System Recovery on a HP Media Centre PC

paulsmy · 08-05-2009, 18:04

I need to run System recovery on my son's virus filled pc.
When I try to do this through PC Help & Tools and I click "Yes" it simply reboots the system - no change.
When I try System Recovery by pressing the F10 button on bootup. I get the error STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the Hive (file)
When I try to create Recovery Disks I get Error: Unable to find a supported CD/DVD- writer device. The cd/DVD writer is there and working.
The system will not Restore to any point.
What can I do next?
Paul

budwieser · 08-05-2009, 19:05

Hi Mate, Just download this http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
and run it in safe mode,(Tap the F8 KEY when it boots and choose safe mode with networking) run it until all infections are cleared.
Turn off system restore before you install it though.
Bud.

alferret · 08-05-2009, 19:05

Try F11 on boot, thats the option on our girls HP desktop & me laptop.
I get the same error on my new laptop when trying to make recovery dvd's "Unable to find a supported CD/DVD- writer device"

xpod · 08-05-2009, 19:19

Quote:

I need to run System recovery on my son's virus filled pc.

If you have any means of doing a complete fresh re-installation then i would go with that me thinks.Many of those "system recovery" partitions/Media creators are more trouble than their worth in my experience plus, once a machine is infected in the manner you mention then i wouldn`t trust it further than i could throw it anyway.

alferret · 09-05-2009, 08:41

Another option is to aquire a disc of the OS you are using, beg borrow or download. Use that to do a clean install as you will have the COA sticker with serial stuck somewhere on your machine. and let windows and windows update do the rest for all drivers etc. or download the drivers from HP's site before hand so you have them ready.

xpod · 09-05-2009, 10:08

To further alferrets advice i`d say get a hold of the relevant installation CD/files he mentions then grab all the relevant service packs,drivers & software you need then slipstream the whole lot into one nice simple installation CD with Nlite .

You can trim out the junk you dont need with nlite or of course add the things you do need.

The above is assuming it`s XP we`re talking about but if not then there`s always vlite for Vista.
http://www.vlite.net/

Not too sure if theres going to be a 7lite