f13.net

So.

Virus ate every EXE on my drive where all my apps and games are installed. Has spread to C drive as of this reboot. Formatting.

This is going to be a fucking mess.

You figure out where it came from?

Nope. Coulda been there for years laying dormant.

Probably email though. I must get a hundred mails with attachments a day and I very well may have opened one accidently.

Get a Mac. Seriously. You can run Boot Camp on it for those few times you actually lower yourself to play PC games.

Because I got a virus?

Are you kidding? Virii are natures way of reminding you to format every once in a while.

Edit: And if anyone follows up the following comment with something that turns into macs vs. pc, I'll start shooting.

That said, Macs are slow, sloppy, overpriced, crashy pieces of shit. At least, that's my experience post the LCII. Also, they explode.

Edit 2: Wait, were you joking? The only reason I have a PC is Word, Excel, Media, and Games. The only reason to use a mac is if I wanted my desk to look more art faggy.

Macs suck.  Walking grandmothers through how to set one up is even suckier.  I am officially anti-mac.

No I'm not joking. I'd figured I'd suggest it given how much you hate PC gaming. Macs aren't slow since the move to Intel, assuming you are running a Universal binary (compiled for both Intel and PowerPC). OS X is as stable or more so than XP unless you are using a networked folder in the Finder in which case all bets are off. Overpriced I'll give you though that's in part cause they only have one model where you can add your own video card and that happens to be the top-of-line Mac Pro. There are Mac versions of Word and Excel or you can run them through Parallels if you have to run the Windows versions. Same with the various media formats. As for the art part you can hide the Dock or get a replacement.

Edit: plural is better

I don't hate PC Gaming. I just don't play much mainstream stuff and no one here wants to hear about my bouts with Shanghai Alice shooter titles (Perfect Cherry Blossom, etc), obscure japanese puzzle games, and mame. Or maybe they do. Anyway, yea, I've got to stick with PC.

Please to be hearing of these things, thanks!

I love Phantasmagoria of Flower View. I hate myself for not being able to read the story.

Do you read Japanese or just power through untranslated games?  Just curious.

I can't read Japanese and that's why I hate myself (I mean, just one more reason). Don't know about Schild but if he can read it I think I'll steal his life phantom of the opera style as soon as I meet him IRL.

I can't read Japanese. But any game where the Japanese is necessary to enjoy the game probably has derivative gameplay. JRPGs, Dating Games, and whatnot. Most JRPGs tend to get a Euro or US translation. Even some that don't end up in English once they get an Asian release. Most of the stuff I play on my PC are doujin fighters and shooters - for which you need no absolutely know Japanese to enjoy.

Now, about my computer. I backed everything up I wanted and proceeded to change the Bios to boot from USB CDRom like I have every other time. For some reason however, it says it can't find the NTLoader on my (LEGIT FOR REALZ) copy of Windows XP. Literally, I removed the dvd from the pamphlet and put it in, third or fourth time I've used it post format. Every other time it just boots from CD. Now it doesn't. So I decided to try to install Windows while in Windows, so it would load that boot shit and reboot to it from the HDD. NO LUCK. Prompt says "You can not install this version of Windows since the version you have is newer." WTF.

Help?

Are you on IRC or IM?

Edit: Check the CD in Ookii's or somebody else's machine over there to make sure it really is bootable. If so, make sure your external USB device is set to boot first and disable the booting from the other devices. If that still doesn't work disconnect your hard drives and other bootable devices to make sure your MB really can in fact boot from an external USB device and you weren't just imagining things. If that doesn't work borrow an internal CD/DVD-ROM drive from Ookii or another person in your house and try booting off of that.

Oh, I had no problem booting from this drive just 6 months ago.

The last thing we tried was disabling the HDD's from being boot devices in the BIOS and making the CD-Rom first.

...didn't work (lols). Still, somehow, ended up booting Windows from HDD0.

