Antivirus mess

Ok, I think I made a mistake....now I hope it is fixable....

I realized the other day that on one of the computers in our house virus check was old (2003) so I decided to update it. I installed a new version of Norton 2004 antivirus. I did a full system scan. Much to my shock it found over 3800 virus on the computer. Norton's promptly quarantined all of those files. When I came back to the computer I kept getting all of these out of disk space errors. I couldn't figure it out, so I put a handy scanning program on the computer and found out that the quarantined folder that Norton created, was over 11 GB!! I deleted that entire folder to free up space because I couldn't open any programs.

Now, my problem is many programs won't open, gives me errors, won't let me uninstall them, won't run, many things arn't working like they are supposed to. Any ideas?

I hope someone can get me out of this mess.
Thanks!

I know this isn't what you want to hear but I'd reformat the system. You are better off starting from scratch.

rotjong

No, that isn't what I wanted to hear....I used System Mechanic Pro to recover around 3 GB of the files. but it doesn't seem like it has made a difference. Any other ideas before I reformat? I am willing to try anything...before I reformat.

I reckon rotjong hit the nail on the head. With that many infected files the only choice is to format & keep the anti virus software updated. Don't think anything except a format will get it working to an acceptable state.

I am with the other 2... a lot of the essential files/apps seem to have been deleted/affected and yer best off saving time/effort formatting and starting fresh...

alternatively you can try fixing the base o/s by repairing it but most apps don't have such a feature...

Save all your important documents, movies, .doc, .txt, pictures etc... Stick em on a cd rom. Then virus check the cd rom if all clear, format (high level) reinstall and hope this is a wake up call not to be so careless in future.

If you want to look at Spinrite 6 from grc.com ( costly).
It was designed to resolve seriously corrupted or damaged hard drives.
It is a very professional piece of kit run from floppy boot up and unique in its field. First version dates back to 80s.
Can resolve corrupted system files and might resolve your problem.
Have used it succesfully on minor problems myself.

Tweakfiend said:

If you want to look at Spinrite 6 from grc.com ( costly).
It was designed to resolve seriously corrupted or damaged hard drives.
It is a very professional piece of kit run from floppy boot up and unique in its field. First version dates back to 80s.
Can resolve corrupted system files and might resolve your problem.
Have used it succesfully on minor problems myself.

Click to expand...

Not to knock what your saying but it sounds like more then just his system files were infected. Repairing "system files" will do nothing if he (his AV) has deleted files that the programs need to run. Short of reinstalling all his apps (which may or may not fix it all), I think his option is to format and remember to update his AV more.

Reinstaling the apps didn't work. In some cases my computer would lock up when I tried to uninstall them. Some applications wern't even affected by it, and now, some won't even load.

I guess I am going to have to reformat.

And get you virus program up to date.