While searching the Web for "clip art"I came up with a web site which I remember said something about approved by parents or something. I clicked on it and immediately Norton's said that I was being attacked. Some virus was trying to attach itself. Well, I shut that off as quick as I could. That's when the "stuff" started happening. I would sign on AOL and start getting error messages stating "Iexplorer" ( the Gates Terror) was causing an error some where. It was getting so bad that it would fill up the memory and I would have to shut down and restart. ALL of this crap is labeled Internet Explorer or a pirated. Anyway, I called AOL. Got the new 9.0 with the spy ware, they told me to get Ad-ware which I did. Ad-Ware said I had over 300 spy programs in my puter! AOL said only like 6. (an I cant quarantine them due to error msg) I went into the search mode trying to find Iexplorer, I have eliminated most but it told me windows used it so I could not eliminate it. When it starts happening I do a Clr/Alt/Delete and single Iexplorer out and do away with it. BUT, oh yes, it keeps coming back only 4 or 5 times each session however. (8 to 10 times cuz it hits twice each time). Also a program Zbi5Ca55 which may be the carrier. Cant find it in a search. Now, AOL said I may have to reformat the hard drive. Well, I backed up everything. Three CDs worth. Last week I put in my HP Recovery disk to reformat the hard drive. oh yes, along with not letting me quarantine the spy ware, it will not let me reformat. I get to the page to start and it tells me, the process had been aborted, hard drive is not connected, or not initialized or cables loose. Now it works okay save for the fact it is very slow and shuts you off from time to time.. so the hard drive is working. The ONLY hard ware change I have made was I upgraded to 512 ram from 64. And I though I had reformatted after that but maybe not. What would you give as you best guess? I have tried every thing. I shut off Norton's and attempted to format and still the error message. I haven the recovery disk set for all programs. Exact error mesage: No Hard Drive The cables may be loose, or the disk may not be initiated.

You can NOT format the drive and erase everything on it while Windows is running from the disk drive. You have to boot from a Windows ME startup diskette and run the FORMAT C: from the DOS prompt of DOS. Normally system restore CD's that came with a system are bootable and you can boot from them and run their format or install procedure. Varies with system vendor and make/model. Check their documentation. But fixing a major infection like you have/had requires a lot of experience or things get messed up when you delete critical programs like Iexplorer.exe which are not part of the problem. You have to boot into Safe Mode, and use virus scans, Ad-Aware SE, Spybot S&D and online virus scans and trojan scan programs. And still they will not get all of the latest Malware. You are now in a position that you have no choice but to format and reinstall and set everything up again. Lessons. Keep your Windows ME updates installed, most threats like this get through because all the security fixes are not installed for IE. (AOL's browser runs on top of IE). You need IE 6.0 sp1 with the latest security fixes installed to be safe. You need a good and updated Anti-Virus program. Does not hurt to have a firewall, even with AOL. Programs like Spyware Blaster and others can help protect your system from attacks like this. All is not lost on your system yet. It might be possible to recover. First step would be to boot into Safe Mode, run MSCONFIG and in the Startup Tab, uncheck all items that are not required by Windows ME and your Modem and Anti-Virus and Firewall. Then rebooting into normal mode you can update the scan programs and keep trying to clean things out. Just remember, it is not IE causing the problems, but Malware programs using it. Also, unless you have the programs stopped from loading in the first place, they will just restore their selves as soon as you connect to the Internet. Windows Updates are critical for preventing this from happening. page

AOL 9.0 is loaded with spyware itself

JackG, and jam, Thankyou very much for the information. I am lost on this one. I have the a Windows ME startup diskette. When I boot from that is when I am told that I do not have a hard drive and to check the cables or the disk may not be initailized and the program aborts. I have run the spy ware from the AOL 9.0 as well as the ad-ware. They do not appear to be taking care of the bogus programs and that is why I attempted the hard drive reformat. The only hardware change I have made since the last time I reformated the hard drive was the addition of the new 512 SDRAM. Maybe that is the problem on the reformat program abort?? duno... Thx again, oldfuz

www.webroot.com is the author of SPYSWEEPER. They have a great little new utility on site that will scan your system for all the latest threats and they are GOOD. The best, in my opinion. If It picks it up, it can get rid of it.At least it will show you exactly what you got. But youll have to get the program to get rid of it. You never said if Updated Anti virus picks up anything.,,,, Lastly.. 90% of all spyware is located in windows temp running. Copy windows temp to another location ( the whole folder. Then delete your original and replace it with a newly made TEMP folder. REboot . Run AV and spyware scans again. ALso.. when you are booting to a start up disk..( having the format.exe ON it) do you go into an F5 boot? ( that gives you bare bones system running, no extras to get in the way ) A computer is a perfectionist's nightmare.