winlogon.exe has terminated HELP!

[buttroast98]

I had some viruses on my laptop, so I bought Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus. I ran a few full scans and got rid of most of it. However, it quarantined several important Windows services, and then when I rebooted, it no longer booted up. Before it gets to the logon screen, I get the following blue screen...

STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000034 (0x00000000 0x00000000).
The system has been shut down.

I have tried every safe mode method of booting up with no success. I do not have the Administrator password for the laptop, and I do not have the Xp setup CD. I have business critical files on the machine and I desperately need to get to them. In over a week, PC Tools has only responded once to the ticket I logged with them. It was a generic safe mode / reinstall message and they have not helped since. I am extremely dissapointed in their lack of support. PLEASE HELP!!!!

Many thanks! Jeremy

[AChen]

Could you try the following:

Last Known Good Configuration
1.Restart the computer.
2.Press F8 when you receive the following message:
Please select the operating system to start
3.In Windows Advanced Option Menu, use the arrow keys to select Last Known Good Configuration, and then press ENTER.

[buttroast98]

From my first post..."I have tried every safe mode method of booting up with no success". That includes Last Known Good Configuration, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Everything ends up crashing before the login screen appears. Everything gives the same error message that I mentioned in my first post.

If I am unable to boot, I don't know how I would be able to run any analyzing tools either.

Last night I purchased a hard drive enclosure and got my critical files off of the laptop hard drive.

[The PIT]

Paying the price for not having a backup. There always a risk when cleaning an infected machine up that it won't boot afterwards.

Since you got the hard drive out you maybe able to do a manual restore and windows may look for the correct files during boot rather than the infected ones.

Anyway you've learnt a lesson about backing up without losing your data. Most learn after they lost there data. Since they were critical I'd have thought you were backing them up in the first place.

A good backup program is Acronis true image doesn't cost much and all you need is another drive to go with your caddy.

[buttroast98]

yes i am aware of the importance of backups. i had a nice backup saved off for my 3 years worth of quick books data, and i was able to get business critical files i needed off of my laptop hard drive using the external hard drive enclosure. it is just frustrating to log a support ticket and after a week i have only received 2 generic responses from PC Tools. Had they fully read my posts, they would've realized that both of their responses did not help. I am looking to get my money back on this software. First it killed my laptop, second, the ticket support is very lacking.

[Gambit]

If you removed some important Windows files, the only way to fix this is to do a Windows repair. Theres not much support can do, because you removed these files. Always be careful when you want to delete items from the quarantine and if your not sure, do a check first.

[The PIT]

Sounds like you also need to buy an Windows XP disk.

The software didn't kill your laptop rather your lack of security did. You broke the machine by not keeping it up to date fully. Going to not ideal websites and downloading and opening attachments that you shouldn't have. Not keeping a proper backup. Using peer to peer etc.

No good blamer others for you own lax behaviour practise safe hex in future.

To get your admin password you can use a tool called ohpcrack which will show all the passwords and accounts on the machine.