Hard to describe.. I will try..
Here is what happened and then my thoughts.. would appreciate any advice you might have.. not sure if there is a hard disk failure or a worm ,, maybe both..
Upon reboot, I get the message
"error in explorer.exe
reinstall windows."

Several days prior a worm got past Norton Virus scans.. Norton identified it, failed to delete it, unable to quarantine it, and it was saved in what I THINK it said was windows\temp folder... The name of the worm is (i wrote it down)..
W32netsky.pmmlenc

First thing i did was a file search on c:.. nothing showed up searching w32.. or searching the exact file as written above.. strange.. norton said it WAS there...

I then updated my virus definitions (I was only 2 days old ) and ran a full system scan. Nothing detected ... I thought.. ok... i am safe.. and maybe i was.. maybe this is a hard disk failure..

THEN the
explorer.exe error occurred
stating to reinstall windows..

I cannot get to safe mode either,, same message..

Well, i do not have a cd with windows ME on it since i purchased the computer as a used one from a friend.. so do not know how i can reinstall it..

so,, thinking it might be fixable.. i booted up the ME emergency start disk.. have run thru, scanreg, did a restore back in time, and ran scandisk.. I also went to c:\windows\temp directory scanned the files ,, found three temp files that were dated the day the worm wnet thru the virus scanner and i erased those files... (they did not say w32 on them)...

then trying to boot up from DOS,, I cd\windows and type WIN... and it trys to boot .. the error message here, is
something about

"when using system mgr encountered a missing ifshlp.sys file... system halted"

SO,, i went into extract and extracted IFSHLP.sys installing it in c:\windows ..
then rebooted using start up disk.. closed the help file.. went to windows directory ,, typed WIN.. and oooops same message as before... also,, after extracting the ifshlp.sys file i tried regular boot up and same message there..
"failure in explorer.exe
reinstall windows"

QUESTIONS
1) I have other software on this c: , adobe, printshop, norton system works.. hate to lose them .. is there anyother fixes anyone can think of .. short of purchasing a new windows and reinstalling??

2) if i HAVE to purchase a new windows software pkg.. and install it .. will i lose my other software that is now resident upon my c:... ??

3) Could I purchase Norton Ghost and clone the c:,,, first to a new hard drive.. THEN load a new windows package... ??

4) I have a D: in this particular computer.. can i somehow clone the software I want to save to that drive.. ,, purchase a new hard drive,, install say windows XP... then clone the software from d: to c:.. or leave it on d: .. if it works there,, i do not care..

5)I intend to purchase a new computer anyway but would like to save this one and have it as a backup... reason being my business is mostly internet and cannot afford to be down much more than 24 to 48 hours...

well seems a long story.. and it is..
one more thing,,, the hard drive (c:) has been sticking ,,, the head,, and i have been having to bump it to free it up and cause it to start.. up... so maybe it is just tired.. of all that and gave up.. i just do not want to clone a virus onto a new drive. and would LIKE to try to get this system up and running and wait two weeks or so to get a new computer...

My kind regards..
mike

W32netsky is the name of the virus and the rest is the version. That is NOT the name of any files that might be part of it or infected by it.

Boot from diskette again and run SCANDISK C: again and let it scan the whole drive to check for errors. This may take awhile to run, and correct any errors.

Then go to the C:\Windows\TEMP folder and delete all files and folders there. Then delete the C:\_RESTORE folder. You can use the following commands to do this:

deltree C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*
deltree C:\_RESTORE

Then go to the C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\INSTALL folder (Change Directory (CD) to it and make it active). Then run the SETUP program there. You may need to have the "ProductKey" code for your copy of Windows ME. You can get it by running
EDIT C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT and using the SEARCH - FIND command to find the keyword "ProductKey". It will be the 25 character code that follows. Write it down carefully. Then restart SETUP.

This will re install Windows ME. (Hopefully the virus will not still be active.) As soon as you can, try starting your AV program and do a full scan.

Next, Repair IE.

To REPAIR IE 6.0, go to Control Panel, Add/Remove icon, and select (highlight) the entry for "Microsoft Internet Explorer ... and Internet Tools" and then click the Add/Remove button at the bottom of the window. On the options window, select the "Repair Internet Explorer" option and click OK. When it is done reboot the system.

Backup and critical files to your other drive if not done already.

Now you will have to go to the Windows Update site and do all of the Windows Security and problem fixes again.

Be sure to update and scan system with Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D and do several online AV scans and Trojan scans as well. (See header Homepage link.)

Thanks Jack..

I have printed your response and will take some quiet time to study it and take action. Hopefully yet today... I feel honered to hear from such a knowledgable person as you.. thanks.. will keep ya posted.. right here..

mike

Up and running now,, Jack..

Just need to figure out how to initiate the AV software again,.. It is not responding..

thanks so much..

mike