Win 2K Install is knackered, need a CD to backup

davestar_delux

davestar_delux

davestar_delux

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Hey, my parents PC appears to be virus or trojan riddled, it's running Windows 2000 and ran all the virus scans I could and removed loads of stuff but I think it is beyond recovery. Now I can't open any folders, when I do the window closes and explorer.exe restarts.

I'm thinking of just formatting, trouble is I need to copy the contents of my documents to somewhere to back them up first. Is there a CD I can burn on my laptop that will be able to access the Windows files and copy them to a USB device or something?
 
Everytime I'm burning this (Ubuntu) I get the first display screen, choose "run from disk" or "check CD" and it comes up an error saying reboot.

Tried to do the checksum on the ISO I downloaded but they have a list of versions and MD5s and I've no idea which to compare with.
 
e.g. http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/8.04/

The MD5SUMS file has the hashes for every ISO on that page. If you open it in a text editor you will see a line with the name of your ISO. That's what you compare with. Use ImgBurn with "verify" enabled. The log shows the MD5 hashes for the ISO and the burned CD. A "before" and "after", if you will.

If Ubuntu is causing problems ( I've had gparted crashing and other bugs ), try the Knoppix live CD.
 
If it's just explorer causing problems, don't use it - use the command prompt to copy files instead. if you can't use that, then try a linux live cd. Really anything with a 2.6 kernel and probably a GUI - so Ubuntu, knoppix, puppy, gentoo, openSuSE etc will do. You probably want to choose the smaller install cds (with the exception of Gentoo)
 
I think itd be quicker pulling the hard drive and plugging it into another pc (obviously with an av program installed) and copy them that way, you can see and open what you are copying.
 
brendy said:
I think itd be quicker pulling the hard drive and plugging it into another pc (obviously with an av program installed) and copy them that way, you can see and open what you are copying.
Click to expand...

Quicker than the command prompt? I don't think so... ;)
 
Maybe its me that is missing something here, he wants to move the files, using a live cd means he has to download an entire install, figure out how to use it and copy it over to the usb drive.
The guys tech level seems to be in win 2000, not ubuntu etc, so 5 minutes pulling a drive and plugging it into a second pc is relatively easy.
 
Yeah I tried the command prompt but it was being funny about folder names (you know like cd my documents, not a valid dir name, cd mydocu~1, not a valid dir name and was annoying me) and I need to format it anyway so figured it was safer this way. Usually I take the drives out but I haven't another desktop at the moment, just my laptop so would need to buy a part or converter or something to plug it in.

Anyway I've burned another Live CD so going to try that in a moment.
 
brendy said:
Maybe its me that is missing something here, he wants to move the files, using a live cd means he has to download an entire install, figure out how to use it and copy it over to the usb drive.
The guys tech level seems to be in win 2000, not ubuntu etc,
Click to expand...

Windows has a command prompt. read my original post... I've highlighted the important part for you... Please take extra care reading the section that recommends using the command prompt. Which happens to be built into windows

If it's just explorer causing problems, don't use it - use the command prompt to copy files instead. if you can't use that, then try a linux live cd. Really anything with a 2.6 kernel and probably a GUI - so Ubuntu, knoppix, puppy, gentoo, openSuSE etc will do. You probably want to choose the smaller install cds (with the exception of Gentoo)
Click to expand...
 
davestar_delux said:
Yeah I tried the command prompt but it was being funny about folder names (you know like cd my documents, not a valid dir name, cd mydocu~1, not a valid dir name and was annoying me) and I need to format it anyway so figured it was safer this way. Usually I take the drives out but I haven't another desktop at the moment, just my laptop so would need to buy a part or converter or something to plug it in.

Anyway I've burned another Live CD so going to try that in a moment.
Click to expand...

Have you tried booting Windows into Safe Mode and trying to copy via Windows Explorer? Probably the easiest way ( assuming malware hasn't wormed its way into safe mode as well ).
 
eXor said:
Have you tried booting Windows into Safe Mode and trying to copy via Windows Explorer? Probably the easiest way ( assuming malware hasn't wormed its way into safe mode as well ).
Click to expand...

That won't work - you can't mount a usb drive / cd in that configuration. Safe mode only loads the most necessary drivers and services. USB / CD drivers are not essential.
 
davestar_delux said:
Yeah I tried the command prompt but it was being funny about folder names (you know like cd my documents, not a valid dir name, cd mydocu~1, not a valid dir name and was annoying me) and I need to format it anyway so figured it was safer this way. Usually I take the drives out but I haven't another desktop at the moment, just my laptop so would need to buy a part or converter or something to plug it in.

Anyway I've burned another Live CD so going to try that in a moment.
Click to expand...

Another Safe Mode suggestion ( I hope .walls is not looking ).

Boot into Safe Mode. Zip up My Documents and giving the zip file a short filename. Reboot into normal mode and then you will only have one file to copy and it won't trip up on long filenames.

Did you do the virus scans in safe mode? Avast has the ability to scan early, during bootup.
 
.walls said:
Windows has a command prompt. read my original post... I've highlighted the important part for you... Please take extra care reading the section that recommends using the command prompt. Which happens to be built into windows
Click to expand...
Great suggestion there fella, "if's" dont solve anything though, quit the messing and pull the drive, he has already said he cant use the command line due to long filenames, that would take forever and a day "if" he has a lot of long named files.
Its up to him, we offer suggestions, its up to him to accept it.
 
The Live CD worked at the 2nd attempt, must have just been a duff download or CD burn first time around. So my stuff is backed up and problem solved.

As for the virus, i think Avast is the one I had installed, it is supposed to always be scanning and then I ran the boot-time memory check uber-scans etc. and it always seeed to find a few things and delete them but they kept coming back. I think something had got into critical Windows files themselves or something and I googled all the symptoms I had - which usually comes up with something - but to no avail. I also done an online scan trend micro housecall.

In fairness I had been wanting to stick XP on it for them for a while anyway so this gives me an excuse.
 
eXor said:
Another Safe Mode suggestion ( I hope .walls is not looking ).

Boot into Safe Mode. Zip up My Documents and giving the zip file a short filename. Reboot into normal mode and then you will only have one file to copy and it won't trip up on long filenames.
Click to expand...

Was going to suggest something similar - i.e. making a new folder in the root of c: and moving all important data there, then copying the folder from cmd (the .zip bit - genius idea btw), but couldn't ba posting on it anymore, OP said that he was burning another cd, which would give him a GUI to copypasta.

brendy said:
Great suggestion there fella, "if's" dont solve anything though, quit the messing and pull the drive,
Click to expand...
And if he doesn't have another pc? (Which happened to be the case in this instance)

brendy said:
he has already said he cant use the command line due to long filenames,
Click to expand...
Not at the time I first posted, he didn't...

brendy said:
that would take forever and a day "if" he has a lot of long named files.
Click to expand...
Really? what's wrong with copying an entire folder in one go?
 
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