Having a few issues

[Gojiraman]

I believe there was an rkill and a goored fix. And no it did not remove anything.

[Gojiraman]

So, do I need to start from ground one since I apparently screwed the pooch on this?

[jholland1964]

rkill would not be a problem, goored fix and TDSS maybe. I also see you have posted this identical problem at Bleepingcomputer on June 27th. You should never post the same problem at two different forums. You should stick with just the one.

Honestly I don't know where to tell you to begin. You have used a rogue program multiple times which probably has damaged system files. You remember using 3 other high powered tools meant for another computer's problem sometime in the last few months. I don't know what other programs you may have run. Your best bet may very well be to reformat and reinstall and start fresh since there is no way of knowing what damage even the legitimate programs may have done.

MBA-M would not have damaged anything, neither would ESET but since I don't know what else you may have run I just don't know for sure where to tell you to start. There may be too much system damage to try to fix.

[Gojiraman]

The problem was I found it first and got no response, so I found this one. Maybe I didnt wait long enough.

[Gojiraman]

Well, I guess that's it. I sure learned my lesson on this one. I am always the one that tries to make sure I do it right, and I should have bothered someone from the beginning instead of trying to do it myself. I tried a reinstall and my xp cd has a corrupted file (tried last night). So, it looks as if I will have to purchase another copy or get another computer. Thanks for at least trying to help. Sorry for the waste of time.

[jholland1964]

Well, I guess that's it. I sure learned my lesson on this one. I am always the one that tries to make sure I do it right, and I should have bothered someone from the beginning instead of trying to do it myself. I tried a reinstall and my xp cd has a corrupted file (tried last night). So, it looks as if I will have to purchase another copy or get another computer. Thanks for at least trying to help. Sorry for the waste of time.

Is this XP Disk a legal disk? A legal disk from Microsoft or the Operating System Restoration Disk, which would also be considered a legal disk and recognized as a legal disk by Microsoft, that came with the computer would not have a corrupted file on it.

[Gojiraman]

When I tried it last night, I just wanted to redo. At first the disk told me that the xp version I was trying to redo was newer than that on the cd. I thought that strange because it is the exact cd used to install the software several years ago. So, I tried to do system recovery and it stated that a file was corrupted and shut down. Happened a couple of times. When I built this computer many years back, I just bought what I wanted to use hardware wise, and purchased the software through Tigerdirect I believe. Not sure because it is the only xp version I have or have used.

[jholland1964]

When I tried it last night, I just wanted to redo. At first the disk told me that the xp version I was trying to redo was newer than that on the cd. I thought that strange because it is the exact cd used to install the software several years ago. So, I tried to do system recovery and it stated that a file was corrupted and shut down. Happened a couple of times. When I built this computer many years back, I just bought what I wanted to use hardware wise, and purchased the software through Tigerdirect I believe. Not sure because it is the only xp version I have or have used.

It isn't strange at all, a very normal warning. You received the message that the xp version on the computer IS newer than the original one on the disk because the XP installed on the computer has been updated, therefore it IS newer than what is on the disk. For instance, I have two computers, one is XP and the other Windows 7. If I wanted to "redo" either one of them I would receive that same message because my original XP disk is XP SP1 and now my XP computer also has SP2 and SP 3 installed in addition to all updates since the SP3 install. My Windows 7 computer came with Windows 7, since I purchased the computer SP 1 for Windows 7 has been released and installed along with all other updates released since I purchased the computer. A "redo" as you call it would take the computer back to that original install and remove all additional updates, which would then have to be reinstalled in order to bring it back up to today.

You should not just repair or redo because, based on all you have done on the computer with the various programs you remember running and the rogue programs you ran, a simple repair/redo likely will not work well, you need to fully reformat the hard drive and then install XP using the disk. Then install the hardware drivers and then you would need to update XP via Windows Update to bring it up to today.

You couldn't do a system recovery because a file is corrupted does not mean a file on the disk is corrupted, it means a file ON the computer itself is corrupted and therefore cannot be recovered.

I also would NOT advise that you use MSE as an anti-virus program, it is very much lacking in my opinion. I help at several forums and see a lot of computers running MSE with infections. I would strongly recommend either Avira 2012 Free, which is what I use or Avast Free, both score much, much higher than MSE on independent testing and generally are rated in the top 5 of all programs, paid or free. Another one NOT to use is AVG.

[Gojiraman]

Thanks, I guess I will save my personal files to disk and get ready. This is going to take a while.

[jholland1964]

Thanks, I guess I will save my personal files to disk and get ready. This is going to take a while.

You need to be very, very careful what you do save of your personal files, one or many of them very likely will contain the infection or infections. You can certainly save them, but each and every file then must be scanned with your anti-virus program AND MBA-M before it is put back onto the newly formatted, loaded and updated computer. If you don't do that then all you would be doing is loading the infection right back onto the computer and you will be right back where you started back in March. I would be suspect of any scanning done of those files now, whatever infection you had/have, may be very well hidden on this infected computer and not show on any scan of those original items right now.

I would be very leery of anything you have downloaded from the internet...videos, games, music, pictures (unless those pictures and videos came directly from your own camera). Anything that can be downloaded again, from a legitmate, legal and safe web site I would not save, I would just download them again once the computer is reformatted, reloaded and updated.
Word documents would likely be ok but still should be scanned, before loading back onto the computer.