Backyard Aquaponics
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aha - you are right chappo. The final q in the first one should be a g. You didn't give me the virus did you

Sorry VB... been watching the Swans va Weagles...

The two error messages are showing when you boot up correct???

You can close them off... they're left overs from the virus....

They'll be entries in the system registry that are trying to load at startup time... but no longer exist....

You could try searching the hard drive for them... but I doubt tht you'll find them... they're not there....

If you want to clean them up...

Go "Start".... "Run"..... type in "regedit" on the command line.. (without the quotes)....

the registry editor while open.... be cautious .... this is the main system registry file.....

You'll see the registry hives listed like folders in Explorer.... select "Hkey_Local_Machine"...

Click the "+" sign on "software".... scroll down to "microsoft".... click the ""+" sign....

Scroll down to "Windows" ... click the "+" sign.....

Scroll down to the "Run" key and click on "Run"....

In the right hand pane you'll see all the key entries.... and in the data area you should see the two filename/file paths you mentioned....

Select each of them (one at a time)... by clicking and highlighting the "Name" value to the left of the data field....right click and select "delete"..... delete....

Repeat for second key....

Reboot.... and you should be sweet...

Opps... forgot to say.... Exit from the Registry Editor... then reboot...

Done - was pretty much as you described it - just one extra folder after windows - being current :-)

Thanks for all your help. Looks like I'm back in business. Now to get the new drives working

Yeah... figured you'd work it out....

Good to hear you're clean.... now to get your drives working.... check the bios for SATA activation... and change your boot order to reflect the Sata drive...

Piece of piss - new 500gb sata drive added :-).

So tomorrow I can spend all day copying the stuff I want to keep over from my old drive. The intention in the end may be to make this Sata drive the primary.

Veggie , I wrote the virus but cannot claim to have passed it to you
Actually virus writing is something I abhore ....., it just like vandalism , no one get's any benefit , it's just outright destructive.. I can understand a man robbing a bank or cheating on his tax , although unaccep[table at least there was some reason to do it; some potential benefit.

I agree that it is a p r i ck act. I can't imaging how many million (probably billion) hours of productivity have been wasted by just the virus that I scored. I've spent days on it. This is when we have filing markets, povety etc. Surely ones time and smarts could be put to a better cause.

One last thing guys - when I was originally stuffing around with my corrupted disk, I loaded a second copy of windows (on it in the same sector as the other). This means that when I load from that disk I get 2 options for operating systems. The first is the one that has all my apps etc, which is good, but I'd like to now remove the other.

What is the easiest way to do this?

If you're going to use the new sata 500gb drive as your boot disk VB... then why bother...

Just install XP and applications on it cleanly... and copy over your data....

If you really want to clean it up....

When you installed a second copy, it should have created a second "windows" directory folder... "C:\Windows.001" or similar....

You could remove this... just delete it... but I'm not sure exactly what you've done and what order you've done things, so I'm a little reluctant to say do it.... unless you have everything copied to another drive...

If it's just an annoyance at startup.... then edit the boot ini file so that the option is removed...

To do that.... once booted to the desktop ...

Go to "Start".... right click "My Computer"... left click "Properties"...

Click "Advanced".... click "Settings" ... you should see a window titled "Startup and Recovery"... and a button that says "Edit"...

Click the "Edit" button.... this will load the "boot.ini" file in notebook....

A normal boot.ini file should look like this....



Save your current file... "File" ... "Save as".... call it "boot-sav.ini"

Close notebook (because it will now be the boot-sav.ini file).... and reopen the boot.ini file as above....

Your boot.ini file will reflect both XP installations... and you'll see a second line starting "multi(1)disk(1)... etc"... or something like that....

Remove the line.... check that the default points to ... the \Windows directory...

Save the file, and close... reboot and it should all be normal.... you can always remove the other windows.xxx directory later if everything is working OK...

Thanks Rupe. I'll probably leave the original disk as the boot disk for the time being. I'll save new files and start copying over the old ones I want to keep to the new SATA drive. Given my attention span is quite short, this could well take some time.

The only reason I haven't bitten the bullet and used the SATA as the boot drive, is that I have a lot of applications on the desktop in the old operating system on the old disk. Quite a few of these came with my computer and I can't seem to find where they are on the disks that came with the computer. I guess I could transfer everything to the new disk and just start cleaning that, keeping the old one until I'm sure I'm done and then format the old. Maybe that is the go, given that there is a fair level of confidence that the virus is now gone. I'm pretty sure the program I downloaded from the seagate site yesterday to help me setup my ne HDD has a function to allow me to copy everything to the new disk (copy as an image I suppose) so that the old will be the same as the new.

As for the second Op system on the original drive - yep I'll just ignore it for the time being. I have two XP licences so will want ot activate the second again on my old computer (which is my backup system). One licence is already activated on the old disk (on the op system I'm currently using), so I'm not sure whether I'll also be able to have an activated version on the new disk at the same time. Does a licence relate to the computer or a drive/sector (ie can I have XP activated on the same computer on 2 different drives under 1 licence)? Irealise that I could probably get it past Microsoft, but am just wondering so I know what story to tell

You might have two installations of XP on the disk VB.... but you're only booting to one... if you select (or if its the default).... the original boot... then you wont need to rectivate anyway....

Download DriveClone Pro and Partition Magic... if the Seagate program doesn't work.. usually pretty good...

Drive Clone is a snap to use, but will only clone to the same partition size as the original, unless you buy the full version... no drama though.... just use Partition magic to create an extended partition on the new drive... after cloning it... then merge the two partitions... done.

Yep - I know that I won't have to reactivate the second on the old disk, but want to for the time being have an OS on the old disk, an OS on the new disk and an OS on my little HDD on my second computer. Only have 2 licences. Anyway - I'll get by.

Thanks for the tips regarding the programs - I think the one I downloaded will do the job - or at least that is what I thought I read yesterday. Might have a look tonight.

Cloning the disk should'nt require re-activation....

And even if it asks... as you'll only be booting a single disk at a time (and they'll all be activated)... then no problem

I'm running the scheduled daily AVG scan. It has found that friggin win32 heur virus again. It has found it in a 'system volume information/_restore......." folder, several times . Looks like its not gone yet afterall. May not clone the disk afterall