Windows XP Repair - Help

G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Hi

I suffered a failure on my Xp Home system, and my Sygate firewall
refused to start. I tried to use System Restore to repair, only to find
that "System Restore has been turned off" and I had no restore points
to use!

No problem, I thought, I can restore from the "System State" backup
that I took last week. I've never restored from "System State" backups
before and I wasn't certain what to expect. To be honest it now seems a
bit of a mess. I'm unsure what state my PC is now in after the "System
State" restore. System Restore still seems to be turning itself off (I
have no restore points at all), the firewall will still not start and
the Video drivers have now reverted to a very basic default set.

Can I recover this PC without re-installing windows or is it best to
bite the bullet? Should I consider a Repair installation first ?

Sigh.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

<david.billingham@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:1121416896.565068.178310@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi
>
> I suffered a failure on my Xp Home system, and my Sygate firewall
> refused to start. I tried to use System Restore to repair, only to find
> that "System Restore has been turned off" and I had no restore points
> to use!
>
> No problem, I thought, I can restore from the "System State" backup
> that I took last week. I've never restored from "System State" backups
> before and I wasn't certain what to expect. To be honest it now seems a
> bit of a mess. I'm unsure what state my PC is now in after the "System
> State" restore. System Restore still seems to be turning itself off (I
> have no restore points at all), the firewall will still not start and
> the Video drivers have now reverted to a very basic default set.
>
> Can I recover this PC without re-installing windows or is it best to
> bite the bullet? Should I consider a Repair installation first ?
>
> Sigh.
>

System Restore only monitors certain key/critical windows system files. It
would not have restored your Sygate firewall or any other applications you
have installed after installing Windows. System Restore is not a backup
utility.

As far as your question is concerned, you have not provided enough
information for an answer. What program/software did you use to create your
system state backup? Did you follow the recommended procedures for creating
a backup and restoring from that backup?

Bobby
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Hi *david.billingham@ntlworld.com* :

> Hi
>
> I suffered a failure on my Xp Home system, and my Sygate firewall
> refused to start. I tried to use System Restore to repair, only to find
> that "System Restore has been turned off" and I had no restore points
> to use!
>
> No problem, I thought, I can restore from the "System State" backup
> that I took last week. I've never restored from "System State" backups
> before and I wasn't certain what to expect. To be honest it now seems a
> bit of a mess. I'm unsure what state my PC is now in after the "System
> State" restore. System Restore still seems to be turning itself off (I
> have no restore points at all), the firewall will still not start and
> the Video drivers have now reverted to a very basic default set.
>
> Can I recover this PC without re-installing windows or is it best to
> bite the bullet? Should I consider a Repair installation first ?
>
> Sigh.

1- Did the system state backup was recent ?
2- Did you stop the system restore by mistake or it
was stopped otherwise ?
3- What is the reason of Sygate problem ?
Some malwares kill firewalls...
4- You say "bit of a mess" : not far from the truth :-D

I guess the easiest way to fix that mess is :

1) to *repair* W xp :

Works only with a genuine W xp CD
( not OEM [per]version of W xp such as HP-Compaq...):

- Set the bios to have the CD drive as primary bootable device
and HD as secondary...
- Boot with the W xp CD
- Start the "installation" ... but don't used the repair option at this
moment (this is the recovery console...).
Let the installation program find that you have W xp on the Hard Disk !
At this moment choose *repair* ...

then

2) If the W xp CD was a "pre-sp2" you have to makes all updates of W xp.
(This can be avoided in the future by creating a sp2 CD with the Slip
Stream procedure:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm )

3) Make a complete security check

Update your anti-virus and anti-spywares
and run a complete scan in safe mode...

Double check with this :

TrendMicro : disable your AV before to avoid a false positive then:

The "sysclean":
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp
+
recent virus patterns:
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp

put in the same folder and start it...

+ online scan :

www.trendmicro.com

4) a most easier way to backup the W xp registry
is Erunt from Lars Hederer:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/

Hope this help.
Let us know.

:)

--
Claude LaFrenière [MVP] :)

«My Principal Design Was To Inform, Not To Amuse Thee.»
Lemuel Gulliver, The Travels (IV:12)
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Guys

Thank you for these suggestions. I will try them out over the weekend.
The more I think about it, the more I think that I may have picked up a
virus / spyware - although it has not been detected by scanning with
Norton Antivirus and Adaware (both with latest signatures). Just before
I detected the initial problems, the system mysteriously rebooted
itself (installing something?). What better protection for a virus /
spyware than to disable the firewall and also turn off System Restore.

Thanks
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Hi

Can you create a System Restore checkpoint manually and then use that - not
sure why SR should be turning itself off? The video drivers can be
downloaded/reinstalled from the card's manufacturer's web site. The
firewall can be reinstalled as well.

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups


<david.billingham@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:1121416896.565068.178310@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi
>
> I suffered a failure on my Xp Home system, and my Sygate firewall
> refused to start. I tried to use System Restore to repair, only to find
> that "System Restore has been turned off" and I had no restore points
> to use!
>
> No problem, I thought, I can restore from the "System State" backup
> that I took last week. I've never restored from "System State" backups
> before and I wasn't certain what to expect. To be honest it now seems a
> bit of a mess. I'm unsure what state my PC is now in after the "System
> State" restore. System Restore still seems to be turning itself off (I
> have no restore points at all), the firewall will still not start and
> the Video drivers have now reverted to a very basic default set.
>
> Can I recover this PC without re-installing windows or is it best to
> bite the bullet? Should I consider a Repair installation first ?
>
> Sigh.
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Hi

Have a look in the Event Viewer - there may be an entry there that
references the reboot. If you do find an 'Error', could you please post the
Event ID and Source. Have you tried the following anti spyware programs as
well:

MS AntiSpyWare -
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.or­g/
CWShredder - http://forum.aumha.org/downloa­ds/cwshredder.zip
Spy Sweeper - www.webroot.com

Try SpyWareBlaster to stop intrusions:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.co­m/spywareblaster.html

Also see the following links:

http://aumha.org/a/parasite.ht­m
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/un­wanted.htm

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups


<david.billingham@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:1121435068.658344.146910@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Guys
>
> Thank you for these suggestions. I will try them out over the weekend.
> The more I think about it, the more I think that I may have picked up a
> virus / spyware - although it has not been detected by scanning with
> Norton Antivirus and Adaware (both with latest signatures). Just before
> I detected the initial problems, the system mysteriously rebooted
> itself (installing something?). What better protection for a virus /
> spyware than to disable the firewall and also turn off System Restore.
>
> Thanks
>