On my older (2006 Dell XP, 1G REM) I got message window "Win.XP repair" it will scan and show potencial 20 30 problems with HD. then ofer to fix it and indicate what was fixed and what not. There is warning of HD bad sectors and failure. then is the offer of download and fix for purchase. NOw i am confused, if HD id bad what possible could be fixed paying or not?So i have a suspicion that it might be a wirus. i have tried to run Safe mode and possibly copy some files i might save but it was no files there.

So question is is my HD trashed or it is a wirus? if so is thet any way to get rid of that.

On that machine I have instaled AVG free version, which BTY was giving me a troubles recently, It alvays wanted restart computer right after boot up. i wanted to uninstal it but it wouldn't. Uninstal unsecsesfull even from Safe mode.

If anyone has any sudgestion and what is going on here I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks jaro

Hello Kurt,

thank you so much for response and advice, I had a bad feeling about it and you confirmed it.

I copied all those links to a thumb drive and want to run it; In the safe mode I was able to open IE but I was unable to open or even type anything in the search window. Backspace key doesn't work. IE opened as a Dell help I can open anything by mouse but nothing to type to; Ctrl/o doesn't work either. So is there any trick to it? I am sorry beeng so computer iliterate but it is my only learning experience an I actualy like chalenge.

happy to report that I was able to re install XP on my laptop since I mess up my registry. I mean i used to use Registry mechanic… Anyway I still would like to kill that virus first before reformating the whole thing. Thanks again for your help, Jaro

Hi Kurt,

last night I thought i have to make it work and log in the Safe mode again. under my name it was no IE on the desktop and I got through by Start – Set program Assess and default; anyway i got into IE and run malwarebytes. Good news is i run quick scan and full scan it worked out perfect.

Bad news when I restarted computer, I have no program files it is like wiped out. however when I chedked HD it had about 60GB of data on it like before the crash about 20 GB free.

I thought to try system reset but was not able to do it (followed XP for dumies) programs- accessories are not there anymore…

this machine has loaded XP profesional it was given to me and i don't have the original XP Cd.

Is there any way how to revese it and get my files back? thanks so much jaro

Hi Kurt,

I used tha Microsoft program as you sudgested, and than converded those hiden files It worked. then as i wanted open any programs those for some reason were still hidden so i repeated the process. Since desktop looks still funky i wanted to open itunes from Start-programs but itunes as well all other programs indicated empty. I opened the programs from explore window and it is working sound OK (except some souds bites from IE)

Since that wirus removal the IE8 is quitting on me quite freqvently (10-15 min) it pop the window saying "IE encouner the problem and need to close. Sorry …."

I wonder if it is the IE8 problem or other running program like AVG( Free 2011)

That AVG drives me crazy even before wirus  every time after boot up it wants restart computer and only I can do is to pospone it for 60 min. I want to uninstall it since after all my computer was infected anyway so it is worthless. But I can't; when trying do so I got error message 0xC0070643. I have tried reinnstall/repair, – uninstall- the same code. I e- mail to AVG so far no answer.

computer is running, but much slower than ever before

Kurt thank you for all your advice and your patience wit me, jaro

In order to overcome with the HDD bad sector problem you need to try to start your system in safe mode. In case the problem persists then you need to format the hard drive to fix corruption issue. Once formatting of the hard drive is completed you need to make use of stellar data recovery to complete recovery of the damaged files safely.