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About a year ago my PC became infected and I purchased Kaspersky to sort the problem. It worked, up to a point, but the PC was never been 100% since. Most noticeable by the excessive time taken for the daily virus scan to complete.

Lately I have also noticed that some applications will refuse to install, making the ludicrous claim that the administrator has limited what I can install. And if I try the "run as" option, the PC will claim it is running in "safe mode" when it clearly is not.

It has now come to a head as I have purchased another 2 years worth of anti-virus updates, and I am prevented from installing the upgrade.

I think I need to reinstall XP over the top, but as this is an HP PC, it didn't come with CDs, as that would be far too sensible. Install files seem to be on a hidden partition of the hard disk. It took ages to find out how to access it (some F key or other on boot up, apparently, can't recall which now) but when I tried to access them using the F key, the PC just claimed that the disk was corrupt.

I looked at the HP site, and after clicking link upon link I end up at an 'order install disk' site, and a 90 odd pages long list of PCs ! I looked at every one in turn and, of course, didn't find mine, implying my PC is no longer supported.

I looked at the Microsoft site but they seem uninterested in useful support. They want to charge heavily to answer an e-mail, or they insist you go to the site of the PC manufacturer.

So 2 dead ends.

I'm almost at the stage of slinging the PC and buying an inexpensive replacement, but this seems unfair as, apart from OS corruption, it seems a total waste to trash an otherwise decent bit of kit. Does anyone have any ideas of fixing the problem ?

Hello and welcome to PC Help Forum.

When you go into disk management do you see drive C: and DD:could be your recovery console.
HP and Compaq Desktop PCs- Using a Recovery Console to Resolve Startup Issues

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

There is the choice of doing the "Prework"link in red below on my signiture to see if your computer is clean of malware.

There is a choice of system restore.

However before doing recovery or a system resore you should backup any important data you wish to keep.

Or borrow an OEM version of XP from a friend,that is OEM disk that came supplied with a new computer not retail wich would of been bought with its own key.

You could reformat your computer using the OEM disk with your key.

Or simply buy XP retail disk and reformat your computer.

Hi, and thanks.

If I open up explorer I can see many drives. Certainly the C: drive. But none of which is any "recovery console".

I'll check out the links later this evening, thanks. That said, I regularly run Ad-aware SE and Spy-bot S&D so I am not expecting any nasty surprises. I'm inclined to think that removal of the malware left behind corruption, rather than having anything still lurking there, but I guess one never knows.

Important data eh ? I guess I could live without the lot but I wouldn't want to. To be honest all the stuff I've picked up over time seems important to me, not sure I can distinguish between any of it. I'm probably more inclined to cross fingers and try things at the moment.

Umm... well maybe I ought not say so in case it's not allowed, but I did borrow an install disk from a friend, in case I could use it and still retain my original serials etc. Didn't work though. Complained the version installed was newer.

Hello recovery console is normaly installed on a D: drive.

To use the OEM disk off your friend it is possible there disk has SP1 slipstreamed on it.Then it is possible you have SP2 installed on your computer or even SP3.I f you go to add and remove and uninstall SP3 or SP2 then the disk should possibly work.

My D: drive is a Maxtor 7L300R0.
Don't ever recall a "recovery console" even when first bought as reconditioned.

I may try to uninstall the SPs then, and retry the disk. Cheers.

You can try to make to recovery disc set to use to fix the PC. There is software already on your pc to make them from the recovery partition. Link below has instructions for how to make recovery disc set for all HP's and Compaqs made after 2003.

HP and Compaq Desktop PCs- Creating Recovery Disc Set in Windows XP

If your recovery partition is damaged you will not be able to make the recovery discs.

I think that is the problem. The hidden recovery partition seems to be corrupt. At least that was what was on the screen the time I held the relevant F key down to access it. I'll check the link later today though, thanks.

Meanwhile I tried the uninstall SP2 option last night. Mixed result, but I feel I've probably gone backwards.

It started this time, just fine, but during the uninstall it failed to find some files it required, until I "browsed" over to the borrowed CD, from which point it continued ok.

On reboot afterwards I swear the splash screen is different, and when I followed the SP2 removal with an attempted install over the top, it asked for the serial number, and then claimed my one was invalid! I'm sure it is not, the PC was bought from a reputable company.

I then tried to install the recently bought firewall/anti-virus, and it started this time, seemed to be going ok until right near the end when it showed something about a problem accessing some msi file, and then rolled back out again.

And to top it all, when I went to the MS update site it wouldn't run, so I no longer have SP2.

I'm beginning to wonder if a new drive and OS is not the easiest option. Doesn't seem fair though.