Old HD attacked by virus XP pro OS and Avast anti-spyware didn't protect

katmandoitall · 10-05-2010, 02:52 AM

Advised on another forum to install XP pro then Linux on HD.
Decided to try it. Not that savy with computers and have a
mini-laptop in addition to desktop that was attacked. Virus
cause most programs to fail. Disc was nearly full (250GB) so
I'm buying a refurbed Seagate (500GB) and need to learn to back
up files onto flash drive or something. Lost a lot of photos and
emails that were good reference material.

Heard a lot about Linux so I'm going to give it a try.
Any warnings or advice is appreciated.

prayag_pjs · 10-05-2010, 03:16 AM

What are you expecting us to suggest?
How to backup your old system?

katmandoitall · 10-05-2010, 11:13 PM

Have a legit copy of WIN XP PRO. Wanted to use it with Linux on the
replacement HD. Not that savy so need some basic instructions on how
to accomplish the task.

yancek · 10-05-2010, 11:19 PM

Install xp, download your choice of Linux, burn it at a slow speed as an image after verifying the md5sum from the download page. Put the CD in the drive, set your BIOS to boot first from CD drive and re-boot. follow the prompts.

There are numerous threads here at LQ on dual booting xp and Linux. You can also google and find numerous tutorials. Hard to give more specific advice without a specific Linux distribution.

The one thing to be careful about is not to install your Linux distribution over the xp partition. If you don't know how to get partition information, post again.

katmandoitall · 10-07-2010, 07:08 AM

I had heard that XP Pro can be installed without partitions. Is this what you
are suggesting? Was told when I put the Linux on via download or disc it would
ask if I wanted to load it in seperate partition. Is that correct?
Thanks for suggestions.

TobiSGD · 10-07-2010, 07:55 AM

Because you are totally new to Linux, I would recommend to use a flavor that is directed to ease-of-use, like Ubuntu or Linux Mint. They have easy to use installers, that are mostly self-explanatory and have good default settings.

dv502 · 10-07-2010, 08:07 AM

There are many guides online about partitioning hard drives using fdisk, cfdisk, partedmagic and others. Practice making or resizing partitions in a virtual environment before committing it to your actual hard drive. Experience is the best teacher.

I suggest installing XP pro the normal way. Then try linux using a LiveCD, USB image, VMWare, Virtualbox or the wubi installer.

You can practice your partition skills when installing linux in a virtual environment.

If you like using linux, then you can install it along side of windows as a dual boot system.

PS: If you only want to use linux to backup files to a removable media, just use a liveCD or a Linux USB image. Mount the partition(s) and then drag and drop the files between them.

- Cheers

EDDY1 · 10-09-2010, 01:53 AM

Unless you know how to partition you may have to install xp twice. Is yours fat32 or ntfs? Fat32 is easier to resize after defragmenting without loss of data, ntfs spreads itself across disk. If ntfs, if not familiar with partioning, install xp resize with gparted, you may lose some data but you can reinstall os on the resulting formatted partition. Leaving unallocated space. I can't help you with anything beyond that I'm trying to dual-boot also. I'm a newbie also

konsolebox · 10-09-2010, 02:09 AM

Some of your folders that contain photos and emails might have just been marked as hidden and replaced with executable files that had icons looking like folders.

Tools->Folder Options->Show all hidden + Show operating system files

and/or

Code:

attrib -h -r -s "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents" /s /d

EDDY1 · 10-09-2010, 02:09 AM

BTW Cdburnerxp (freeware) works very well as long as you set it as default iso burner. After downloading Cdburnerxp and installing, download save and unzip(mine came in zip file) resulting image will be Gparted-live-iso click burn iso and verify. Ihave about 30 cd/coasters from not burning correctly. 1 of these days I'll throw them away.

Fred Caro · 10-09-2010, 12:29 PM

Dear Sir/madam,
this thread sounds like a lot of info. If you have any files left that you want to save do so with another computer/device.Once that is out of the way, clear the bios and start again on the computer you want to use but put Windoze on first. There might still be problems relating to the boot loader. A live cd could also be useful; that will probably give you the option to 'boot from first hard drive' so back to square one when you dual boot.
On a netbook boot from external media (usually usb) or from a tower use a different hard drive and put linux or windows on that.

Fred.

EDDY1 · 10-09-2010, 01:20 PM

Well I just resized my partition using gparted-live-cd, it worked like a charm, no loss of files & now I have 750G unallocated space to load all the os's I want to .starting with Debian 506

Fred Caro · 10-10-2010, 12:08 AM

eddy, that would work if your existing system is not compromised and if you have enough temporary memory in which to put your existing files.
Fred.

katmandoitall · 10-11-2010, 12:26 AM

UPDATE 10-11-10: Got the HD in and installed it. Lucky to find the
right cable in my old mother board's box. Noticed mother board design
has ability to run 4 SATA HDs and 2 IDE HDs. Not sure what to do with
the old HD (an IDE I think? uses old type ribbon cable but it's marked
primary so I wondered if the SATA drive will run the system? Wanted to
flatten the old HD and use it for file storage.

Have been really busy trying to get vehicles ready for cold weather.
Not enough time to keep up with everything, it seems.

Haven't been able to try to set up partions in virtual yet but plan on
it before I try to do it on this HD. Suggestions have been helpful,
thanks for any of them.