Help Needed with Possible Virus

[Lady HaxX0r]

Hi there,

It's been years since i posted on here last, but i remembered when crisis struck that there is no better source of instant support on the net! so i hope that some of you can help me and won't mock me for something that is probably a really lame problem.

a while ago i noticed that these files kept materialising in different folders on my computer, about 5 different file names but over and over and over. something like 'quake 2 walkthru' and 'buy stuff online' and a few others. i guess i should have written them down but i'm hoping that it will ring some bells if i just describe what's happened. i would delete these as and when they appeared but i didn't know what to do besides formatting to get rid, and i didn't have time for that [exams aplenty!]. i assumed it was a disguise for some sort of spyware and i was cool with that for the time being.

however as the weeks wore on, my computer began crashing. i resolved to format over the summer and just left it. but i had a busy summer and didn't want to face a hard day's backing-up and formatting, and in the end it took me til this weekend to address the problem.

but when i came to use my computer, a whole loada **** was going down! firstly, something was making my C drive think it was full all the time - i KEPT getting the error message 'you only have <100mb on your hard drive, sort it out love' and being prompted to clear stuff off. but after uninstalling almost everything other than office, i was still getting this message. additionally, most files had become invisible, and if i tried searching for them the machine crashed.

but worst of all - it won't allow me to format! i'm running XP Pro so i tried to format using the xp manager which failed then i tried using command line which also failed. in as much as, it's not an option in the manager and whatever i type in command line comes up as invalid. is there another way i might be able to format? i'm thinking maybe whatever's screwing with my machine maybe has blocked my admin access or something which would account for the manager not working but i'm not sure about the command line angle.

does this sound familiar to anyone? apologies if it's a really widely-discussed thing in a different thread, but as i say i don't know what it is and i've not been on the site for so long!

thanks in advance for any responses x

edit: norton did indeed used to come up with warning messages but was unable to repair the files that were damaged hence i resolved to format but did i leave it too late??

[SirDice]

First off: You cannot format your C: drive if you just booted from it. Boot from the XP CD if you want to reinstall everything from scratch. During the install remove the "old" partition(s) and create a new one.

Second: How up2date is your Norton? I'm guessing it's totally out of date and therefor completely useless.

Google for "online virusscanner", Trent Micro's HouseCall and Panda's Activescan should be able to clean it up.

[Lady HaxX0r]

thanks for your suggestions! forgot entirely about booting from cd!

regarding the virusscanners, that machine is not online, so what would you recommend i download and install? i don't rate my chances highly on being able to install anything what with it crashing every time i move but if i give it a whirl what would be the most up to date?

[rapier57]

If you can get to a system that has access, and can burn a CD, download
AVG, SpyBot and/or Ad-aware-SE. Burn these to a CD and install to the laptop. Even if you are going to flatten the system and start over, it is a good idea to have these tools available when you bring it back up. Use these links:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/1/

[Lady HaxX0r]

brilliant! you guys are fabulous!

i guess it seems really blatant to you but i haven't been around people who know their stuff for so long, it's really easy to forget the details. i really appreciate your help, all those who have taken time to respond to this. i'll let you know if i run into any more issues!!