The problem is not on my PC, but my fiance's laptop.
First of all I have read many threads here that have similar problems. I can't get any of them to work. Many of them require d/ling this or that. So I d/l whatever it is I need and put it on a flash drive, but on my fiance's laptop I can't open the flash drive, I get an error. Can't remember exactly what it says atm.
I read that it could be a registry error caused by a virus. So I ran pc pitstop and Webroot anti virus and spy sweeper. PC pitstop didn't do anything but Webroot did find malware, got rid of it but the problem is still there. Ran Webroot again in safe mode but didn't find anything this time around.
Has this messed up her laptop so bad that I can't do anything but reformat? If that even helps it at all. And if it does come to that, can you save files from getting deleted like school work and pictures?
Re: Can't open My Computer, control panel my documents etc.
Honestly, that sounds like malware at work, or the result of malware at work. Is there a restore point that can be used to get the system to a date and time before the problem occurred? If you can't run anything or at least copy tools onto a USB key and ferry them over from another machine, you're left really with that or a repair install, unfortunately.
If you need to reinstall, you can access the system offline using a bootable PE environment (like BartPE or make a real WindowsPE environment using the WAIK tools) that can boot from a USB key or a bootable CD/DVD. These could offload files from the damaged windows install to a removable USB drive or another hard drive in the computer before installing Windows again.
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