fails to boot after infection

[markwd]

Hey guys, i'm in a bit of a pickle,

I have a new toshiba satellite laptop with vista 32.

I did something very silly today and downloaded an exe file from dailykeys.com where every file contains a trojan - afterwards my avg and windows defender attempted to stop the onslaught but I knew there was still things lurking. I then ran malwarebytes anti-malware, it said it has to finish deleting the infected files on reboot but on that reboot something went very wrong. Now nothing happens after the toshiba screen is loading and it goes to a black screen and hangs forever with no sign of windows. Can't go into safemode and can't boot from cd.

I downloaded and burnt the Vista_Recovery_Disc.iso but my laptop won't boot from cd now for some reason - i'm guessing the malware that is on the hdd is stopping this.

I know my dvd drive is fine because when I disable the hdd my recovery disc starts working.

So at the moment I can only access bios with the hdd enabled.

I'm thinking the only thing I can do is buy another hdd and xp disc (my laptop didnt come with vista install). This way I can access my files externally and format the infected vista partition.

Unless there is any way to clean the partition externally whilst I am in XP?

thanks guys.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

You have to set your Boot Orde (In the BIOS) to have it boot from the CD Drive first.
From what you have told us, it seems that when the computer cannot find the Hard Drive, it boots from the CD/DVD.

Do you have the Windows Vista DVD?
If so, you need to perform a Repair Install. This way you can repair your OS without having to reinstall.

[markwd]

Thanks for your reply - i've already tried setting cd to boot first - but somehow the cd does not work with the hdd still connected, only when it is disconnected. I think the malware is controlling this.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Although I'm not a Malware Specialist, I highly doubt this is possible.
A Virus cannot control how the computer boots.

Can you try another CD/DVD Drive?

Otherwise, do you have access to another computer?

[markwd]

I have access to another computer and as the one infected is a laptop, i have ordered an external enclosure so I can hook up my laptop hdd to this other computer and use it's cd drive to try Vista Recovery. Or if I use my toshiba vista cd, will going back to factory settings get rid of the malware completely?

[CBMatt]

Reformatting (or "going back to factory settings") will get rid of your infection, but it will also get rid of all of your personal data.  But if you can't run any scans on the computer, then you may have no other choice.  This is what messing with warez can do to your computer...