So here's my problem, and I'm sure it's a virus.

I have windows XP, and I can't even log in. I click my username and type in my password, it goes to my wallpaper for a second (sometimes it wont even go to my wallpaper) and then it immediately logs it out. I tried logging in on safe mode and with both my account and the administrator account and still I have the same problem.

I'm sure it's a virus because just yesterday I thought my cousin downloaded something sketchy, so I ran Malwarebytes anti-malware and it came up with a bunch of viruses, some of them it could not delete and said it would delete them upon restart. I restart and it won't delete the files, in fact my computer won't even start up past the log in screen, I log in and see my wallpaper and it just hangs there indefinitely until I turn off the computer, and the 2nd time it will log in. I went into safe mode and ran the scan again and this time the same thing came up with it needing to restart to delete the files, so I also ran McAfee virus scan and it picked up the files and quarantined them. I restarted and bam I have the problem that I first described above where I cannot even log in now.

I've done research on this subject and found these instructions:

I can get into the recovery console just fine from booting from my XP cd and can navigate to the system32 folder (even though for some reason it's on D:\ all of a sudden when windows has always been on C:\) but when I type 'copy userinit.exe wsaupdater.exe' it says that it cannot find the file. I did a dir and browsed through and couldn't find either userinit.exe or wsaupdater.exe in the folder. I also tried rebooting from last known good configuration in the safe mode menu and that didn't work either.

I need help, I really don't want to reformat! Does anyone know what I can do?

Hello and welcome to PCHelpForum.

I have marked your thread as "Open" to receive advice and help from our Tech Team and helpfull members.

JB.

First step: In Recovery Console type:

chkdsk /r (with the space)(enter)

Do you have an XP CD?

Yes I have an XP CD. I also have an update on my situation, I created a bartPE boot cd and did a virus scan, it detected and deleted some trojans but it didn't fix the problem. I'm currently at work but my computer at home is running a checkdisk right now.

Ok, I ran a checkdisk and I still have the problem... any other suggestions?

Once this has been resolved from a technical support standpoint (i.e. getting past the boot screen) if a complete reformat has not been done we will need to clean out the remaining viruses.

The problem is getting past the boot screen though. If I get past that I just gotta run a virus scan right? It's weird though that doing the virus scan with the bartpe bootdisk didn't get the virus that's causing this although I did get other ones.