First AVG scan killed my Windows - sidney.sys ,rootkit hook

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8

OK Kevin, For your own info have you actually 'googled' sidney.sys?.
AVG Guru

7

Hi kevin,
You can try refer to this article.
Thanks

6

Thanks - that sounds like a good answer and I would have tried that. I am sorted now. I pulled out my HD, and copied data files and docs&settings out to ext hd. Then used the hp windows recover to get windows xp back to original state. That was pre-SP1 and of course no Win updates. Firefox etc. won't run on pre-SP2, and IE was only IE6. Couldn't find SP2 anywhere online, but a work colleague had SP3 on a portable drive. I applied that, then 1 win update, then 140 win updates, and seems ok now. Now using Microsoft frewall and Avast AV, OpenOffice as lost Office Install. So current state Ok, and I really will get round to ordering a new PC. Giving up on AVG after that initial bad experience, even if it probably was self-inflicted to some extent. Thanks for the advice. I will be more careful and prepared next time!

1

I uninstalled Kaspersky after leaving Barclays.
Installed AVG Anti-virus Free fine, and ran a full scan. I'm running XP.
That showed about 4 dialer issues in old dialup installs, and 2 rootkit hook issues with driver sidney.sys. I probably didn't read the linked info carefully enough, but selected the remove option.
It said Ok, then prompted for restart.
Windows now will not start, not even in Safe mode. I can get to the recovery console and view directories etc., I have an option to restore Windows to original losing all installed applications, but don't really want to do that.

Any suggestions on how to get Windows back, or as much as possible would be greatly appreciated.

2

Thanks - that sounds like a good answer and I would have tried that. I am sorted now. I pulled out my HD, and copied data files and docs&settings out to ext hd. Then used the hp windows recover to get windows xp back to original state. That was pre-SP1 and of course no Win updates. Firefox etc. won't run on pre-SP2, and IE was only IE6. Couldn't find SP2 anywhere online, but a work colleague had SP3 on a portable drive. I applied that, then 1 win update, then 140 win updates, and seems ok now. Now using Microsoft frewall and Avast AV, OpenOffice as lost Office Install. So current state Ok, and I really will get round to ordering a new PC. Giving up on AVG after that initial bad experience, even if it probably was self-inflicted to some extent. Thanks for the advice. I will be more careful and prepared next time!

4

Hi kevin,
You can try refer to this article.
Thanks

3

Kevin, Have a look @ this article (https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?urlname=Disabling-AVG-when-Windows-cannot-start).
AVG Guru

5

OK Kevin, For your own info have you actually 'googled' sidney.sys?.
AVG Guru