Would it be possible to get one of those linux bootloaders that installs into memory, use that to format my drive as NTFS, and then take the bootloader out, put the XP CD in, and run the install?

You need a CD-ROM drive you can boot off of first before you can run one of those Linux "live" CDs that will let you reformat a partition. Your BIOS may have gotten screwed up and if you want to take the risk you can reset it back to the factory settings and then redo the bootup devices. Or just borrow an internal CD/DVD drive from somebody.

I've always feared the "Reboot Bios" option. That won't downgrade the firmware or anything stupid, will it? If not, then I might as well do that. It's not like it's going to erase my HDDs.

It won't change the firmware version but for example if you had to tweak the settings to get it to work with your memory you'll have to redo all that otherwise things might not work properly. You should also check it afterwards that your CPU is set at the right speed (it should pick it up automatically but you never know).

You = ignorant. I'll give you overpriced, though.

If you can get the cd drive working, there are quicker/easier options than a linux boot. Can't mention what it would be, since it's hacky, but it's been mentioned here before (it's where I found it and OMGTHANKS). Great boot cd with a ton of utilities on it.

How about a repair installation? If you can get the WinXP CD to boot, after you hit f8 for install, it should detect a pre-existing WinXP installation on your hard drives. You can then perform a repair install, which basically strips all existing drivers and reinstalls from scratch. This works well with machine that don't require newfangled raid drivers.

If I could get the WinXP CD to boot, I wouldn't have asked what the problem was :).

Yep, I knew that! Perhaps I misunderstood, but I thought that your computer couldn't finde the ntldr file on your back up (which is presumably on another hard drive?). In the event you get a CDrom working as a bootable device, all I was saying was to repair your backup, since that seems to have a missing ntldr, or a misdirected pointer.

My CD is a retail WinXP DVD. It has all the necessary files on it, I've used it for install before.

Sounds like a problem with your Master Boot Record.

I know windows repair has a 'fixmb' command, but since you can't get the dvd to load... this page has a link to a free MBR repair tool: http://www.ambience.sk/fdisk-master-boot-record-windows-linux-lilo-fixmbr.php

If that doesn't work, you can try downloading the Hirens Boot CD.  It's free, and some of its tools can run in windows.  It might have a MBR repair tool in it somewhere.

Good to see that you value your time so highly. Sounds to me like your BIOS is munged, BTW.

Maybe you should use a DVD drive instead of a CD drive.

Also, there are thumbapps you can possibly use from a usb thumb drive?

And start using Thunderbird or Evolution (for Windows) if you're using Outlook Express.

 I was using Thunderbird. I haven't used Outlook for 2+ years.

Alright.

1. I've reset the BIOS. Nothing.
2. I tried a different genuine XP CD, nothing. I've only got 2 Windows XP Pro V.2002 discs. The rest are useless Dell OEM discs.
3. I tried unplugging the harddrive. Nada.

I'm thinking, maybe, I should try upgrading the BIOS on the mobo? Heh. This sucks.

Look into your MBR.

Have you tried an internal drive as suggested earlier?  I've had the worst time with making USB drives boot when they needed to, even if they worked in the past.

Why would an MBR make a difference? I'm not doing anything with the HDD.

MBR is often a target for viruses. Doesn't hurt to rewrite it at least.


I couldn't tell you how though. I forgot how to do that with 2K/XP ;). It used to be "fdisk /mbr" in DOS.

When I get to the format utility, if I do a full format, won't it rewrite the MBR anyway?

No, I don't think so. Not even partitioning a drive does it automatically.

Windows stores NTLoader in the MBR (I believe).  You said you were getting NTLoader errors.

I thought a complete reformat would overwrite your old MBR, but I can't be certain.  Look at my old post for a MBR fix tool.

Just tried that MBR Fix thing. Rebooting.

Ok. That didn't work at all. I get:

Boot from CD: CDBOOT: NTLOADER not found.

