Worst thing ever...

[chick3n]

Hello well I just came back from friends house and damn he has the worst computer i've ever seen...

1st of all no REGISTRY.. I have no idea how he has gotten by but he has for the past 2 years without one..

It seems now that a virus activated or he downloaded something that had a virus but its a nasty one cause when he logs on it says logging in but then a second later it logs out...

I tried opening it in safe mode and nothing, same problem with safe mode command prompt...

He has some important files in their so we installed xp again but left all his files their and when it was installing it was asking that it couldnt find certain files like rundll32.exe and some other ones and we went to System32 folder and their there but when I click em nothing happens so we just put cancel on all of em and so now it asked us to activate windows xp but we can't log in he has dsl but it doesnt let us...

what I don't understand is isn't windows suppose to give us like 30 days to activate it? It doesn't do that a message comes up saying you can't log in unless you activate it and we can't activate it manually only through online...

and safe mode still doesn't work :s so any help guys? sorry for the long post it's just making me desperate I told him it's pretty much a dead computer but I want to hear from professionals 1st before we erase his important files...

[hill555]

Hi

sounds like a dead computer too me but see who else post if not try a computer shop.

[w1che]

Do you have a windows XP retail disk or an OEM disk that came with the computer? You may have to reformat & reinstall. If you did a repair install & it didn't work..

[chick3n]

Nah I used a different cd, We used mine cause he lost his... So theirs no way of getting in and backing up his files?

Yeah it sounds like a dead computer to me too :P

Well i'll see what he decides later on thanks guys

[The Dude]

Welcome to the site!

If its XP there has to be a registry (All windows OSs rely on a registry)

What happens when you open REGEDIT?? (Goto start/run and enter REGEDIT (If you can that is))

[bmy-]

I'm having the same problem. Are there any ways to remove the data on the computer to an external HD before re-installing windows?

I ran the repair and it didn't fix anything.

[chick3n]

Originally Posted by The Dude

Welcome to the site!

If its XP there has to be a registry (All windows OSs rely on a registry)

What happens when you open REGEDIT?? (Goto start/run and enter REGEDIT (If you can that is))

I don't mean to offend you... but it's a lie... my friend had his computer without a registry for a long time and he was able to get around things...

and nope when he told me he didn't have a registry I tried regedit and the file was missing... all the programs didn't have icons their was no shortcuts it's a computer guy's nightmare it even scared me O.O

[w1che]

If you are running desktops you can slave the drives into another computer & save the files that way before you reformat & install..

[Billy_Black]

Originally Posted by chick3n

I don't mean to offend you... but it's a lie... my friend had his computer without a registry for a long time and he was able to get around things...

and nope when he told me he didn't have a registry I tried regedit and the file was missing... all the programs didn't have icons their was no shortcuts it's a computer guy's nightmare it even scared me O.O

The blind leading the blind. If it runs it has a registry... period.

[CyberTrek]

Get an adapter like one of these:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...=_27&body=MAIN

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...=ITD&body=MAIN

Take out the drive and hook it up to a computer that has protection, and backup the critical files (hopefully they are all in one location in a personal file directly under C [or whatever hard drive they are on] but I am not sure if people think like me). Pull them off. Afterward, format (no point to boot into DOS to rename the folders and keep others there for alter use) and reload fresh. Make a new XP SP3 slipstream CD to use. Saves a lot of updating later.

Restore the files under a new, clean folder.

[chick3n]

Well don't believe me but their was no registry checked everywhere... dont care if you believe me or not I know what I saw

Im not the only one who knows about this even the computer expert who took a look at his computer said the same thing, it isn't the first time he looks at a computer without a registry

thanks guys My friend getting something chassis or something like that. It let's you connect the harddrive like a USB...

But even though we using that chassis thing, my friend is afraid the virus will spread cause it didn't let me run ubuntu off the live cd, it did the same thing, log in and then log off. The only time we got it to log in with ubuntu was the first time and it was all messed up, that's when the computer expert guy said that this is SOMETHING BIG :S

[w1che]

If he doesn't have a registry then he is running Linux & more than likely doesn't have a virus but has a hardware problem.. Download & burn Puppy Linux 4.1.2. It is a live cd but never loads to your harddrive. It runs from the computer memory. If it doesn't load I would check my memory by just checking one stick at a time in the computer..

[CyberTrek]

Perhaps this virus blocks access to the registry. It is there but can not be seen. No?

Just a guess.

I just suggested backing up the critical data and reformatting to clean that drive completely. I am not doubting what you saw. Please do not misunderstand me or some of the others posting here. The priority I see is the data to save, and just make sure the computer, if you choose to accept my mission above, is protected and then later do some full scans anyway, even using some free online scanner to make sure the data is clean. Do not go by auto-protect alone.

[DonBB]

The Linux file structure is much different than Windows in that, it has no registry to begin with. So if your friend has Ubuntu installed then he never had a registry in the first place.

You talked about trying to activate Windows, but you also talked about trying to boot from an Ubuntu CD. You do realize that these are two completely different operating systems right?

I think you need to figure out what OS you have before we can give advice on how to fix it. Regardless, its not that big of a deal. If its hardware, replace the hardware. If it software, reinstall the OS. If you've got data that you need, slave the drive to another machine and try to get it off.

[chick3n]

No he doesn't have Linux... I have no idea how he doesn't have the registry but he just doesn't or unlike CyberTrek said it's blocking access to it but the REGEDIT file is no where

But anyways we can't do nothing about it, like I said it won't let us log in no more so the pc pretty much dead unless we connect the hard drive as an external hard drive with a usb but even then my friend is scare to get whatever computer he connects it to infected

and I said I was trying to boot linux off the live cd to view the files from inside linux without installing it I know my ways around computer too that's why I go to college :P

Maybe you got confused cause I said we took his hard drive and connected on my computer and I got Linux running. I tried booting up linux on his computer off the LiveCD that didn't work so we tried connecting the hard drive on my PC which has Linux. But his Sony Hard drive is only for his Sony computer. Damn sony >_> I don't like Windows only reason I would get it for is Adobe Photoshop.