It will probably be easier if I go through this like a story, so here goes.
I recently discovered a lot of spyware on my computer. It's always been up to date (Win XP SP2) regular spyware checks, etc. AdAware reported 93 critical files, which I cleared, I ran AA again the following day, and it was up to 263 critical files. Anyway, I ran AdAware, Spybot S&D and Microsoft Anti-spyware. I also cleared a few obvious things with Hijack This. (ie. p2pnetworking.exe)
After clearing it all, or so I thought, I rebooted the computer.. however, I was now unable to access the internet. Both my wireless network and ethernet reported "limited or no connectivity" despite my other computer (this one) being online with no problems. I searched it up and ran what I thought would help - WinsockxpFix. It didn't, and after restarting I had yet another error pop up on the screen -
"The network location from which the file should be copied, C:\windows\service
pack files\:386/controls.man, is not available."
It told me to insert my SP2 CD, which I don't have since I downloaded it through Windows Update, and after doing a thorough search of my computer for the file, there was still no luck. I attempted to solve this problem by uninstalling Service Pack 2, which, while it got rid of the message, it didn't really help anything.
Trying to run cmd crashed the it, it looks for "cmd.com" and I have to go to the system32 folder and find cmd.exe to get to it. This is the same for regedit. (there's a regedit.com file which is hidden in system32)
At some point during this, after restarting, my .exe's all duplicated. By that, I mean, in EVERY folder with an .exe file I have filename.exe and filename.exe(2) and uninstall.exe, uninstall.exe (2) My control panel list has doubled. I don't undestand this at all.
I've tried to partition the drive, I have 25GB free on there, yet when I go to partition it shows that the drive is full. I took this in to DOS which, also, said there were 0 Bytes free. I know this is not true.
It's at this point I'm thinking of buying a new hard drive (I don't want to lose any data on the current one) Am I looking at damage control here or what? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
