System Crash following virus removal

Hello all,
I recently removed the google redirect vius from my computer using lavasoft adaware. Everything was going fine, but then I began to receive errors on my computer.

Whenever I put it to sleep or hibernate it would boot back up and go into windows repair mode. Following the repair it would the start windows normally. This last time, however, it could not complete the repair. Windows started back up, but then forced a shut down about ten minutes after use.

Now I am not able to get past the alienware logo when it starts up. It will allow me to select BIOS (F2) or Diagnostic (F12), but once I move past that screen I cannot get anything except a blinking cursor in the upper left part of my screen.

I just finished a diagnostics test of the computer. Memory came back fine, but it looks like my DVD reader is dead. I am currently trying to use a USB workaround to reinstall windows, but that hasn't worked so far.

Any advice?

 

Hello and welcome to NBR.

Usually after a virus infection I would advise a clean reinstall of Windows.
So if you have access to another computer, it will help a lot.
Now if your optical drive doesn't work, you can always install windows using a USB key; but first take your hard drive out and back up all your data!

Download the image of the windows version for which your laptop has a licence here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

Use this tool to make your USB bootable with the previously downloaded image:
Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool

If you already backed up your data and placed the hard drive back, plug the previously prepared USB key with windows, turn your laptop on, access the BIOS menu and choose the USB key as the first boot device.

I also noticed that you may have an Alienware model. Tell us what model is it as we have a dedicated section for Alienware laptops

If you need more help from here, just come back and ask away.

Good luck.

 

Thank you very much for the tips. I do have an alienware m15.

What is the best way to try to recover files from your hard drive if you cannot access it in the first place? Thanks.

 

Remove the hard drive from the AW and hook it up to a desktop or another laptop with dual hard drive capability (as a non boot drive). I would rescan it with other tools (such as MSE, Malwarebytes, etc) before I transfered any files from it.

 

I would run a chkdsk /r on it....that alone might repair the drive and make it functional as the problem you are experiencing is most likely system volume corruption.

However, it may also reveal the drive has physically bad sectors, which cannot be repaired. In which case, chkdsk will mark those sectors bad so Windows will not use them anymore and that may allow your system to boot.

Even after this, I would no longer trust the drive--once bad clusters appear, they tend to multiply--not always, but often

 

I've pulled the data off and have formatted the drive. I was able to get the USB install working, but the issue I am having now is that windows will attempt to set up, but I get the message "Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware".

I assume this means I need a new drive.

 

Where did you get the Windows Installation files and when does it fail?

You might get an error like that if you are installing with a 64 bit OS and you have a 32-bit CPU....or maybe you might get it if you are using a OEM disk locked to the bios of a different computer model

 

Here is what I did to make the USB install file.

First, I downloaded YUMI 0.0.5.1 and formatted my USB drive. I then used MagicISO to create an ISO image of my windows7 disc that came with my laptop. This is a full install disc with all of the data.

Using YUMI I uploaded the ISO to the USB drive. I am able to run the entire windows setup. It will unpack windows and do all of the steps, then the computer restarts.

The issue is that after it restarts and does the final step in the process, I receive the error message.

To be clear, it runs through the following:

Copying windows files
Expanding windows
installing features
installing updates
(restart)
Completing installation (error)

Basically it will do the full install but is unable to complete the setup. I have a full back up for my computer now, so I am not worried about data recovery at the moment. I just am trying to figure out what I am doing wrong on my end.

 

If you have the disk use it to install, no reason for the USB install. The problem may be since it is an OEM disk there is brobalby something embeded in it to install just to your hardware and from the dvd drive only too. Durring the completing install it aparently is checking the hardware etc.

The reason for the USB mentioned above is for the Windows 7 non OEM install etc................