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Tagged: files, inaccessible, reinstall, trojan, windows
- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 3 months ago by Doris Kenney.
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December 21, 2009 at 4:58 pm #31692Jeff HesterKeymaster
Hello everyone, sorry this post has to be so long but I just want to be sure I get you all the necessary details. Yesterday I ended up getting several trojans on my ThinkPad R40, which eventually took over my system. It locked out my task manager and explorer.exe, uninstalled my AVG, and had I not luckily downloaded Process Explorer, would not have been able to navigate and try to kill some of those processes at all. I was able to open a window and copy all my My Documents files onto my flash drive and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows XP. I may be mistaken, but i swear it said on the blue installation screen that it said it would overwrite any previous Windows files and use the same /WINDOWS folder. When I started up the new Windows, it appeared to be a fresh copy, but my old user folders (most importantly /Steve) were still there and contained all my old files, including the trojans which I wanted to delete in the first place. While navigating the old My Documents folder in the old /Steve folder (my new administrator folder is now my first AND last name), I noticed some folders that I had somehow missed. Here is where I am confused and the main reason for my post – I have in there picture files, notepad files, music files, and setup files mainly. Certain files will move to my flash drive, and others will not. Of the setup files, the ones that don’t have their original icon logo don’t want to move, they give the message “Error Copying File or Folder – Cannot copy (file name): Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use. It appears that every one of my music files are doing this as well. Do you have any suggestions as to: 1. mainly, how I can retrieve these old files and get them working again and 2. Reinstall a fresh copy of Windows with the drive completely completely erased beforehand? Thank you very much in advance for your patience!
– SteveDecember 21, 2009 at 10:14 pm #176412Doris KenneyParticipantI’m not sure what to tell you on the locked files. It may be safer not to try and move them. It’s possible they have been infected and that’s why they can’t be moved. You could try booting in Safe mode to see if they can be moved that way. Whatever you choose – be sure to scan any files before you put them back onto the machine once you have reinstalled XP.
As to your second question, you should reformat your hard drive before reinstalling XP. If you don’t have your original factory disks you may want to check your manufacturers website just to be sure there are no drivers or special files you need to download onto a USB to have available after the reinstall.
Make sure you disconnect from the internet while you do the reinstall of XP. Also, it would be wise to ensure you have a firewall and Anti-Virus on the machine prior to reconnecting to the internet if at all possible. If this isn’t possible, you should make it the first priority when you do reconnect. And of course, you should then apply all your windows updates for security.
December 28, 2009 at 3:09 am #176411DavidParticipant@patndoris 245298 wrote:
I’m not sure what to tell you on the locked files. It may be safer not to try and move them. It’s possible they have been infected and that’s why they can’t be moved. You could try booting in Safe mode to see if they can be moved that way.
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This is unlikely. Files in the ‘My Documents’ folder are private, meaning access is restricted only to the user who created them. Getting access to these files is as easy as taking ownership. The process of taking ownership is documented here: How to take ownership of a file or a folder in Windows XPQuote:Make sure you disconnect from the internet while you do the reinstall of XP.I’m not really sure why you’d need to? Potentially virus-ridden files won’t spontaneously execute, and not having internet is just going to stop Windows Update from immediately getting high-priority updates. (Some of which are really important to get ASAP)
Steve wrote:Reinstall a fresh copy of Windows with the drive completely completely erased beforehand?As Doris mentioned, the key here is to Format the disk before the new copy of Windows is installed. Not doing so is generally not problematic, just remove ‘c:Windows.old’ once you are finished saving the contents.
You’ll definitely need drivers for your R40, which you can find here. Lenovo Support & downloads – Drivers and software – ThinkPad R40, R40e Since you already loaded a copy of Windows onto the computer, I’ll assume you know all about re-installing drivers.
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