WinXP will not boot, so I can't get rid of malware...help please

[gamblersgirl]

Hello Staff,
My desktop computer was running sluggish,so I looked in task manager and found that several processes were taking lots of memory.They include:   msa.exe, b.exe,B.exe and msb.exe.There were several scvhost (sp)  taking CPU and memory.

I immediately tried to run my virus scan and spyware removal,neither would open. I borrowed a laptop and searched online for a solution.I found that WinXP had a new safety feature called DEP (Data execution Prevention)that could be preventing my utilities from working. They advised that I temporarily disable the DEP,which I did in  DOS (/noexecute=AlwaysOff).

When I went  to reboot, I had several errors.I think they were rundll errors. When the computer tried to restart,it went to black screen with safe mode,last known good configuration,start windows normally,etc. None of which will work. I burned 2 different boot/rescue cds from the internet. Each of these give a boot failure error message (isoLinux: Disk error 80, AX=424D, drive 9F Boot failed: press a key to retry. ...)

So now  I have no idea what  to do. My hope is that I can save my pictures and important documents. Windows XP came installed on the computer (emachine) when I bought it new several years ago, so I have no cds for recovery and it does not have a floppy drive.

Thanks in advance for any help, it is greatly appreciated.

[ale52]

The first thing I would do is pull the hard drive out / attach to another computer via external USB case / scan the drive from there for spyware/viruses / once done get your pictures and stuff off.  Now you can start doing recovery operations.

Contact emachines   http://www.emachines.com/corporate/contacts.html   and see if you can get CD's for your machine. 

Hope this helps.

Alan <>< 

[Quantos]

gamblersgirl, I am going to advise you to go HERE and follow the directions EXACTLY.

[gamblersgirl]

Thanks Quantos for your response ...read all the posts on the page  that you sent  me to,  but everything required downloads or Windows. My computer will not boot past the black option  screen( safe mode, last known good configuration, start Windows normally,etc). None  of the options  work, the computer just keeps  looping back to the option screen.

So how can I get rid of the viruses and malware on an unbootable computer???

Once again, thanks very much, I do appreciate your help.

[Quantos]

Follow the directions EXACTLY, a specialist will assist you though.

[SuperDave]

Hello gamblersgirl. I think at this point your main concern is to save your data. The best way to do this is to slave your HDD (harddrive) to another computer as Ale52 suggested in Reply#1.  You can find out how to do that in this link. Once you are able to look at your HDD you will be able to save all your important data to CD's of DVD's. The other problem with DEP will probably require an OS CD to do the repair.