XP truely broken

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My sister just rang "my PC is covered in gay porn" (I'm not gonna lie , I :lol:)

Turns out she downloaded a 'music video' from Mininova, and now her PC is fucked.


I haven't seen the PC in person, but over the phone... her desktop pic disappeared, there's spyware programs, the start menu says there's viruses.
It gets worse... theres nothing on the start menu, we can't access the hard drive, we can't access safe mode, we can't access system restore.
I figured we could access run via ctrl+alt+del, but it says something like "Your administrator has disabled this feature".


Any thoughts?

p.s. I have an XP live cd, would that run system restore?
 
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I had some similar problems last year, but not due to downloading a "music video"..

I found that SUPER Anti-Spyware does a good job of cleaning up this sort of mess, it even resets the permissions for you. Scanning seems to take a while, but it gets everything after a few goes. Once the scanning is done, you can use HiJackThis to disable any startup entries that look suspicious.
 
She always uses Mininova for videos, but she said when she tried to open it, it was an MP3. (The random shit must have been hidden or something)

I fear that, I won't be able to run anything.
 
Sometimes MP3s have hidden web links in them to screw you over. Can you get access to the XP admin account at all?
 
I'm going to my sisters tomorrow to have a look, the problem is theres no way to get online whilst i'm there.
There is no way to access the internet on her PC (connections have vanished etc) , so i'm hoping that i find away to fix it... without the use of the net. :(
 
Its a re-install if all else fails, with a C drive wipe for safety. Back up - she takes regular back ups of course. ...
 
Maybe boot it using a linux live cd, to see if you can get the files off? I personally think it is well and truly fucked.
 
Its a re-install if all else fails, with a C drive wipe for safety. Back up - she takes regular back ups of course. ...
Indeed. Nuke the PC and treat anything you keep off of it as if it was infected (which it may be), so scan it well.

Then bitch slap your sister.
 
I'm gonna take a stab in the dark here and guess that your sister is the kind of person who does "internet" and "email".

After you've backed up her data, install Ubuntu and tell her it's an upgrade. Bonus points if her computer has a half-decent video card that run the pretty window effects. She'll love it.
 
Gosh and I thought only .exe files were dangerous

Weeeell... ASF files are equally dangerous - they can contain ActiveX, which is allowed to do pretty much anything. Leave it to Microsoft to separate code from data. ;)
 
I think it's either gonna be a five minute job or a five hour job... i'm guessing the latter. :(
 
My girlfriend's lappy had gotten run down by adware/spyware, I tried a fresh XP install, but it for some strange reason didn't pass the Windows Genuine validation( ;p ), so I just went with Ubuntu, and with a very small amount of familiarizing her with the slight differences, she's back to internetting and e-mailing as she used to. It runs a bit faster too.
 
I think it's either gonna be a five minute job or a five hour job... i'm guessing the latter. :(

This does not sound like a five minute job. Do not try to clean her PC, chances that something will be left behind are too big IMHO. only back-up extremely critical data and EXTENSIVELY scan it before opening anything backed up. Then give the PC a clean install (do NOT choose the quick format option, but format the enite drive thoroughly)
 
first, kill it with fire.
Then reinstall everything.
 
i really want a phone call that says "my computer is covered in gay porn"

i would laugh so so hard for about 5 minutes before i could even offer help
 
*Enter's Clarkson mode...

Ok sit-rep... went into safe mode, and unsurprisingly they got to the registry so it wouldn't work.
Thankfully however, safe mode on the admin account gives me access to all the files she want's, so i have to find the shit she wants, back that up and reinstall.
A virus scan on safe mode, brought up a billion trojans though.

p.s. Even better... she deleted the homo-porno yesterday. :D (The only thing she did right.)
 
I know you're in safe mode and deleting all the trojans and bad doggies, but I would go with what Adunaphel said.

After backing up, do a fresh install of XP. Format the HD, clear all that shit out and start all over. You don't want to still have residual stuff that the anti-virus-spyware-adware-baddoggies missed.

Then of course tell your sister to use common sense next time. If a video file comes out as an mp3... DON'T OPEN IT!!!!
 
And educate her on the use of antivirus software to scan EVERYTHING she ever downloads.
 
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