[Bobboau]

http://mirror.hosef.org/ubuntu-releases//maverick/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-amd64.iso

to help fight laziness, here is a direct to the disk (I'm making the assumption that you have a 64 bit processor), just download, burn it to a cd, put it in your cd drive and turn on the computer, assuming your bios is set to boot from cd it will give the hard drive little more than a passing glance during the boot process, just enough to know it is there. once it boots up just use the file manager to get to your files. then you won't have to worry about losing anything.

[Herra Tohtori]

You should try if you can bring up Windows boot menu and select Safe Mode from the list. If you can't even boot up to Safe Mode, then yeah, putting a Linux LiveCD in the computer will definitely allow you to access the files on the hard drive. If you can boot into Safe Mode, there's still hope of being able to recover the Windows installation into a functional state, but you should be wary of dormant infected stuff on the HDD.

Here is some information on this particular bugger:

http://www.precisesecurity.com/rogue/hdd-tools/

If you can't recover the Windows installation, you're stuck with reformatting the hard disk drive and re-installing Windows on it afterwards. As a precautionary measure, you should transfer important files to an external HDD or usb stick, then run a virus check on those files to see if any of them are infected. Then reformat the hard disk drive completely (including the system restore partition), and re-install Windows on the clean disk.

If you don't have Windows install disks, you should be able to get them from your system's manufacturer.

[Bobboau]

lately (last year or two) manufacturers have been refusing to provide install disks, they just tell you to run the 'restore disk utility' that as far as i can tell burns an install disk once. but if you don't do this ahead of time you have to buy a new license (funny how that works out).

I know, I was shocked pissed too.

[S-99]

I hate that not providing the reinstall disc crap today. It's purely ****.

[Mars]

Can't you legally download a copy of windows and use the key attached to your case?

[Herra Tohtori]

Can't you legally download a copy of windows and use the key attached to your case?

I'm not a lawyer, but as a rule of thumb I'd say such distribution (if unauthorized) is almost certainly illegal, and if you partake in distribution while downloading (which happens in almost all p2p networks such as torrents by definition), it definitely isn't legal.

So, legally you are at best in gray area or directly outside law, depending on your local laws.

Morally and ethically? Microsoft couldn't give less of a damn where you get the install media for your OS, as long as it matches the (legally acquired) lisence you have. And considering how most software corporations claim you don't buy the software but the lisence to use it, I'd guess you could just as well contant MS directly about acquiring install media and activating with the old PC case's credentials.

Or you could contact your manufacturer before deciding they won't provide the disks anyway. Who knows, there might be some companies where use of healthy common sense is not forbidden. If you explain the situation - that the restore partition has been compromised - they may or may not send you the OS installation disks. If they say you should have made a back-up re-installation disk, just tell them you did but the disk's data integrity has decayed (optical storage media can do that very plausibly).

Then, if they absolutely refuse to send you the Os installation disks, you could contact some consumer protection agency or what have you. Bad publicity would almost certainly be more harmful to the company than sending you the install media...

[S-99]

Look for whatever brand of os reinstall disc may be out there. The only thing that you pay for when you use windows is the install key. I gather this because the install disc is useless without it; hence the install disc is worth whatever pennies it cost to manufacture.

[Nuke]

Can't you legally download a copy of windows and use the key attached to your case?

I'm not a lawyer, but as a rule of thumb I'd say such distribution (if unauthorized) is almost certainly illegal, and if you partake in distribution while downloading (which happens in almost all p2p networks such as torrents by definition), it definitely isn't legal.

So, legally you are at best in gray area or directly outside law, depending on your local laws.

Morally and ethically? Microsoft couldn't give less of a damn where you get the install media for your OS, as long as it matches the (legally acquired) lisence you have. And considering how most software corporations claim you don't buy the software but the lisence to use it, I'd guess you could just as well contant MS directly about acquiring install media and activating with the old PC case's credentials.

Or you could contact your manufacturer before deciding they won't provide the disks anyway. Who knows, there might be some companies where use of healthy common sense is not forbidden. If you explain the situation - that the restore partition has been compromised - they may or may not send you the OS installation disks. If they say you should have made a back-up re-installation disk, just tell them you did but the disk's data integrity has decayed (optical storage media can do that very plausibly).

