HELP I HAVE A VIRUS !!!

[ilovefaith]

Hi everyone i would really appreciate some help please. My vaio netbook vpcm12m1e has got a virus through my own fault! I'm not very technical when it comes to electricals etc so like an idiot I didn't set my anti-virus thing up. I have been told that the only way to save my netbook (notebook, whatever) is to re-format the hard drive. I have tries to do the recovery thing via the vaio care on the start menu like the sony website advised but once i've completed all of the steps it requires, it says "preparing to restore system" for hours ( literally hours and hours.) I'm guessing my laptop keeps crashing like it keeps on doing because of this virus/spyware thing! Before this i downloaded loads of spyware removal tools and things and once they'd downloaded I couldn't access the desktop icon for them to start the scan for viruses, i'm guessing this is also because of the virus ! I really want to avoid having to pay for a repair so please somebody HEEEELLLPPP !

[Thalamus. · Accepted solution]

Hi ilovefaith,

welcome to Questions & Answers..:smileyhappy:

Try restarting your vaio and when you see the Vaio logo press the F10 key repeatedly..

This should start the recovery process using the hidden HDD recovery partition.

Then follow the recovery instructions to complete the process.

Note: Running the recovery partition will remove all of your personal data and will restore your VAIO to an as new state. ie original OS and pre-installed application

[stspare]

IF you cant recover the machine using Vaio Recovery Centre

turn the machine on, press F8 and go in to safe mode

Go to the start menu, type in 'msconfig' in 'run'

this will open up a new box in the middle of the screen, once thats up choose the top left (possibly 2nd from left) tab called 'start up'

in there will more than likely be a file or two with just capital letter, lower case lettrs or numbers which make no sense, untick these items and click apply then ok. when prompted click restart now and let the machine restart and go in to normal windows mode, see if the virus' are still there

Note: This wont erase the virus' but it should stop them being active untill you can get internet security to remove them or should now at least allow you to use vaio recovery

[-frank-]

Hello ilovefaith,

Something else you could try if you do go down the safe mode route is to run your spyware scans from within safe mode.

Could you please let us know the names of the spyware programs you have downloaded as these could be part of the problem.

Thanks,

Drew