my Vista has crashed :(

S

shravan98

New Member
Hi,

I really don't know how this happened, but today my Lenovo X61 Thinkpad which runs a Vista Business SP0 OS was asked to allow a program, which i think put a Trojan and many other viruses on my laptop ( in total 112 threats).
I was planning on re-registering my Norton Anti-Virus soon, and in the meantime Windows Defender was in its place. The threats were detected by Defender and Anti-Virus Trigger, and both were scanning at the same time. Trigger was asking for me to purchase something so that i could remove the threats, while Defender asked me to restart my laptop in order to fix the problems.
I restarted my laptop, and during it re-starting, it froze on the Microsoft Corporation laoding screen. I left it for 5 minutes, and then i forcefully shut it down. Then i tried to turn on the computer, but it came up with the error:

0xc000000f

and it asked me to run my Vista Installation disk in order to repair my laptop, but unfortunately i don't have an Installation disk :(. However, i do have my brother's Vista Home Premium disk, and i was wondering whether i could use that to repair my computer.:confused:

I was reading on some previous forums, and i tried to interrupt the normal start up of my computer by pressing the blue ThinkVantage button. What it said was:

BOOTMGR is missing
press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to restart


I'm not sure what exactly it will restart, is it the whole computer or something else entirely?

I am really confused on what i should do, and it would be awesome if i could restore my computer to the way it was before this morning, files and all.

Help please?
 
Apparently when performing the hard shutdown the boot loader was lost. The Vista installation dvd for each edition now sees a repair tools section when booting from the disk itself. The link for getting into that options screen is seen below the large Install Now button. What you are looking is Vista's automatic startup repair tool there.

That would be a last option if the laptop is still under warranty however since the newer models should see the option for a full system recovery by pressing a specified F key or key combination when first turning the laptop on or when rebooting. Since you no longer generally see recovery disks included with new laptops or desktops even one site provides the means for seeing one created. http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/
 
So when you say a specified F key, are you talking about F8 or the blue ThinkVantage button?
And seeing as though it was a forced shut down, would the viruses still be on the computer and causing more problems?
 
If you were hit with an actual virus you would have likely seen the flag on a boot sector virus rather then the typical data miners or tracking cookies often confused with a real virus infection. Windows Defender is rather a lame duck for actual protection like other previous MS pest removers.

Norton and McAfee are the ultimate "bottom of the barrel" for antivirus protection there. Norton tends to be overloaded with junk while McAfee couldn't find a hole in the ground if you dropped it in one! As for seeing a system recovery where Windows sees a full restoration back to factory condition newer laptops see this option.

The F8 key is for the Windows start menu of options like start normally or boot in safe mode where you press that key as soon as the initial logo screen disappears or that is disabled in the bios and you see the posts tests and memory total counted. On a laptop the brand logo screen. On a desktop the F8 could be for a boot device menu with differing boards.

The first thing to do now however is repair the boot information or perform a full system recovery as the last option. Lenovo's support page is seen at http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4Q2QAK

Additional information on the ThinkAdvantage Productivity Center for applications and other things is seen at http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=TVAN-PRDCTR
 
So how would i repair the boot information?
Would i use the repair/recovery disk method you referred to earlier, or does it involve something to do with ThinkVantage?
 
Like I stated before Vista now sees an automatic repair section on the installation disk your brother has onhand. The boot files are the same beteen editions. The downloads available at the link above are simply provided for the repair tools not for replacing the original installation or recovery disks when provided.

For the details on how to use the automatic startup repair tool in the repair tools section plus other questions answered Microsoft has their own reference page for this seen at http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx#EI

Since MS didn't bother to include any screenshots to show how that looks a small blog with a pair to look at can be seen at http://cybernetnews.com/2007/08/14/fix-bootmgr-is-missing-startup-error-on-vista/

As for the ThinkAdvantage option seen on the Lenovo Thinkpads like the one there all you need to look at is seen on the link posted earlier. That's provided by Lenovo as an application manager according to the information they provide at the link there.
 
Thankyou PC eye !

My Windows is up and running and none of my files have been deleted. There is still however the problem of having a lot of malware on my laptop, i have a dozen Trojans and a whole lot more.

Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with something like this? Unfortunately the only anti-virus scan i have at the moment is Norton, hopefully this will remove the more harmful ones.
 
If you can get Norton off of the laptop there are some other far better antivirus programs for seeing general protection. The latest free version of Grisoft's AVG 8.0 was being questioned lately supposedly reporting false alarms and removing certain system files.

The articles pointing at that reported the problem was on XP systems while 3 systems here running XP by itself were never effected throughout the entire month were 2 or 3 articles appeared. No Vista systems were found to be seeing any problems.

AVG, Nod32, Kaspersky(retail), Win AntiVir, Trend Micro's antivirus/antimalware software(retail) are all favored. The free edition of AVG is found at http://free.avg.com/download?prd=afe which now sees an updated version of the old Ewido antispyware tool build into it.

Another highly rated favorite for spyware protection goes by the name of Spyware Terminator seeing regular updates for the free program. That's been tested here quite a bit and provides an active guard around the system registry as well as seeing spyware and adware removers. http://www.spywareterminator.com/

If you still see any bugs left after those see a full system sweep the usual advice is to download a copy of HiJack This and start a new thread in the security section where you can post the log. The two programs there are excellent "bug hunters/removers".
 
shravan98 said:
Thankyou PC eye !

My Windows is up and running and none of my files have been deleted. There is still however the problem of having a lot of malware on my laptop, i have a dozen Trojans and a whole lot more.

Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with something like this? Unfortunately the only anti-virus scan i have at the moment is Norton, hopefully this will remove the more harmful ones.
Click to expand...

Norton is a Virus!!
 
anth11 said:
Norton is a Virus!!
Click to expand...

That's understating it quite a bit there! :P

I ran Symantec's System Works some years back after tossing McAfee practically out the window! to see nothing but "bloatation" and no real basic protection. Then lo and behold I run smack into the free edition of AVG 3.75 or something like that and have seen an effective layer of protection since.
 
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