What to do?

Macky · 17 Oct 2010 at 16:55

Installed Avira a while ago on Dad's laptop. Ran a scan, it said it found some infected items. Stupidly I clicked fix now or something. All was okay. Turned laptop off, turned back on and now it keeps restarting before desktop loads. Presumably I deleted System32 or something by accident. Anyway to fix this whilst maintaining the data that is already on there? I've tried booting into safe mode and does the exact same thing.

Hasty answers will be appreciated very much, cheers.

Sin_Chase · 17 Oct 2010 at 17:03

Well, sfc will not work in the recovery console, only booted or in safe mode so you are out of luck with that tool.

If you have no idea what was deleted and have no logs then you cannot manually expand missing system files in the recovery console either.

Fresh build or an in-place reinstall > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978788

Both are going to shag currently installed apps however.

Macky · 17 Oct 2010 at 17:04

Sin_Chase said:
Well, sfc will not work in the recovery console, only booted or in safe mode so you are out of luck with that tool.

If you have no idea what was deleted and have no logs then you cannot manually expand missing system files in the recovery console either.

Fresh build or an in-place reinstall > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978788

Both are going to shag currently installed apps however.

Can I extract the files manually from the HDD with an adapter then plug into my pc?

And wait, apps? Only apps and not files? If so then we're ok with that.

SimonC · 17 Oct 2010 at 23:02

Could you not use a live linux cd, to see the antivirus log, maybe be able to see what was deleted then.

Macky · 17 Oct 2010 at 23:26

SimonC said:
Could you not use a live linux cd, to see the antivirus log, maybe be able to see what was deleted then.

Hopefully giving it to a mates dad tomorrow who gets paid for fixing peoples PC's. I feel like an absolute tool right now.

Sin_Chase · 18 Oct 2010 at 08:54

Macky said:
Can I extract the files manually from the HDD with an adapter then plug into my pc?

And wait, apps? Only apps and not files? If so then we're ok with that.

Sure can.

And yes, an in-place upgrade will only reinstall the OS. Anything in documents and settings should stay intact. Windows usually appends the system/domain name after the folder if one with the same name already exists (Eg on a re-install)

Just do not format or change the partitions when you run Windows setup.

Macky · 18 Oct 2010 at 19:13

Sin_Chase said:
Sure can.

And yes, an in-place upgrade will only reinstall the OS. Anything in documents and settings should stay intact. Windows usually appends the system/domain name after the folder if one with the same name already exists (Eg on a re-install)

Just do not format or change the partitions when you run Windows setup.

Thanks mate. Think this is the solution then.