Virus Problem

[Pinhas]

hello,

I recently had a virus problem, i have AVG anti-virus, and suddenly I was alerted that my comp is infected, the desktop background went black and virus messages started to appear. I run AVG and it found many Trojans and other infections, after the scan furnished, AVG showed 56 infections with 54 cleaned, and asked for a restart. Now every time I restart the comp it goes into the desktop for few second (desktop is empty) and then proceeds to start shutting down, and gets stuck at "logging out" message, and keeps on looping it.

What should I do? How can I fix this? I am relay worried because its a new rig and I have some important info there I did not get the chance to back up yet?

Any help will be apretiated.

Thanks

 

[carnageX]

Moved to virus area.

Are you able to get into Safe Mode to go through our guide?

 

[Pinhas]

Sorry for posting in the wrong area, didnt notice the virus section.

No I can not enter safe mode, when I restart I do not get the option to enter safe mode. Is there a way I can enter it by choosing to go there, I do not know how to do that. Which guide are you refering to, I looked through some of them on the site but did not see the one i need.

Btw, my OS is XP.

Thanks

 

[carnageX]

After the POST screen (would be the logo of the manufacturer of your computer), and before the Windows loading screen comes up (the one with the blue loading bar), rapidly press F8 to get a Windows boot menu. One of th eoptions should be Safe Mode with Networking. Go into that, and then go on here:
Osiris Spyware Guide

Go through the guide.

 

[Pinhas]

Thanks, I will do it as soon as I get back from work.

Would you say I will be able to save my comp and wont have to format?

 

[carnageX]

If you go through that guide and are said to be clean by Osiris, then no you won't have to format.

You can back up your info just in case if you want, in Safe Mode, or with a Linux LiveCD, or if you want to take the drive out of your computer, and put it in another computer as a slave drive and back up to an external source that way.

 

[Pinhas]

I tried to go into safe mode, but I could not, the "setting pesonal preferences" widnow kept looping at the start of windows.

After this, I really had no choice so I run my XP CD and did a format and re-installed XP.

What should I do now? Did the format fully wipe out the files or is there still any chance that any old files that may be infected stayed?

Thanks

 

[carnageX]

Yes, formatting wiped your files; that's what it does.

You can try some recovery software to try to get some of them back, but its not guaranteed you'll be able to get all or any back.