Help removing Smitfraud-C

Antivurus program to start perhaps. If "noskrnl" was corrupted you may need to replace it after removing the nasties. Did I read correctly that you have no Service Packs installed? Is your Windows not updated? Do you have an antivirus program?

No, we do not have any SP's or Antivirus programs. When SP1 came out I missed the opp. to download it, with all the talk about how it messed things up. When SP2 came out my drive was too full to DL it. I bought what I thought was a 60gig HD, but actually has 1gig on drive C and 59gigs on drive D. C is almost full after 6 years and D is still empty. I suppose I need to move some programs and files to the D drive, only I do not know what to move and what not to move. We have managed to stay virus free for 6 years with the free DL of ZoneAlarm and Spybot S&D. My lovely wife left for work the other day and forgot to lock the ZA and BAM BAM we got nailed by all sorts of goodies. Spybot has removed all that it found except the Smitfraud-c and it did not find anything about noskrnl. I only know about it because the ZA asked if noskrnl.exe could access the net, I said no. We only use this PC to email, some local games and a net search via google now and then. I believe it is worth keeping. If i could get rid of these two boogers and get my C and D drives right I would get an Antivirus program and actually use the thing.

That doesn't make sense. You can't install XP on 1 gig. Even if your OS is on drive D and drive C is a partition for backup installation D should not show as empty. Either way considering your partition issues and the fact you've been running unprotected for 6 years the easiest solution seems obvious. Back up your data and format. Reinstall Windows and choose your partition choices wisely. Then immediately install ALL critical Windows updates. Followed by security software properly configured. A firewall is not nearly enough but a good start. I can almost garauntee you have a lot more issues that you don't know about. You can take the long road, wich is what I usually do, but you'll need to be willing to take an extreme amount of time most likely after this long. If you know how. No Windows updates + No antivirus + No active antispyware blocker + Unsecure IE settings + 6 years running as such + Partioning issues or drive space issues= Reinstall is your best option. I'm not trying to sound mean or judgemental. I'm just saying what I would do under the circumstances.

I do not think you are being judgemental at all. Thank you for even responding. For the most part I am ignorant of how all this works. If I am going to use this machine, then I would like to do it right. Question is how much time and money? Would it not be better to just buy a new PC. No Data on this one is too important that I could not live without. I use my PC at work for all the important stuff. Which of course is protected through the IT department. When I tried to DL SP2 and it said I did not enough drive space I was confused. I found out about the 'partitioned' HD and I was a little upset and just did not know what to do at that point. I am just the average Joe buying a computer and this is what the sellsman offers "a 60gig HD", he never mention it had two sections and most important the main drive was 1gig the secondary was the big section. All preloaded programs as well as the OS were loaded on the C drive. As you know every program you install creates a file in the C drive as a default. Since I did not knowing about the partition, I did not create these files on the D drive. My bad. I knew I had the other drives but I 'assumed' they were all soft storage. Should I hire a local? I can follow your instruction and maybe learn a little along the way. Question is do you want to go through the trouble of explaining it to me? I see my options as: 1) bye a new PC 2) hire a local PC Doctor 3) follow your instructions to fix this PC The machine is still good for what we use it for, which is not much. However, in the 'near' future I will be retired and will be using the home PC for alot more. Thanks Robert

Reinstalling is quite easy. Just insert the recovery cd and follow the prompts. No need to buy a new computer. I don't know if your model shipped with the recovery cd's. I'm not that familiar with Sony. I know that these days you have to create them. Look for "recovery tool" on your computer. If that's not an option for your model contact Sony if you don't have them. What is the model number of your VAIO? Keep in mind you should backup your data and you will need your Windows key usually located on a sticker on the back. Afterwards you will need to reactivate Windows if you chose not to at the time of installation. Hope to hear back from you soon.

I will try to get started on this tonight. I am sure I will have a question or two. I do not have any recovery disks. Maybe a recovery tool. I will post the model number when I get home. Thank You.