Windows stuck on the welcome screen and setup CD can't recognize it

garywillstoc

Honorable
May 7, 2013
2
0
10,510
Hi guys
I need your help with something.. on my windows xp pc, I recently found out some adware and the google custom search in firefox was hijacked..anyway while trying to uninstall some of the adware, windows xp sort of crashed.. when I boot it up, it is stuck forever on the blue welcome screen before showing any users log in or anything. I booted from the windows CD to try to repair, but the windows setup couldn't read the existing windows thus no repair option. I thought I might used a different version of xp that on the CD, I can't remember.

So I installed a fresh copy on a different partition that the crashed XP so as to be able to gather the data on the C partition. However, the strange thing is that when I boot up the windows setup CD, it doesn't read either the crashed xp or the new fresh working copy on the other partition, it just goes straight to the screen where it prompts you to choose which partition to install on.

NB the fresh copy that is installed on the other partion is working fine, but it still won't show up in the setup CD.

My plan now is to copy my data from the C partition (crashed XP) to a different partition and then format the C and do a fresh installation on it....then use antivirus software to check that the remaining partitions are clean

my questions are;
1) what about the fact the the windows setup CD can't recognize the fresh copy that I just installed using the very same CD. should I ignore it

2) will copying the data to another partition suffice to cleanse out the system from the infectious malware or should copy this data to an external source.

3) what would be the optimum course of plan here. Is there anything hardware related that I need to be concerned about.

cheers
 
Hi,
1) Just ignore
2) Copying the data is enough. You will need to reinstall the applications
3) Make a third partition and copy data on it.
Restart, boot from the setup CD and format both partitions where XP was installed. Then install Windows on C:
For the adware I would have tried a system restore.