I am running Windows XP Professional.
A Ukash virus shutdown my main hard drive and then prevented me from being able to do anything once Windows booted.
Before I had read about how to deal with the Ukash virus, I tried to run a repair installation via my OS disc. That repair installation failed: during setup, the system would boot into Windows on the infected hard drive, and then the screen would be completely black, with just the arrow cursor, and nothing else, visible.
After that, I booted my system via a second hard drive, and ran MalwareBytes. It seemed to find and remove the Ukash virus from my main hard drive.
I have subsequently tried to run more repair installations on my main hard drive, which also failed.
I then tried to re-install Windows onto my main hard drive a couple of times, in the exact same partition & location as my original installation. Those new installations worked, but they did not do what I wanted them to do, which was restore my OS to how it was immediately before the virus had infected it.
I ended up with 3 options to choose from on the OS-selection screen that appears before Windows loads. Two of the installations were new installations that would boot successfully, and the third was the original installation which was unbootable. I had three Windows folders on my main hard drive at that point: C: \Windows, C: \Windows.0 and C: \Windows.1.
Before I made this thread, I figured out how to get rid of the extra Windows folders and how to remove them from the OS selection choices, by deleting the folders of the new installations and deleting their references in the boot.ini file.
After I deleted the new, working installations, I rebooted, and on the OS-selection screen, I chose the option for the OS that was originally infected. I automatically got the message "setup [Windows setup] is restarting."
Windows then continued to install itself successfully into the same location that the virus had originally shutdown, but that new installation is empty: it does not recognize any of the programs or settings that my previously-infected installation had.
The problem I have with all this is, I do not just want a working installation of Windows. I very much do not want to have to find and to re-install all the dozens of programs that I had previously installed, and to tweak all of their settings again. Having to do that would be Hell.
Question 1: Is there any possible way in which I might be able to recover my registry and have my computer function in exactly the same way as it did before the Ukash virus hit it? If so, what do I need to do in order possibly to recover my registry?
Question 2: On my new installation of Windows, all the desktop icons that were on my desktop before the Ukash virus hit are now no longer visible.
However, when I use Windows Explorer to go to the path "C: \ Documents and Settings\[my old username for the computer]\Desktop," all of the old icons are present there. I suspect that the missing desktop items may be related to Windows having assigned a different username to my computer during the Windows re-installations. My question is: how do I get my old desktop icons to appear on my desktop again?
A Ukash virus shutdown my main hard drive and then prevented me from being able to do anything once Windows booted.
Before I had read about how to deal with the Ukash virus, I tried to run a repair installation via my OS disc. That repair installation failed: during setup, the system would boot into Windows on the infected hard drive, and then the screen would be completely black, with just the arrow cursor, and nothing else, visible.
After that, I booted my system via a second hard drive, and ran MalwareBytes. It seemed to find and remove the Ukash virus from my main hard drive.
I have subsequently tried to run more repair installations on my main hard drive, which also failed.
I then tried to re-install Windows onto my main hard drive a couple of times, in the exact same partition & location as my original installation. Those new installations worked, but they did not do what I wanted them to do, which was restore my OS to how it was immediately before the virus had infected it.
I ended up with 3 options to choose from on the OS-selection screen that appears before Windows loads. Two of the installations were new installations that would boot successfully, and the third was the original installation which was unbootable. I had three Windows folders on my main hard drive at that point: C: \Windows, C: \Windows.0 and C: \Windows.1.
Before I made this thread, I figured out how to get rid of the extra Windows folders and how to remove them from the OS selection choices, by deleting the folders of the new installations and deleting their references in the boot.ini file.
After I deleted the new, working installations, I rebooted, and on the OS-selection screen, I chose the option for the OS that was originally infected. I automatically got the message "setup [Windows setup] is restarting."
Windows then continued to install itself successfully into the same location that the virus had originally shutdown, but that new installation is empty: it does not recognize any of the programs or settings that my previously-infected installation had.
The problem I have with all this is, I do not just want a working installation of Windows. I very much do not want to have to find and to re-install all the dozens of programs that I had previously installed, and to tweak all of their settings again. Having to do that would be Hell.
Question 1: Is there any possible way in which I might be able to recover my registry and have my computer function in exactly the same way as it did before the Ukash virus hit it? If so, what do I need to do in order possibly to recover my registry?
Question 2: On my new installation of Windows, all the desktop icons that were on my desktop before the Ukash virus hit are now no longer visible.
However, when I use Windows Explorer to go to the path "C: \ Documents and Settings\[my old username for the computer]\Desktop," all of the old icons are present there. I suspect that the missing desktop items may be related to Windows having assigned a different username to my computer during the Windows re-installations. My question is: how do I get my old desktop icons to appear on my desktop again?
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter