Catastrophic Failure

[billnc]

Well I tried to be smart and not bother anyone, but I've fried my wife's computer and have lost everything.  

Long Story - Short:

Running Windows ME, and Avast on an HP - P600 computer, a virus warning started to pop when MS Explorer was opened.

Couldn't delete it normally or in safe mode, with "system restore" off.

I would restart the computer with a boot disk to a MS-DOS prompt.  The virus was in the Windows/Temp directory and I would delete it but it always came back.  

Finally "Scandisk" went nuts and gave me evil looking smileys in program file names.   It deleted everything trying to "fix" files.  Now when I start the computer - it just says "Operating System Not Found."

I can start to a MS-DOS prompt with boot disk, and I have an Original System Restore Disk from HP.

I'm ok (& so's my wife) with totally starting over and giving up all the files as lost, so my question is: How do I do this, so that there is no remant of the virus left?  

Do I run FDisk, then Format C:?

Thanks, in advance, for any help.

[Eddy]

Set the bios to boot from CD first, put in the recovery CD, boot from it and follow the onscreen instructions.

[billnc]

No Go.

It boots to the CD Rom Drive but the computer does not even recognize that I have a hard drive anymore, so the restore terminates.

This is awful.  What do I do?

Thanks, in advance, for any guidance.

- Bill

[Lisandro]

What do I do?

If I were you, I would install Windows ME over the one already there...
You will lost the windows updates but you can boot, save your applications, configurations and files  

[billnc]

Unfortunately, I can not install anything, because my computer thinks it has no hard drive.  

[Lisandro]

Well, this is a BIOS problem...
Can you enter your BIOS and see if you can detect the drive?
If not, you could be in a deep trouble... You can try to get this disk and install in another computer to see if it is detected  

[inthewildteam]

Billnc,

as technical said, check the bios settings first to make sure all is well.

Then these steps might help (from HP support)



Disconnect all peripherals and internal non preinstalled devices from the PC, except the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.


Turn on the computer.


When the initial blue HP screen appears, press the F10 key repeatedly until a recovery menu appears. The progress indicator that first appears does not indicate that a recovery is taking place. The progress indicator represents the time before the recovery process is started.


When the Recovery screen appears, click Next, and then click Yes to perform a normal, non-destructive recovery.


To perform a destructive recovery, click Advanced, and then click Yes.

      CAUTION: A destructive recovery will format the hard drive. This will delete all the information on the hard drive and reinstall Windows and the original software that came with the computer.



After the System Recovery is complete, the computer restarts and continues into Windows setup. Complete the setup screens and wait until the computer finishes the setup.

      NOTE: It may take a long time to complete Windows setup. This time varies and may take over an hour, depending on the amount of files that were stored in the user account folders (Like My Documents and the Desktop).



This link might help if it's a bios problem

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/deskpro/us/locate/7_404.html#0

[whocares]

Hi,

it's unlikely (but not impossible) that the virus could have affected the BIOS or MBR, but anyway..
do you remember what virus (virusNAME & filename) were detected by avast.. ?
did you try repairing it first.. ?

have you tried scanning with AV-Bootdisks (F-Prot) or AV-Boot-CD's from
- avast: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_bart_cd.html
www.centralcommand.com -> Download.. ?

All the above tools of course need to be made on another, CLEAN PC