This might help:
http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

Actually, I'm not sure.  That error might mean it can't find the ntloader on the boot disk.  If you've tried different windows cd's, the cd being the problem does seem less likely though.  Dunno what to say.

Hm. With XP, is there a way to force the computer to go into REINSTALL FUN MODE from Windows like "Upon reboot, drop into reinstall" cuz then I Can at least reformat and...well... reinstall.

Not that I know of.

I'd try to boot form a hirens boot disk or a linux live-cd first.  If that works, then your cd's might both be fucked.  Download a copy off bittorrent, and just use your registered cd key.

LOL@MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I just fixed my MBR alright.

Oh yea.

Rewrote the first bit as 0.

GOODBYE HARDDRIVE PARTITIONS. HARDY HAR HAR. Good thing I backed everything up.

Not necessarily (not that it matters now) but again steal Ookii's internal CD/DVD drive and use that.

Can Someone with a floppy drive make a boot disk and grab all the files, zip them up and give them to me? I have some utilities for turning a flash drive into an XP Boot disk. I just need the dos system files. The internet isn't helping. People are charging for this shit - which is UNBELIEVABLE.

Oh, and it has to be XP Pro SP1 or 2. Thanks!

:(

schilds computer needs food badly

Why are you still trying to boot of an USB device when it isn't working? And I don't see how using the MS-DOS boot files is going to help you cause XP doesn't use them to boot itself (XP is not built on top of MS-DOS). And XP is one of the worst OSes to build an MS-DOS boot floppy from since it's missing a ton of the standard MS-DOS programs like FDISK -- something like Windows 98 is a much better OS for building MS-DOS floppies. But anyways here you go.

Well, my computer was willing ONCE to boot off the goddamn USB driver. But never again. ONLY ONCE!

I think I give up.

For the love of the FSM why are you not using an internal CD-ROM drive?

One of my IDE channels is dead. I have 2 hard drives in there already. One is only 10 gigs, the other can not be allowed to be formatted. When Ookii gets home, I'll see if he's willing to grab me a cd-rom.

You only need one hard drive and 10 GB is enough to install XP on. You can also take out the drive that's in the external case and use that as your internal drive instead.

I'm not exactly willing to sacrifice another HDD to this goddamn infernal machine.

No, I don't mean one of your many external hard drives -- I meant your external CD/DVD-ROM drive.

One principle for installing Windows that has served me well over the years is to remove all hard disks except the one I am installing to.  Put the one you want to keep into COLD STORAGE until you have a working XP image on your boot drive.  This will, presumably, free up an IDE slot for Ookii's CD drive.  Once you have the install finished, reinstall your hardware as desired.  Might want to scan that second disk for a virus, for the children.

PCs suck.

Heh. I ended up pulling an extra CD Rom I didn't know we had and removing everything but one harddrive. It's a minimal setup with no gaming, but it'll get the job done.

Oh, and it works. Windows is almost done installing.

 :-D

Microsoft should have a special webpage for people to update from when you're more than one service pack and 200 updates behind.

It should be located at "hell.microsoft.com."

Remember to uncheck IE7 in the SUPAR CRITICALZ section.

why

You shouldn't be using IE anyway.

I don't need browser elitism in my thread, thanks.

In seriousness, No-one should be ticking that 'Remote Desktop Terminal Client V6'.

It's utter, utter, utter shite.

Why is the new remote desktop bad? I have used it at work and it didn't seem that different from the previous one.

It doesn't let you save any of your settings/User Credentials (Or it doesn't let me anyway) and it turns domains into IP addresses (again, me.)

I'm not the only one to complain, but I suspect that some may have differing stories.

The good news is that copying over the exe and dll from the old version overwrites it without the Windows Update thinking anything is wrong.

