HELP! Did I mess up during system recovery?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kit
  • Start date Start date
K

Kit

This is going to be very detailed ... please bare with me.

I have Windows XP 2003 -- my PC became infected with Malware and Trojan
Horse viruses, voice ads and chiming/beeping sounds. I rebooted my PC and
hit F10 recovery, and this whole process took place of diagnostics, clean up,
HP upgrades. When this process came to a screen that said "computer name" I
just hit OK without thinking ... a misstep that assigned me a new user file
that titled itself HP_Administrator.YOUR-4D######### (10 letters and numbers
combined)

So now I have two Administrator folders -- my original with all my original
stuff in it (music, MS Office documents, photos, music and videos, etc.) and
this new HP_Administrator.YOUR-4D######### with nothing in it except some
favorites I created -- before realizing favorites were in this new folder
instead of my original. Is it a problem that a new HP_Administrator folder
was created, or is it just another file?

My PC has been running like new since this process and there are no more
annoying Norto bloodhound / trojan horse alerts, no chimes, no voices ad, noo
pop ups, etc. Also, I installed new security and anti-virus software,
Explorer 8, downloaded Windows critical updates/patches (didn't install at
first, but then they did -- odd), updated and upgraded some programs like
Adobe, WMP and Spybot, and lastly, I uninstalled all programs that I no
longer want or use.

I'm all set, correct ... or no? I hope I just fixed things -- or hope I did.
I went into control panel add/remove programs and reinstalled MS Office, but
cannot open Outlook (asking for product code), and MS Office applications
icons are present in my original HP_Administrator folder, but want me to
install when I open a document. I'm so scared to make a move right now --
that after all I did, and how great my PC is running now, that the virus and
malware are going to come back if I do anything.

Spybot results gave me a red, scary looking result about
Microsoft.WindowsSecuritySystem_disabled\system\ message about registry
change -- not sure what to do about this problem.

I am unsure of what I did that seemingly worked, or didn't do correctly, or
still have yet to do. Please help? Thanks
 
Additional Note: Documents and Settings, Program Files, Windows are located
in HP_PAVILION (C:), as is everything that I did not move to a portable
storage drive before running that recovery process. All that stuff was
previously located in My Documents before I ran recovery process but somehow
got moved. My old Internet favorites are there but new favorites created
after I installed Explorer 8 are being stored in the new oops folder titled
HP_Administrator.YOUR-4D#########.

I would like to reorganize my files -- get rid what I do not want / do not
use but I am afraid so to even transfer anything. Should I wait until MS
Office is restored before I go moving files around? I do not want to screw up
anything -- everything is running fast and smooth with no alerts after that
process.
 
Hi K.I,m not an expert but i have wrasstled with viruses and malware many
times as my wife will click on just about anything.lol.What you seem to be
describing is normal from my experience.The new hp admin is probably
default.You can remove it from user accounts.When i tackle a virus the first
thing i try is system restore.It is much easier than recovery.If you restore
to before the virus it usually gets rid of it.If you got a virus.It came from
a program you were visiting.If it is in your programs you can search for
it.Running a safe mode scan will help detect such programs.When i,m not sure
if i got it out totally i click start,run,msconfig,ok.This will bring up a
window with tabs on it.Click startup tab,disable all.This will stop all
programs from running at startup.Apply,close,restart.When the pc comes back
on a dialog window will appear.Check the box do not show,close.Once that is
done restart the pc in safe mode and do a scan.when you scan in safe mode it
stops worms from jumping to another program.This should detect any worms or
malware and remove them.Once you have done this and restart the pc you will
have to start your security manually because the startup is off.Once you are
certain the worms are gone you can go back into msconfig and check the box
for the security to come on at startup again or just start manually.The
biggest thing with pcs is you have to,and i stress,have to have a good
security provider.I don,t know how many people i have talked to that use free
anti-virus programs and have alot of problems with bugs.Anyhting i,ve ever
tried thats free usually doesn,t work very good.Hence FREE.I always use the
security that my isp provides.When you buy a ford you don,t go to gm to fix
it.Use the isp security and keep all your programs updated is always good
measure.That way if theres a problem you only have one phone call to make
instead of 2or3 different calls.Not to mention if you use another company for
security your isp is not too keen to help you with your problem.I hope this
helps at all.You may not get anything out of my rambling but i try to
help.TERRY.
 
Thank you so much for your reply and help!

Norton kept alerting me to Bloodhound and Trojan Horse. Whatever this thing
was, it was creating some strange activity. Imagine sitting there and out of
the blue hearing, "Congratulations, you have just won a Ninento Wii" or your
PC starts randomly beeping or chiming, or your MP3 files skip like broken
(vinyl) records! Yikes! Whatever the F10 System Recovery process did seems to
have taken care of the virus issues ... not one single incident or virus
alert since the recovery process, and she is running fast and super smooth
now.

Since the only issue now is that I cannot open MS Office Apps, my husband
called and said nothing wrong was done on my part, and we own the disks -- he
purchased the software with my PC .... so it is just a matter of reinstalling
MS Office.

And here I was completely freaking out! LOL!
 
Back
Top