[Phantom-Takaya]

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

In your first hijackthis scan I found these entries:

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://ie.redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TY... io&pf=desktop
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://ie.redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TY...rio&pf=desktop
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://ie.redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TY... io&pf=desktop

You fixed them... was that a default value (was your PC shipped with that setting?)

Yes. That's the default value.

As for everything else, it seems running hijack this had taken care of the virus problem, but the virus had left such a mess that it was hard to recover the computer to the way it was. Unfortunately, by the time I managed to repair the computer to its functional state, I didn't realise that the hard drive was badly fragmented. So, when I attempted to partition the hard drive so that I can install Unbuntu Linux for a dual boot, the partition failed and caused the hard drive to further fall apart. Now, the problem is that the computer would restart automatically once it attempted to load Windows, Normal Mode or Safe Mode. I've tried several tools I have that does not rely on Windows to start up to repair the hard drive, but to no avail. So, I'm going to take the hard drive and place it in an enclosure to take to a friend's computer and possibly attempt to at least recover the important files I had on it before formatting, partitioning and reinstalling Windows to it.

If anyone's got any suggestions, I'm all ears.