Windows XP will not start up... bootable recovery tool no help so far

miwilker · ‎01-28-2012

Hello, my Windows XP HP PC will not start up. Freezes once it gets to the 'Windows is starting up...' screen. Same results in all safe modes, and also 'last known good config' mode too. I made a bootable recovery cd and did a scan using it. It found 'bloodhound.malpe' virus. The repair failed. The norton web site suggested I try the repair again. Now when I run the bootable recovery tool and select 'Recovery Scan', it doesn't even scan, it just locks up. I even made a new recovery cd today and found the same results.

Any suggestions, other than wiping it clean & starting over?

miwilker · ‎01-28-2012

One other thing... I guess power eraser won't help me, right? Since I can't get the PC booted up....

dickevans · ‎04-08-2008

miwilker wrote:
One other thing... I guess power eraser won't help me, right? Since I can't get the PC booted up....

Welcome,

Until you can boot to safe mode there's nothing currently installed on that computer that you can use to help you clean it up. Do you have access to a clean computer [I guess you do, since you are posting here ] If you can make a disc with the Norton Bootable Recovery Tool on a clean system you might be able to get in with that. If that doesn't work let us know and there are other options.

Dick
Win7x64 SP1 current NIS V20

Quads · ‎07-21-2008

" I made a bootable recovery cd and did a scan using it. It found 'bloodhound.malpe' virus. The repair failed. The norton web site suggested I try the repair again. Now when I run the bootable recovery tool "

'bloodhound.malpe is also a Symantec detection.

Quads

NUser · ‎08-31-2010

Hi miwilker,

You can run a scan using NPE from NBRT itself. When you boot into NBRT, you would be presented with 2 options: Norton Power Eraser Recovery Scan and Norton Advanced Recovery Scan. Choose the Norton Power Eraser Recovery Scan option to run a scan using NPE.

Kindly make sure to download the latest version from http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/nbrt.aspx?

Regards!

miwilker · ‎01-28-2012

NUser wrote:
Hi miwilker,

You can run a scan using NPE from NBRT itself. When you boot into NBRT, you would be presented with 2 options: Norton Power Eraser Recovery Scan and Norton Advanced Recovery Scan. Choose the Norton Power Eraser Recovery Scan option to run a scan using NPE.

Kindly make sure to download the latest version from http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/nbrt.aspx?

Regards!

Thanks for the advice - however, when I booted using NBRT, the Power Eraser option was grayed out (not clickable). The only option available was to run the virus scan, which I completed, and that's when I found the bloodhound virus... but the repair failed.

I made another bootable recovery disk and tried that, but the Power Eraser option was still grayed out.

I'm wondering about another option: I have one of those Sabrent hard drive adapter kits which will connect my hard drive to another computer via USB. If I run power eraser on my good computer, will it scan the drive which I connected via USB?

Thanks

Mark

NUser · ‎08-31-2010

Hi miwilker,

The option to use NPE is disabled because a wired network and internet connection is absent. Can you please try connecting the machine to a wired network connection?

If you are already doing so, you can add the drivers of your network device to the tool during the creation process. Once you choose to create the tool on a CD/USB key, you would find "Add drivers" option. Kindly use that to add the drivers pertaining to your network device. Please note that only 32 bit version of the drivers are supported. After you've added the same, please proceed to complete creation of the tool.

After booting into NBRT, you should be able to see the NPE option enabled.

Let us know how it goes.

miwilker · ‎01-28-2012

Good info - thanks. I will give it a shot.

Mark

miwilker · ‎01-28-2012

OK, here's the latest...

- My PC has two hard drives, a C drive (which contains the operating system stuff), and a J drive (documents, music, photos...). My PC will start and operate pretty normally if I disconnect the data cable from the J drive prior to booting up. With the J drive plugged in, it freezes at the 'Windows is starting up' pane every time. So something's up with the J drive. I tried plugging the J drive data cable back in after booting up, but the PC will not recognize the drive for some reason. I also tried hooking my USB adaptor up to the J drive and plugged it in to my laptop, but the laptop won't recognize that anything's plugged in. Strange.

- I found the location of my network adapter driver (using device manager), but when I go to make a bootable recovery disk and browse for the driver, it's not there. The driver's obviously installed and working, because internet explorer works fine. So I still can't run the power eraser, because it's grayed out. (Well, I can run power eraser with the PC running, but only on the C drive, due to the issue with the computer not recognizing the J drive).

- One more thing: norton 360 doesn't work. I get a couple of error numbers when running it (don't have them handy right now). I tried to uninstall but that locks up too.

Any advice / recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Mark