# Solved: Need help removing Windows XP boot sector virus



## Velstyx (Jun 5, 2010)

Hey guys, I've promised a good friend of mine that I would "attempt" to recover some files she wanted (20GB worth of documents, music, home made movies etc), and if I could, maybe even get the PC running as well. Two years ago one of my other friends decided it would be a good idea to put a crap load of pirated movies, music, etc. on her computer because he's an idiot. It didn't end so well.

Long story short, after several attempts at other solutions I've managed to get her computer running to the point where it doesn't short-out and turn itself off, and is actually trying to start up. The Windows XP loading screen appears and shortly after bluescreens (cliché... I know).

I've found my Lucid Puppy and Xubuntu live CDs and tried them both... I couldn't get any of the anti-viruses working on Puppy so I'm going to try out Xubuntu. Which programs are best for removing boot sector viruses on Windows machines via Xubuntu? And if any coding knowledge is required could someone please help me out? I've only really used Xubuntu, or Linux in general a couple of times and that was quite some time ago.

Any help would be greatly appreciated


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## 1002richards (Jan 29, 2006)

Hi,
This refers to an older version of Ubuntu, but the principles would be the same with current version (10.04 or 10.10)
"Hhow to clean viruses from your computer even if you can't boot into Windows by using a virus scanner in a Ubuntu Live CD."
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14434/scan-a-windows-pc-for-viruses-from-a-ubuntu-live-cd/

Hope this helps? 
Have you recovered all docs, photos etc from old machine to external media using Puppy or Xubuntu as a backup in the meantime?

Richard


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## Velstyx (Jun 5, 2010)

I wanted to run an anti virus before backing up the data, I'm not going to risk infecting my external hard drive (which contains my soul). And to back all that up on discs would take some time... over 20GB of files =/

And one small problem... I don't have internet access on the old PC I'm trying to recover the files on. I've been transferring everything by a disc.

I downloaded Clamtk earlier on my Windows 7 laptop and copied the files to that disc. When I inserted the disc into the PC, I couldn't see any of the files... any ideas?

I've also found that only a couple of the applications are opening, they appear on the tray at the bottom but don't open. After a minute or so, it disappears. Maybe a restart will fix it, after all I'm running off a live cd.


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## Velstyx (Jun 5, 2010)

We have success, just for anyone who might have the same problem as me I'm going to share my fantastic news =)

Well, after completely dismantling the PC and my old PC (to get some spare parts) and realising that my old PC uses IDE and the other uses SATA, I gave up on the idea of putting the two hard drives in the one machine.

I accessed the hard drive, and because there was only 10-15GB free space, I deleted everything in the 'C:/' drive except for the 'WINDOWS' and 'Documents and Settings' folders, thinking that everything would turn out fine. Then I inserted my Windows 7 disc (I realise now that I didn't mention this earlier) and tried to install it, or rather, upgrade - this way all the old Windows files would go into the 'Old Windows' folder and I can just copy them over. BUT, because I deleted so many system files, Windows 7 didn't recognise that I had an operating system on the PC. I played around for a little while and decided to try 'repair' the operating system. BINGO! Thankfully, this worked somewhat - a couple of features don't work but that doesn't matter, I'm going to install Windows 7 on it anyway. Next I just performed a full system scan with Malwarebytes and removed any viruses that were on the computer and copied my friends files on to my external hard drive.

So really, I could of saved myself a ridiculous amount of time and not had to delete countless numbers of programs =S Atleast I got all the files though. And thanks 1002richards for trying to help out =)


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## 1002richards (Jan 29, 2006)

Glad to read that you solved it, I've not been on here for a couple of days.

Richard


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