Spent most of yesterday trying to get Kathy's PC going again.
The inevitable occurred and a virus had got through her defences. Windows XP would not boot at all - couldn't even get it into Safe Mode.
I used all my accumulated knowledge of computers but failed miserably.
I first of all tried to eliminate the possibility that it could be physical damage to one or more of the hard drive's sectors. To this end I ran my trusty Spinrite program that analyses your hard drive for defective areas. If you recall way back when I posted about my computer crash and how Spinrite got me going again. Unfortunately in Kathy's case, the result was that there were NO physical errors.
That left me to conclude that it was software related preventing Windows booting.
On Boxing day Kathy did get her Antivirus program alerting her to two trojans trying to gain access whilst surfing the Internet, so got her Antivirus to Quarantine and delete them.
The web sites were fairly mundane really - bathroom fittings as part of our decorating scheme.
I guess we put too much trust in the Antivirus program doing its stuff.
A Trojan/Virus had to be the most likely cause to create such a devastating problem, but we'll never know.
If I could have got into Safe Mode I could at least have run a Virus scan and probably been able to resolve the problem. This wasn't to be.
In the end I had to admit defeat, so this morning I rang a computer engineer who came out this afternoon to the house. I was mainly hoping that he would have in his arsenal some software (that I didn't have) that would magically be able to get back into the system.
He told me that if your PC gets infected by a virus to the extent that the damage it causes prevents Windows from booting, then your only option is to make sure you have adequate backups of important data, then a complete re-install of Windows.
The equipment he brought along enabled him to view the contents of Kathy's infected hard drive, bypassing Windows, and saving them onto a USB Flash Drive.
He then did a re-install of Windows and got it fully working again.
It turns out that the procedure involved is what I could have done with my equipment. If you recall, I purchased a hard disk enclosure device after my hard disk crashed, which allowed me to view the contents as a normal external hard drive through Windows Explorer. If the computer engineer had not been able to get the PC going again I was going to remove Kathy's hard drive and put it in this enclosure to retrieve her data then re-install Windows.
As he was here, we decided to let him do this process with his kit to save time.
When the job was completed in about an hour, all he charged us was £60, which we thought was very reasonable considering the work he had to do.
I spent the rest of the day installing other essential drivers and software that Kathy uses and configuring her email client and general stuff like that. The first job was installing a different Firewall/Antivirus/Antispyware suite - not trusting the previous one.
Anyway, the bottom line here is that no matter how careful you are by protecting yourself with Firewalls, Antivirus and Spyware detection software, there is still a slim chance that something can sneak through.
Regular backups of your most important data is also a big MUST. I know it can be a pain to schedule this but it does save a lot of headache should the inevitable happen, usually when you least expect it.
Although this has been a hairy experience, I am consoled by the fact that I had done everything I possibly could do in PC security, and that I had done my best to get it running again. For the engineer to use a solution I had already considered as a last resort was a relief.
So, if this ever occurs again I now know what process I'm going to follow on my own.
Laurie.
