Another Child of Mine infects his laptop :(

[Tinkertron]

Hasn't even been 6 month and I'm pretty sure that my son friend has infected his PC. I've tried to do a factory reset on the laptop, but ran into what looks like either a boot issue or a partition issue with factory reset.

Windows 8.1 64bit
Asus Notebook
Model: X551CA

Went to Settings > Change PC settings > Update and recovery > Recovery > I choose to reinstall fully and the notebook restarts and takes me to a screen "Choose an option" gives me 4 option #1 Continue to Windows 8, #2 Use a device (USB, Network Connection, or Windows Recovery), #3 Troubleshoot, #4 Turn off you PC. I choose #3 Troubleshoot, then once there, give three option #1 - Refresh you PC, #2 - Reset your PC, #3 - Advanced options. I choose #2. Message comes back saying "Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing". So I go back to Option #3 - Advance option and then enter the Command Prompt and then uses the built in diskpart and list vol

Volume 0 - Ltr - D, Label - "BLANK", Fs - "BLANK", Type - DVD-ROM, Size - 0, Status - No Media, Info - "BLANK"
Volume 1 - Ltr - C, Label - OS, Fs - NTFS, Type - Partition, Size - 444GB, Status - Healthy, Info - Hidden
Volume 2 - Ltr - NONE, Label - SYSTEM, Fs - FAT32, Type - Partition, Size - 100MB, Status - Healthy, Info - Hidden
Volume 3 - Ltr - NONE, Label - RECOVERY, Fs - NTFS, Type - Partition, Size - 900MB, Status - Healthy, Info - Hidden
Volume 4 - Ltr - NONE, Label - "BLANK", Fs - NTFS, Type - Partition, Size - 450MB, Status - Healthy, Info - Hidden
Volume 5 - Ltr - NONE, Label - RESTORE, Fs - NTFS, Type - Partition, Size - 20GB, Status - Healthy, Info - Hidden

Now I know I am suppose to "LIST PART" (partition) but which Volume do I select to check if the boot manager has been infected? Or do I even need to re-create a boot manager?


I know my son computer was infected, and I was able to clean everything up with AVG, CCCleaner, Malwarebytes, and the MBAR from Malwarebytes, plus I had to uninstall several programs that I found were the culprit, and also had to uninstall Google Chrome since it was the only browser that had gotten infected. So everything looks good now, but I am still upset that the "Factory Restore" won't work if I ever need it.

I do have another option, but I think it will void the warrant on my system I do have another copy of Windows 8.1 that I bought for my other PC that I no longer use Windows 8.1 cause I never like the 8 version and went back to using Windows 7 on my other PC. If I am correct about voiding the support and warranty on this by doing this that I would have to run it across my wife, since this notebook is about less then 6 months old. Plus the benefit of freeing up alot more space and system perform would be a big plus too. What do you think?

[Tinkertron]

Another known much about this issue ""Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing" when it comes to do factory reset with Windows 8.1?

[fink]

I'm going to move this thread, at least temporarily, to the Windows 8 forum where others can provide answers since this is not specifically asking for help to disinfect it. yet.

[Train]

The C drive is hidden. Should be boot.

What mine shows.

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 C TI10668700I NTFS Partition 919 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 System NTFS Partition 1500 MB Healthy Hidden

[Midknyte]

Did you burn the recovery discs for that laptop? Those would be used to reinstall the OS if the hard drive fails. You could try using those instead of the recovery partition.

[Tinkertron]

Could "Volume 5 - Ltr - NONE, Label - RESTORE, Fs - NTFS, Type - Partition, Size - 20GB, Status - Healthy, Info - Hidden" boot be infected or corrupt, and that is why I am getting the "Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing"?

[Tinkertron]

I got the Notebook from Best Buy, do you think that this would be covered if I tell them that I try to factory reset the notebook and it doesn't work.

[Midknyte]

Highly doubtful. Warranty usually covers hardware problems, not software. Recovery is considered a software issue.

You didn't answer if you created the recovery discs or not. You'd boot from the recovery dvds, so it shouldn't look for a recovery partition.

[Tinkertron]

No I did not, but I will next time for sure. Can you suggest a step-by-step instruction here or somewhere online? Also any other software recommendation other if Windows as a built in one. Videos would be helpful. I know there are different kinds of system backup.

I also should mention the an desktop.ini icon keeps appearing on the desktop home screen

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183

[Midknyte]

For Asus, use the Backtracker app to create recovery discs:
http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008640/

The desktop.ini file will show if you uncheck "Hide protected operating system files" in Folder Options - View. Just recheck that to hide the desktop.ini.

[Train]

Possible help and it is something kids will do.
http://www.wikihow.com/Hide-and-Lock...My-Computer%22

[Tinkertron]

Train thanks for the Hide and Lock link, but how would this help me? I was wondering if there were some kinda "Password Download Blocker" of some kind. Any help?

[Train]

Well it showed that C:\ was hidden and unhidding it should be a good start.

Yes to the Password Download Blocker
https://www.google.com/search?q=Pass...utf-8&oe=utf-8

Just searched that myself and got a surprise.

[Tinkertron]

So I made a UBS Recovery, but when I boot to the USB and select the lang and location it ask what I want to do and, told it to do a full recovery, and it still give me the message "Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing". I'm think my only option is to wipe all partition and see what that does?

[Tinkertron]

Well it showed that C:\ was hidden and unhidding it should be a good start.

Yes to the Password Download Blocker
https://www.google.com/search?q=Pass...utf-8&oe=utf-8

Just searched that myself and got a surprise.

I looked and still don't see any Download blockers. I just see app blockers.