Sounds like the virus had infected the start up files, and Avira has removed them. You may need to install the OS again, or do the repair selection on the CD. What OS are you running?

The CD with the OS should be able to initialize it and allow you to format the disk and start over - by far the safer and more trouble free procedure. You may be required to press "F8" or another key to allow it to look for the CD drive for startup, or even enter the BIOS to specify the CD drive as the primary source for boot up. Good luck, my sincere condolences. After years of dealing with windows since windows 3.11 for workgroups and up to XP, I gave up with all that stuff. I still have a good and reliable 4 years-old Dell Laptop Vostro 1000 which will be used until it is able to support itself, but at home I finally was able to install a mac mini in the place I had a Frankenstein running that had recently passed away by multiple organs failure. My next laptop will also be running OSX or newer, no doubts about it.

I entered setup and selected the CD/DVD (XP OS) for boot up but when I saved and exited, the system went through the boot up via the CD and then did the same thing - it said logging off, saving settings and then rebotted again, same as before.

Also, I ran the diagnostic test and it identified that the hard drive was missing or blank. I think the hard drive got smoked.

It is possible that you do in fact have a hard drive failure. All you can do is to go through a process of elimination until you uncover the real problem.

A few things you might try regarding the drive. If you have a compatible spare drive, swap it in and see what this gets you. Or, if you have a compatible external drive housing, you might try placing the drive in that to see if another machine can read it. You could also try swapping the drive into another machine. Also, check your BIOS settings to make certain something hasn't gotten screwed up there, and try setting it back to "Default".

One thing you may have to consider is that the laptop itself may be dying. It is a budget laptop and about 4 years old, which is really about how long such things live.

Windows restarts correction

http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&q=restarts

One thing that computer users don't like thinking or talking about is "rootkit" viruses. If you picked up a rootkit virus, it has the capability of outsmarting the best anti-virus software. Furthermore, certain rootkit viruses are designed to even rewrite the BIOS!

If (not saying it is) you picked up a nasty rootkit virus, they're a real bitch to get rid of, and may require professional help.

Just a suggestion--good luck.

avira capability includes eradication of root-kits, GMER is also very effective...

Switch off the system, either by Off/On button or by removing the battery. Then restore the battery, switch ON the system and consistently or intermittently press down the F8 button until it starts in safe mode. When you are in this mode. Do a system restore. If this doesn't work, then it means that you have a missing application and this means that you have to re-format the system

You forgot to say if you still have data that you need to save or not.

If yes, get hold of one of those free Linux bootable CDs like Knoppix and save your data from your hard disk.

Then you must do a full format, preferably in another format than it was before (to make sure that the rootkit/virus cannot outlive the format.

You will need a USB hard disk (formatted to FAT32 if I remeber correctly) to save the data to or a big USB stick.....

A USB Floppy drive will allow a format from a DOS Floppy to be made and then do a reinstall from the CD, or use the Linux CD to do that before reinstalling windows.....

Power the PC off and then on again before booting in Linux, so that no viruses can live on in memory.

Joe:

In addition to the possible virus infection, you may have a failing system battery. This is installed on the motherboard and provides the power that maintains ROM. Usually you will get a "low battery' warning but you may have missed it.

I trust that you have backed up your data. Without a lot of headaches and time lost I'm recommending the following: 1. Sign onto eBay and buy a piece of software entitled something like Boot Recovery CD. This will allow you to get your laptop up and running without your Operating System (OS). 2. You should have a c:> or something similar on the screen; if so, type format C: /u and then enter. 3. Next restart your computer with the Dell recovery disk and your problem should be solved. Please install the free version of AVG. You can download it at www.cnet.com.

Good answer sir! Especially the part about getting AVG Free. Without a doubt the best free anti-nastyware program out there.

What you say is certainly true, but remember the old English saying "You pays your money and you get what you pay for!" For antivirus alone its quite good and that is that!!

It needs at least a hardware firewall (in your DSL Router or WLAN if activated) and a software firewall.

This software came last recently in a test here in Germany as it was missing certain "packages" that good antivirus software has.

For example no Firewall, no anti rootkit, no anti malware and a few other things...

May I recommend "Buying" Kasperky 2010 which has all these things built in and is not expensive in comparison to the data and repair time losses you can get when you do not use a good program....

I have no contact with the firm except that for over 3 years I have used it with no problems....even viruses in .zip and other pak files were found....

I appreciate all the great feedback from everyone. As time permits I will be trying the various tests and remedies.

Thanks to all.

Thank you...and when a remedy is found please let us know