings, like disabling the Windows XP firewall. I nearly had it cleaned up, but I believe one of the anti-malware programs quarantined a few of the wrong files, because I tried repairing windows via the original CD, and that froze while asking for a file from another disc. Anyways, now my computer just loads to a black screen with a mouse after the dell + windows screens, and that's it, not even ctrl+alt+delete works here. After trying different boot options and safe mode configs, I decided to 'Restore to Defaults' from the startup menu, and now it looks for a floppy drive first. I don't have a floppy drive on this computer, and get the error 'Diskette drive 0 seek failure' but cannot remove the option from the F12 boot sequence menu. Is there a way to correct this? Because of this it seems that I can no longer get into Safe Mode either. I'm not sure if this windows is even repairable anymore, but if I could get the bios start up back to normal and bought a new hard drive, would I be able to install windows on the new hard drive and read data off the old hard drive similar to a usb drive, regardless of it's windows problems? Thanks,Aaron

Davet50 · Answer

Boot into the bio and make sure the option for the Floppy drive is set to off/disabled.

Try doing a Repair Reinstall and see if that works. You will need your OS disk.

Baring that you may be looking at a complet reinstall. If you had no chance to backup your files you could try pulling the drive and adding it to another system to access it.

AceE87 · Answer

Nope, just a single non-raid drive in there.

I haven't done a whole lot with the hardware of computers, but I do remember a few years ago my hard drive stopped working properly and a Dell tech had to come and replace it, but I connected my old hard drive as a CD drive or something and was able to read off of it and recover my data. I have an older computer i've opened up to try this, but it's older technology and can't connect to the hard drive.

MrUser · Answer

Try a CMOS reset. You should have a description in the manual for your computer.

MrUser · Answer

Do you have a Raid setup for your HDDs?

MrUser · Answer

Here is a tutorial for a CMOS reset: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps720/en/OM_EN/appendix.htm#wp1054035

AceE87 · Answer

Thanks, I found the floppy option in the CMOS Features setup, so the BIOS is fixed now.

I tried the windows repair again, and it didn't work.

I have Safe Mode back, but it's just a black screen with safe mode in each corner and a mouse pointer that works, and nothing else.

Davet50 · Answer

If you have no icons or task bar while you are in Safe mode and the Repair Reinstall did not work you ar looking at a complete reinstall of the OS. IF you did not have a backup of your drive you can pull it out and put into another system as a secondary drive and copy the files and such. IF not you will lose everything

Windows General

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