Win2K and run32dll.exe

My Win2K Pro system (home pc) has crashed and I'm looking for some guidance. This is the computer my wife usually uses and I seldom log on to it so I didn't catch all the messages. What I *did* see first was a message saying a network connectoid would need to be reinstalled (for Internet) and then, on restart, the computer couldn't find run32dll.exe.

Now, on startup, it looks like the machine boots normally, but I can't open any app. In other words, click Windows Explorer...nothing. MS Word...nothing.

I suspect I caught a virus and I'm wondering if anybody can tell me if I have any hope of restoring (not sure if I can get Norton AV running) or am I going to have to go "scorched earth ", reformat the hard drive and install Win2K again.

Thanks for any help.

 

About 99.9% sure it is a virus. W32/SirCam@MM will do this sort of thing as will a few others.

If you can't connect to the internet to use an online scanner and can't run an AV product you have to clean the machine, I'd say you are stuck.

Go to http://www.symantec.com/search/ and use floppy virus scan for your search. The first few listings will be on how to clean a floppy but the ones you need for doing a scan of a trashed system are there as well. About the 7th listing and several after that.