Can't restore System Restore

Hi!

I'm trying to help a friend to fix his Compaq Presario desktop. It's running XP Home ed. There was a trojan or malware on it that I was able to get rid of, but now there is no System Restore on his machine. It's about 5 years old and he can't find the disks that came with the machine. The problem is that all the fixes I've come across to re-install SR need the correct disk that came with the machine. I have 3 copies of XP pro of my own, one with SP1, one with SP2, and the other with SP3. Is there some way I can use any of these to fix this problem, or some other work-around?

Thx

HP and Compaq Desktop PCs - Obtaining a Recovery CD or DVD set
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...reg_R1002_USEN

But what you are wanting to do may not work with the recovery cds. And no, yours will not work the way you want them to.

I would take a OEM cd to match, unless you want to install yours on his then uninstall it off of your machine.
Cheapest way, get the recovery cds and let them wipe his hdd and do a clean install.

Or purchase a OEM cd to match his OS.
Example:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...reg_R1002_USEN

Welcome to VirtualDr;)

FYI - most all manual removals of Trojans highly recommend you disable Windows System Restore since in all likelyhood, the trojan got backed up...

Martian King--There is a chance you can run SFC /SCANNOW from a command prompt without the OS CD's. Compaq may have put the necessary files on the hard drive in a file called I386. This is usually located in C:\ or C:\Windows and is around 500MB in size. Try it. You have nothing to lose. If you get a window with the option "Retry" click on that as many times as needed (within reason). You may may be able to force it to work.
If that does not work lots of ideas here. http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com...ng-xp-pro.html
You will have to separate the good from the bad. One solution that worked occurs near the end. (And use the second link for Erunt if you would like to try it.)
Another idea
http://windowsitpro.com/article/arti...not-start.html
If you can start System Restore from Services, you will not have to proceed any further.
And look into http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm , click on S and scroll to System Restore.