Start up Stops from all modes (Safe, Safe (dos), etc)

Hello, I have a neighbor's Compaq Presario 2100 (celeron). After installing XP Office and a cd writer program he complained that it ran reeal slow. I looked, and it was reeeal slow.

There where a bunch of processes running that I wish now I had written down. I suspect he has a virus, but he has no detection software. He uninstalled the XP office and cd writer using 'add/remove programs'.

Finally, the problem. Now when he boots he gets the "Sorry for the inconvenience" screen. But none of the boot modes work.

In Safe modes it reads a bunch of files then stops after
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\atisgkaf.sys

in other modes the drive light blinks then stops.

When I boot from a floppy, I can't find any drive other than the one I boot from

Sorry for the length.

How can I find the harddrive from floppy boot, and then restore
the system from dos ? Or is there a better solution?

 

Hi Shrike
Welcome to the boards! How about using the XP CD to do a repair? See here. Scroll down to where it says: Method 2: Reinstall Windows XP by Starting Your Computer from the Windows XP CD
Then, when you've got it up and running....use Housecall. It's a free, online virus scanner.
And when you've got it all cleaned out... consider AVG as an antivirus. It too is free, and easy to use.

Daizy

 

In addition to AVG anti-virus, also consider downloading the very useful AdAware program. Use it regularly to detect and remove spyware cookies/trojans/web bugs that get in when you are on the internet. AdAware is free. Check it out at www.lavasoftusa.com Be sure to scroll past the offers of the Plus or Pro or other "premium" versions that cost money and go for the totally free version. Later, if you feel that extra features might be worthwhile you can always pay them for the fancier version.....

Regards

 

Thanks y'all. I read the article Daizy supplied (what's up with the Humongous fonts!?).

I have a Compaq OS CD and 4 Compaq QuickRestore System Recovery CD's.

My feeling says try the quick restore, if that fails go with the
article.

 

What humungous fonts?

But yes... absolutely try your disks. They may even have just a repair feature on it, rather than a restore.

Let us know how it goes.