right, I cant get to any of this. The virus has wiped out all those menus and hidden the files. The Gateway Recovery Center says "empty".

I need to format and install from the COMMAND PROMPT.

Just so you know what happens when I press F8 and I click on "REPAIR YOUR COMPUTER" it then loads into a screen that asks for a USERNAME and a PASSWORD. I leave it blank and I try all kinds of names and passwords and it never goes forward.

Here is the procedure I used on my Gateway - ages ago. LOL


1. Copy all your own files and folders to an external storage(Disc, USB stick even SD card)
2. Shut the PC off
3. Turn the PC back on and keep hitting the F8 key repeatedly until the Advanced Boot Option Screen appears
4. Click "Repair Your Computer" –if you are not already on it, use the up and down arrows to maneuver to it and then press ENTER
5. Next you have to pick your country and click OK
6. On the "System Recovery Options Screen" click "RestoreApplication" (last option)
7. Follow the on-screen instructions
8. When prompted, click on "Full Factory Recovery"
9. Click "Next"
10. Click "Yes"
11. Go and have a cup of coffee - don't touch anything - for a while it seemslike nothing is happening
12. After many minutes, recovery will complete and you click "Finish"

OK, let me try that Bleeping Computer Uninstall. I hope that works! thanks and i'll keep you posted as to what happens!

WHS,

I've tried that. When I get to your STEP 4 of click "REPAIR COMPUTER" and I do that. The next screen of selecting your country or even the recovery center part doesn't show up.

The next screen that shows up is a screen asking for USERNAME and PASSWORD and it never lets you go past that. Thanks for replying though!

ok, so here is where i'm at.

I ran everything. MALAWARE seemed to have found stuff and removed things.

I even executed that "unhide" program and now files are back on the desktop.

However, the "system check" shortcut is still on the desktop and also on the lower left taskbar. It doesn't seem that it's running but it's still there.

However, in the start menu, when you go to Programs, most of the folders say "(empty)" and I need to get to the Gateway REcovery Folder.

So now I have access to the computer, but I need to find that recovery folder. I even did a search for it and I can't find it on the computer. I also went to the "temp" folders where the instructions say it could be and it's not there.

So do you know how to run that Partition REcovery Drive from where i'm at right now? Still seems I need to format everything and run that Partition recovery drive somehow. Thanks!

The only step I didn't do was running RKILL because I was able to rename the system check exe files to generic names and it stopped running. From that point, I ran, Malware, TDSSkiller, Unhide.exe and I even ran the try and restore start menu .exe in the unhide section.

So now at least my computer is running and I can see the desktop and the virus seems to have stopped. but my folders show (empty) in the Start Menu still.