Ok, ya, that is extra fiddly, although I'm not sure why turning domain names into IP addresses is so bad, but then again, I've not come across a situation where that would limit what I could do. Personally, I've liked the remote desktop function in Linux (FC6 or Ubuntu, I can't remember which). It saves your settings just fine and is definately more responsive than WinXP.

It's only elitism if you don't care about system security.

In the age of floppy-less computers someone REALLY needs to make a good free boot disk and have it ranked high on google. Talk about a nightmare.

I don't think it's browser elitism, just avoiding headaches. I haven't installed it due to the fact that quite a few of my co-workers had problems visiting and using websites with IE7 that they had no problems with under IE6. Fortunately they were able to uninstall it and revert back to 6. I trust The Fox implicitly and only use IE when necessary but that's only 'cause the ultra-pr0n sites aren't quick enough to catch The Fox and they eat IE for dinner.  :-D

I have Firefox and IE7 on all 3 of my machines. To assume that I would only use IE is stupid.

As for system security, I'm pretty sure Straz knows as much about system security as he does cold fusion.

Edit: Btw, 90% chance the virus I got came through email and I exclusively used Thunderbird. And I'm really damn diligent in deleting probably 95% of my mail.

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD I'm back on my computer. God it's nice to be typing on a Model M instead of a Dell Quiet Key. Unfortunately I'm missing about 200GB of porn data due to removing a HDD. But now I'm too scurred of plugging it back in until I get another PC.

Decided to plug in the other HDD. Had files that I actually needed. Hopefully I don't already have a virus.

Why don't you download a free anti-virus scanner and scan everything?

Hiren's BootCD.

Also turns out my old computer caught a few virii while it was relegated to Pornstation2 duties.

All the damn buttons move around.  I don't have any good reason to stay with IE6 other than that.

I don't get why they felt the need to change something that's worked for 15 years or more. I love watching people hunt for the fucking refresh button. Every single person mouses to where it 'should' be, then looks around, finally finds it and says "Why'd they do that?"

I'm glad they moved the refresh button. Maybe people will find the fucking F5 key.

So, what browser did they steal the IE7 "interface" from?  Not something I have ever used.  It's chile-con-tarded.  I prefer Lynx.

Back up and running.

Happy days.

WB.

Yar. I'm on AIM and MSN again. I hate Yahoo and ICQ, so I'm not reinstalling that shit.

I'll hop into IRC tomorrow.

It's been quite the week.

I got a six button standard control pad for my Egret 2 though. Model Number 2L12B. And let me tell you. Square controller bases are a fucking dream. That octagon shit has to go. All about the square bases. We're talking Hadoken/Wolverine Slash CITY. Booya!

Square bases fucking suck (unless maybe if you are playing Guile). Circular bases all the way.

No way dude, tighten the stick on a square base and you've got a monster unit, trust me. It's a shame you can't come over and play on this cab. Even my roommate hated an older square base joystick set we had, but these - a dream. That shit is hot hot hot. I play as Akuma/Dhaslim in the original MvSF.

Edit: On that note, I need to get a freaking Sega Naomi (http://www.sega-naomi.com/software.htm) system. Fierce.

You never struck me as someone into Slash.  I know a friend who can give you some great pairings.

Kirk Spock!

So, we have mentioned slash fic and monster units and Star Trek. I will now go scrub my brain with steel wool.

That was supposed to be Kirk slash Spock...

If you're not talking about Guilty Gear XX Slash then I have no clue what you're talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk/Spock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk/Spock)

Now excuse me while I go drink heavily.

More to the point... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_fiction)

Ok. I did know what you were talking about and I really really hoped it wasn't that.

CAUTION:

TAKING WORDS OUT OF CONTEXT HURTS SCHILD.

Wolverine Slash is a move in Marvel vs. StreetFighter/Capcom/Etc.

 :evil:

I know what you were talking about, but that's no fun.  You even used the proper format Blah/Yadda (twice!) AND included the word slash.

You can't beat the Man-At-Arms/Captain Planet stuff.