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Microsoft Support Scam Help
Friend has asked for help having just dropped off his emachines 3240 desktop
after falling for Microsoft support scam. He can't believe he fell for it and feels a complete idiot. System (XP Home) now no longer boots as C:/Windows/system32/config/system file is indicated as missing or corrupt Cannot use recovery console as asking for administrators password which is unknown Cannot resort to last known good configuration as get BSOD error 0x09A (System license Violation) Cannot get to safe mode or command prompt ditto system file Cannot repair windows installation as this option not given. can anyone help with suggestions as to best way forward. Re-install is last resort. I there a way round recovery console password ?? |
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#2
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Microsoft Support Scam Help
"barrowhill" wrote in message ... Friend has asked for help having just dropped off his emachines 3240 desktop after falling for Microsoft support scam. He can't believe he fell for it and feels a complete idiot. System (XP Home) now no longer boots as C:/Windows/system32/config/system file is indicated as missing or corrupt Cannot use recovery console as asking for administrators password which is unknown Cannot resort to last known good configuration as get BSOD error 0x09A (System license Violation) Cannot get to safe mode or command prompt ditto system file Cannot repair windows installation as this option not given. can anyone help with suggestions as to best way forward. Re-install is last resort. I there a way round recovery console password ?? Read this article and see if it helps: How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978788 You might also (as a first step) download and create a boot disk virus scanner. Here's one from MS: http://connect.microsoft.com/systemsweeper I've used it, and it seems to work pretty well. There are also others by Kaspersky, McAfee, etc. Just Google them. Most of them will use an internet connection to update the definitions, but if you don't have a connection, they will scan with whatever definition comes with the initial download. Good luck with it. I'm assuming that since you're asking for him that he doesn't have a recent backup or disk image on an external drive. Hopefully he will have learned a lesson from this, and that you can get his system back for him. -- SC Tom |
#3
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Microsoft Support Scam Help
barrowhill wrote:
Friend has asked for help having just dropped off his emachines 3240 desktop after falling for Microsoft support scam. He can't believe he fell for it and feels a complete idiot. System (XP Home) now no longer boots as C:/Windows/system32/config/system file is indicated as missing or corrupt Cannot use recovery console as asking for administrators password which is unknown Cannot resort to last known good configuration as get BSOD error 0x09A (System license Violation) Cannot get to safe mode or command prompt ditto system file Cannot repair windows installation as this option not given. can anyone help with suggestions as to best way forward. Re-install is last resort. I there a way round recovery console password ?? Make a clone or image backup of the old hard disk. Flatten and rebuild Windows XP (install a fresh copy by having the install wipe and format the OS partition). After all, if this customer has a legitimate copy of Windows XP then they have the install CD for it (or the hidden restore partition on the hard disk). Then reinstall all the customer's apps, if they're willing to pay for your time, and assuming they have the legitimate install CDs for the software. Then recover data files from the cloned drive or explore the backup partition image. |
#4
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Microsoft Support Scam Help
barrowhill wrote:
Friend has asked for help having just dropped off his emachines 3240 desktop after falling for Microsoft support scam. He can't believe he fell for it and feels a complete idiot. System (XP Home) now no longer boots as C:/Windows/system32/config/system file is indicated as missing or corrupt Cannot use recovery console as asking for administrators password which is unknown Cannot resort to last known good configuration as get BSOD error 0x09A (System license Violation) Cannot get to safe mode or command prompt ditto system file Cannot repair windows installation as this option not given. can anyone help with suggestions as to best way forward. Re-install is last resort. I there a way round recovery console password ?? If that happened to me, the first thing I'd be checking is whether there were any System Restore points. (It's always possible, that whatever malware or similar is on the machine, has ruined the system restore points in C:\System Volume Information , so the following is not a sure thing... You could still be looking at a repair install or the like. You could go to all the trouble of copying/renaming some Registry files, and discover it isn't working right.) First thing you need, is something to boot with. Like a Linux LiveCD. Ubuntu would do, but there are others out there that function as well like Knoppix. Linux LiveCDs have had the ability to work with NTFS partitions for several years now, and tend to ignore Windows permissions and make working on the file system, a bit easier. You could even