Me = Idiot

[Superfluous_Nut]

Okay, so I've been getting tons of virus emails for the last few weeks. For some stupid reason, I thought I'd like to see what the heck they did (they came with a readme file that I wrote for a game I'm developing, so my curiosity was aroused). One was called something-or-other.bat and I figured it was probably a text batch file. Anyway, in trying to get a peek at it's contents I ran by accident.

I immediately removed it from my hard drive and tried to run norton, but it had already killed it. Okay, so I decided to restart 2000. Seemed okay, but I didn't think it was totally gone. I booted into 98 and ran a virus checker and a special utility to get rid of it (it's the big virus going around right now). Seemed happy. Booted back to 2000, but things didn't seem to be quite right -- mainly, some programs were still wonky. I had to re-install ZoneAlarm and still my network connection wasn't working.

Anyway, I figured I could do an install/repair of windows 2000 to get things back to normal. Installing went okay, but now when I boot I get this dumb message saying "STOP Inaccessible Boot Device". It tells me to run Chkdsk. I can access the drive fine in 98 (it's actually the same drive with multiple partitions) so it's not a drive problem. I think it's a registry problem. Like the drivers aren't right for my hard drive, but I can't figure out how to get Windows 2000 to fix things. I've done just about every permutation of installing and fixing that I can think of, short of a complete clean install.

Any pointers?

 

[BigMark]

We sell new computers starting at $640.00. Call me.

 

[mathmajors]

Nuke it.

 

[Superfluous_Nut]

Geez, it's not that bad guys.

The virus is gone, it's just a matter of getting my old settings back. I installed a new windows 2000 right onto the same partition, but into a different directory and everything is fine. I've isolated the curent problem to being in the system32/config directory. Basically, it seems that's the concatenation of all my system software and at least one file is messed up. There are .sav versions of key files (system, software, etc.) that I swapped with the "normal" versions, but then it complains about "system.sav" being corrupted. So now I'm gonna simply copy the old system.sav to both "system" and "system.sav".

We'll see...

 

[mathmajors]

Originally posted by Superfluous_Nut
I've done just about every permutation of installing and fixing that I can think of, short of a complete clean install.

Any pointers?

Nuke it. Just like you said.

 

[Superfluous_Nut]

I'm just a little hesitant to throw in the towel. I've got way too much stuff set up just like I want it to simply start again from scratch. I've gotten it to the point where it's loading up from my configuration then gets seemingly stuck in "windows setup" forever. I went out and washed my car, came back and it still just said "please wait". Think it's doing anything or is it hung up somewhere? I looked for error logs and nothing was reported... nor was anything really interesting reported.

Aren't there some files in the windows directories that tell the system it needs to be updated or something? Where can I find those?

 

[mathmajors]

Originally posted by Superfluous_Nut
I'm just a little hesitant to throw in the towel. I've got way too much stuff set up just like I want it to simply start again from scratch. I've gotten it to the point where it's loading up from my configuration then gets seemingly stuck in "windows setup" forever. I went out and washed my car, came back and it still just said "please wait". Think it's doing anything or is it hung up somewhere? I looked for error logs and nothing was reported... nor was anything really interesting reported.

Aren't there some files in the windows directories that tell the system it needs to be updated or something? Where can I find those?

I don't know exactly what Microsoft checks, but open IE, go to Tools, and select Windows Update. The site has a routine that will check the status of Windows and recommend updates.

 

[Superfluous_Nut]

Yeah, that'd be great if I could actually get the fucker to boot using the corrupted 2000 installation. I tried to "repair" it using the 2k repair option in the installation tools, but that didn't seem to fix anything.

The problem seems to be the files in the system32/config folder. They're essentially the registry, as I've come to learn. If I understand, they point to all sorts of important files and drivers and stuff. If I completely replace them, then I need to re-install a bunch of stuff (which I don't necessarily have the disks for, if you know what I mean).

I'll try a little bit more, then throw in the towel. Man, I can't believe I did this... idiot.

 

[mathmajors]

Yeah, that directory also houses the event logs.

I misunderstood your question about updates, sorry.

Use the force, Nuke.

 

[PantherMills]

Originally posted by Superfluous_Nut
... For some stupid reason, I thought I'd like to see what the heck they did...
Any pointers?

you said it.

.bat files are rarely, if ever, used as a text environment. What they are used for, predominantly in the DOS OS, is to run a set of commands using a single command.
Next time, you can check the set of commands a .bat file is set up to run without actually executing it. If your OS is under XP, you can open a MSDOS window and go to the directory that the .bat file is located. In that directory, type "edit *.bat", where "*" equals the name of the .bat file. This will list the set of commands the .bat file contains.
The only thing this does is satisfy your inquisitiveness, without putting your computer at risk. (If you type in "*.bat" without the command "edit" beforehand, you will execute (run) the batch file and be right back where you started.)
I wish I could help you with your current problem, but the only thing I can say is don't open anything from anyone that you're unsure of.