Then, if they absolutely refuse to send you the Os installation disks, you could contact some consumer protection agency or what have you. Bad publicity would almost certainly be more harmful to the company than sending you the install media...

from what i remember from my system building days was that the oem sticker is essentially a valid license (provided the cd key wans't used on any other system). you could still obtain the media through legal means and legally install it. i think microsoft will send you a media disk (at a nominal fee of course) if it appears that the key is still good.

i personally wouldn't bother, and just torrent an un-modded iso. there is really no point to download an un-modded iso if you wanted to pirate the os, there are plenty of hacked isos that are much easier to get working without a key and disable activation for you. by downloading an un-modded iso, your'e not really circumventing copy protection, because that is done through activation and update services, not through the media itself. in that case i would consider it a matter of fair use.

[NeonShivan]

All are good ideas but you are clearly missing the point. I cant access my own damn desktop as its stuck on Bios. Plus Im typing from a work computer, cant afford to get this infected, another thing, its not for gaming at all.

[General Battuta]

All are good ideas but you are clearly missing the point. I cant access my own damn desktop as its stuck on Bios. Plus Im typing from a work computer, cant afford to get this infected, another thing, its not for gaming at all.

Then use a Linux LiveCD, you'll be able to access your own desktop from BIOS!

[Sololop]

When my PC got b0rked the other day, I was unable to boot to a recovery disk. (Would not recognize it as a boot disk. I just burned the .ISO I got from someone on our IRC [dssocks or something?] to a DVD-R) Though, still give it a try. But apparently sometimes it can't do the job either.

[newman]

When my PC got b0rked the other day, I was unable to boot to a recovery disk. (Would not recognize it as a boot disk. I just burned the .ISO I got from someone on our IRC [dssocks or something?] to a DVD-R) Though, still give it a try. But apparently sometimes it can't do the job either.

You may need to use the option to burn it as a bootable disk, then.

[S-99]

All are good ideas but you are clearly missing the point. I cant access my own damn desktop as its stuck on Bios. Plus Im typing from a work computer, cant afford to get this infected, another thing, its not for gaming at all.

I don't think it would hurt to check your boot device order, and possibly be more descriptive (if you weren't already) about what the POST screen says.

[Bobboau]

and you might need to burn it to an actual cd, not a dvd.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Yea some systems won't boot DVDs.  Heck some won't boot CD-RW's or even the 700meg CD's.  Need a good old standard CD-R just to be sure.

[S-99]

and you might need to burn it to an actual cd, not a dvd.

I've been gone too long. Burning a linux livecd intended for a cdr can be burned onto a dvdr and still work. I found this out a couple of months ago when one of my retarded friends tried it for ****s and giggles (he actually is retarded, but his idea worked...he's slow, but smart).

Sololop's problem is with the bios since he can't get past it. If you (sololop) can access the bios, restore it to default settings and see if you're good to go.

[Bobboau]

it might work, but is more likely to not work when compared to burning to cd-r

[S-99]

Always more preferred to use the proper media concerning cd/dvd images. Me and my friend more or less took a shot on this situation and were pleasantly surprised.

For the might work...well, it does work. Try burning a live media image intended for a cd to a dvd-r sometime yourself and test it out. It might not work for all live media images intended for a cd-r, but the only thing i see that judges whether or not a livecd image is intended for a dvd or cd is based on the size of the image and nothing else. I wouldn't be surprised to see some distros that wouldn't like it, but i did get away doing this with mepis, mint, and pclinuxos. I can only assume taking a shot in the dark with a random distro live media image intended for a cd-r would work with a dvd-r (i do have good confidence that it would). Plz don't forget about the flexibility of the modern day live media; you can take a live media image intended for cd or dvd onto a thumb drive of appropriate capacity and boot from there.

EDIT: It'd be nice if sololop and BTA could get in here and show some kind of confirmation of what they did to get there stuff working if they did get their stuff working again. But, sololop and BTA haven't offered very good descriptions and wouldn't take some great advice. So, that's probably why they didn't report back.

[jr2]

If you can't boot from a CD or DVD, use PLoP.  ( http://plop.at ) - put it on a floppy, then tell PLoP you want to boot from CD.  This also works to boot to USB etc. (you can make a CD of PLoP as well).

Oh, and if you're getting a Linux LiveCD, my personal favorite ATM is Linux Mint (based off of Ubuntu).

[S-99]

Linux mint will work with a tool called remastersys so you can make you're own respin of an ubuntu or debian based distro. Very handy, you might like it. I made a respin with a lot of added programs and memory optimization (removing mono frees up 80mb of ram). Ypu might have fun with  it.