Computer CRASHED! Virus?????

Question

Hi,    I am not sure if I am posting this to the correct forum, but thought I would start here. My  computer crashed on me tonight.:smileymad:  I  am having to use my daughter's computer right now.   When I logged onto my computer tonight it would not do anything.  Nothing would come up for webpages/email.  Then got a flash message from Norton saying that the computer was under a severe threat or something  to that nature and then it just crashed.  The screen went blank/dark.  We restarted the computer and keeps coming up with this message:   Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt   \windows\system32\config\system   You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using original setup CD Select 'r' at first screen to start repair.     Well, we tried that and did not work.  Keep getting same message!   Is this a virus?  Is everything lost on the harddrive?  I don't know how to repair it?  I am not that 'computer literate'.  This is something beyond me.  LOL Any suggestions, ideas, help I would greatly appreciate.  Thanks:smileyhappy:

IRON_DUKE · Answer

Greetings!

It MIGHT have been a virus that was initially responsible for the problem, but the point may be moot now.

It appears that the Windows registry might be corrupted, or at least parts of it. :smileysad:

What version of Windows are you running on your PC? If you are running Windows XP, you could try the following:

- Booting to Safe Mode...if you can get in through Safe Mode then you may find a way out.

- Booting from the Windows XP disk and try to do a repair install by
selecting the "To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER." Then to the "To
repair the selected Windows XP installation" and pressing R.

- Booting from the Windows XP disk and tried the "To repair a Windows XP
installation using the Recovery Console, press R".

If none of these work in Win XP then the registry is toast and a complete (clean) install of Windows XP will be required, meaning you will lose all of your data (unless of course you have been backing your important data up off of the PC). :smileymad:

There IS some fix info at the Microsoft website for this problem, but it only applies to you if your installation of Windows XP IS NOT an OEM version. Unfortunately, most "out of the box" PCs that include the Windows OS are in fact OEM and so therefore this fix would not work. :smileysad:

I hope that this helped a bit. Good luck!

Regards,

Wellington

Virus & Spyware

Computer CRASHED! Virus?????

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