slave the hard drive, to your own computer, and use your own Windows to do the copying or renaming of files. But there are bound to be permission issues along the way. I like Linux LiveCDs for this, because at least for the moment, they tend to ignore Windows specific permissions, allowing you to get things done quicker. ******* If I look at my WinXP SP3 system right now, I see C:/Windows/system32/config/SYSTEM 11,796,480 bytes and in my restore points, I've got C:\System Volume Information\_restore{AAB841EA-B06A-40C3-BFFE-A97A5C886FBA}\RP64\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYST EM 11,599,872 bytes Today, August 27, 2011, 3:58:12 PM So I can see some possibilities, if I needed to repair something. The registry file in that case, needs to be renamed, before it can be used, as the real registry file name is just "SYSTEM". ******* See this article, which discusses the supply of Registry files on the computer. You have an "empty" set of registry files, suitable for booting, but not suitable for much else. This procedure restores those first. Then, once the computer is bootable again, the person uses System Restore to put back a consistent picture of the operating system. They mention, that if you put back the "empty" set of registry files, the operating system won't know about system restore. So using a recent set of registry files ("Part 2"), is necessary so rstrui.exe will know where things are. (You would think all necessary state information would be stored in System Volume Information - I can't believe the registry is needed for this, but there you go.) http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545 Now, if you were to do that from a Linux LiveCD, you could skip a step. Since Windows is not running, when you're using the LiveCD, there won't be any new restore points created along the way to confuse things. And you could try the "rename" step, and just put back the files from the last restore point, from Linux. ******* If you back up the C: partition, by slaving the hard drive of that computer, to your own computer, you can carry out these kinds of operations, without endangering the contents of that machine. If you foul up along the way, then you can put things back. I generally do stuff like that, by doing a sector by sector copy. Mainly, because I feel confident I have a complete snapshot of C: by doing so. If you own backup software you trust, you can come up with your own recipe. I like tools which are the equivalent of this, as this allows me to do sector by sector copying. And if Windows permissions prevent me from using this, I just flip over to a Linux LiveCD, and do it from there. (This tool won't touch some partitions, where Windows has denied me access. I just use Linux to get around that, when needed.) http://www.chrysocome.net/dd The syntax in Linux is a bit shorter to type. This would be an example of backing up my C: drive while in Linux. dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/media/wally/winxpimage.dd and that copies until it hits the end of partition number 2 on the sdb disk. The volume "/media/wally" would be an NTFS partition, automounted under /media and my entire ~80GB partition would be stored as a single file on the partition labeled "wally". Later, when I want to restore, just reverse the syntax. Now, you can't tell I've been messing around. Since the winxpimage.dd file is exactly the same size as the partition, the command stops precisely when both volumes have "hit the end". In some other situations, you need to add additional parameters, to control how much data is written etc. You can't be careless with commands like this, because they're unforgiving and can overwrite stuff. dd if=/media/wally/winxpimage.dd of=/dev/sdb2 But you're free to come up with your own backup scheme. So if you want to "play the Registry game", there are tools to provide you with a safety net. If you don't get it right the first time, that backup will prevent you from losing anything. HTH, Paul |
#5
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Microsoft Support Scam Help
To everyone who's responded..........Many thanks for such valuable
information. I've scanned HDD for virus's etc but nothing. System Volume Information file is inaccessible so.......... I've installed his HDD on USB test rig and inspected files & structure. Looks a bit of a mess. To be honest I believe best option would be save all his documents & photo's etc, reformat and re-install. There are many many program files, multiple printer installs etc still listed which I know he in no longer using. I'm going to recommend this to him and take it from there. Once again, many thanks to you all "barrowhill" wrote in message ... Friend has asked for help having just dropped off his emachines 3240 desktop after falling for Microsoft support scam. He can't believe he fell for it and feels a complete idiot. System (XP Home) now no longer boots as C:/Windows/system32/config/system file is indicated as missing or corrupt Cannot use recovery console as asking for administrators password which is unknown Cannot resort to last known good configuration as get BSOD error 0x09A (System license Violation) Cannot get to safe mode or command prompt ditto system file Cannot repair windows installation as this option not given. can anyone help with suggestions as to best way forward. Re-install is last resort. I there a way round recovery console password ?? |
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