BleepingComputer.com: Boot LOOP

XP Pro SP3


My computer is stuck in a loop of rebooting.
After passing the splash screen it restarts.

Tried Recovery Console - CHKDSK /r
Found problems but does appear to have fixed anything.
Can't start in safe mode as reboot continues.

Followed many different guidelines from other sites to no avail.
Many suggested unplugging all USB and taking out Graphics cards etc. This did not work.

I feel an infection has occurred as I was downloading a program, can't remember which one now.

Feel it may be time to upgrade to Windows 7 but need to recover some programs, photos and music stored on the hard drive without the OS.

Any suggestions?

Hello, Turtleman67.
My name is etavares and I will be helping you with this log.

Here are some guidelines to ensure we are able to get your machine back under your control.

• Please do not run any unsupervised scans, fixes, etc. We can work against each other and end up in a worse place.
  
• Please subscribe to this topic if you have not already done so. Please check back just in case, as the email system can fail at times.
  
• Just because your machine is running better does not mean it is completely cleaned. Please wait for the 'all clear' from me to say when we are done.
  
• Please reply within 3 days to be fair to other people asking for help.
  
• When in doubt, please stop and ask first. There's no harm in asking questions!

In addition to the above questions, do you have access to a clean computer and a USB flash drive (at least 250MB) we can use? This is usually a corrupted registry entry so we need to boot up outside of Windows to correct it.



etavares

Hi,
Since I posted the message I have read a similar post and managed to boot up with Ubuntu and gather some data files from the drive.
I do have another computer that I can use!I have an external hard drive with probably over 250MB space.

It would be great to see if we can recover this drive.

How do I subscribe to this topic - I thought as I wrote the topic I should be subscribed????
Thanks

Turtleman

How did you boot into Ubuntu? Did you create a new partition or use an external device?

I have a very automatic tool if you have a spare flash drive or don't mind completely formatting that external drive (the tool only works in the xPud Linux distro, not Ubuntu).
I have a more manual tool if we can save it to the Ubuntu drive, but run the tool briefly in Windows...it would save us creating a new Linux boot device, but it only extracts in Windows first.

Let me know.


To subscribe, in the top right of this page, click "Watch this topic" when you are signed into your account. Then, select how to be notified. Then click "proceed" i believe. Then you should be good to go. Don't count on the email notification...it is 99% reliable...but you still may miss it. I'll generally respond at least once per day, sometimes more.

This post has been edited by etavares: 19 July 2011 - 06:03 PM

Ubuntu - booted using a flash drive!

Let's try the automatic version to see if it works. I have a flash drive with 1GB spce Formatted and ready to go!

I am subscribed to this this topic as I am recieveing emails which state this!

Let me know the next step and I will pick it up this evening!

Many thanks

Turleman

Hello, Turtleman67.

Try this please. You will need that USB drive.

Download http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-xpud-windows-latest.exe & http://noahdfear.net/downloads/bootable/xPUD/xpud-0.9.2.iso to the desktop of your clean computer

• Insert your USB drive
  
• Press Start > My Computer > right click your USB drive > choose Format > Quick format
  
• Double click the unetbootin-xpud-windows-387.exe that you just downloaded
  
• Press Run then OK
  
• Select the DiskImage option then click the browse button located on the right side of the textbox field.
  
• Browse to and select the xpud-0.9.2.iso file you downloaded
  
• Verify the correct drive letter is selected for your USB device then click OK
  
• It will install a little bootable OS on your USB device
  
• Once the files have been written to the device you will be prompted to reboot ~ do not reboot and instead just Exit the UNetbootin interface
  
• After it has completed do not choose to reboot the clean computer simply close the installer
  
• Then, download xpud_userinit_fix and save it to your flash drive.
  
• Remove the USB and insert it in the sick computer
  
• Boot the Sick computer
  
• Press F12 and choose to boot from the USB. If that doesn't work, let me know. Booting from USBs is different depending on your BIOS.
  
• Follow the prompts
  
• A Welcome to xPUD screen will appear
  
• Press File
  
• Expand mnt
  
• Click on the folder that is your usb drive (typically sdb1 but it may differ...you'll know when you see the xpud_userinit_fix file we saved to it)
  
• When you see the xpud_userinit_fix, double-click to run it.
  
• When it's done, you will see a report located on your USB drive named UserinitReport.txt.
  
• Shut down xPud, pull out the flash drive and try to boot into Windows.
  
• In your reply, please post the UserinitReport.txt log and let me know if you booted into windows.

etavares

Hi,
I tried to boot with the USB and it didn't work.
Message: Boot Error

Don't understand why it won't boot as it will boot using Ubuntu ?

I guess it is back you if you have any other ideas.

I appreciate your help

Thanks

Turtleman

OK, download uNTBRHive.exe and save it on your ubuntu flash drive. In WINDOWS, double-click uNTBRHive.exe to run it. You should see uhives.sh appear on your flash drive.

Next, download OpenTerminalHere.exe to your ubuntu flash drive. In WINDOWS, double-click to run it and you should see two files appear on your flash drive.

Take that and boot your infected computer into Ubuntu.

Navigate to the flash drive, double click install-right-click.sh and select Run in Terminal
A Terminal window should open and close very quickly. This makes the following steps easier.
Make sure you can see uhives.sh in the file manager, then right-click on the background and select Scripts --> Open Terminal Here
type bash uhives.sh (exactly as shown..all lowercase) and press Enter
It will prompt for the hive. Type software and press Enter.
When complete, press Enter to exit the uhives script, then type exit and press Enter to close the terminal window.

You should see a file named ntbsoft on your flash drive now. Let me know that you have successfully done this and we will move on to the next step.

When trying to run uNTBRHive.exe from my flash drive in Windows, I got the message below.

ERROR: unable to find prepared flash drive!
Copy NTBRHive.exe to your flash drive
and run it again from that location

CLOSE THIS LOG TO CONTINUE

OpenTerminalHere.exe - no problems and 2 files appeared;
install-right-click.sh and Open Terminal Here
Does this mean it is not compitable with Ubuntu?

I have tried several times deleting from the flash drive and trying agin but each time is the same message.

I have plnety of space on the flash drive.


?
Turtleman

It's not recognizing that you have ubuntu installed on the flash drive. You may have a slightly different flavor of it. Please try to create an xPud flash drive again...it may have been as simple as a corrupted download. Make sure to reformat the drive per the instructions as well. Let me know if it works, if not we'll figure it out.

I am afraid it didn't work and got the same message!
I hope I am following your instructions correctly.
At the point where I press Run I don't think I ahould the click OK. I think I should click OK after selecting xpud-0.9.2.iso?

Insert your USB drive
Press Start > My Computer > right click your USB drive > choose Format > Quick format
Double click the unetbootin-xpud-windows-387.exe that you just downloaded
Press Run then OK
Select the DiskImage option then click the browse button located on the right side of the textbox field.
Browse to and select the xpud-0.9.2.iso file you downloaded
Verify the correct drive letter is selected for your USB device then click OK

Ah, they have changed the installer slightly. Format the USB drive. Then, doubleclick unetbootin-xpud-windows-387.exe. Select Diskimage, click the ... button to ther ight of the text field, select the xpud iso, make sure USB drive is in type, make sure the correct drive letter for your usb flash drive is selected for Drive, then click OK.

That is exactly what I have done but still a boot error occurs.
The process to install a bootable program on the USB has worked.

BUt it won't boot my computer.

If you have any other ideas that would be great!

Thanks

Open My Computer and take a look at the file structure on the USB.

In the root folder of the USB, you should see 2 files:
syslinux.cfg
vesamenu.c32

You should also see 2 folders:
boot
opt

Open the boot folder. You should see 3 files;
bg
vesamenu.c32
xpud


Do you see all that? While you look to see if the USB drive was properly created, I'll look at alternate approaches.

All those files are present and in the correct places.

I think an alternative approach is the only option.

Cheers