Got an odd problem going on.

Story goes like so. I have gradually been building up a PC with bits and bobs and last weekend I tried to install my copy of Win98 on the new HDD in the newly built machine. Cut a long story short, I had a bunch of compatability issues, and to test out the mobo I decided to take the HDD out of my machine (which runs win98), plug it into the new one and test it. Suffice to say, it didn't like it much and screwed my OS on the HDD.

It wouldn't let me reinstall properly for some reason so I ended up installing Win2000 Pro over the top of it so as to get it all working again.

Anyway, a few odd things have happened. For a start it won't, for some reason let me install AVG - goes thru the whole installation process then says it failed and says something about not being able to write "autoexec.bat" ???

And just now, it completely froze, and I had to reboot. When it booted up again it froze while starting up Spysweeper and wouldn't let me open any folders like Windows Explorer or IE - had to reboot again. It did this three or four times, I then left it switched off for half an hour. Got it to boot up and work again, but for some reason it has stopped liking Spysweeper and won't run it. So I wne to uninstall and it told me it couldn't as "SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILE SPECIFIED"

So I came on here to get Spybot, downloaded it, double clicked the set up icon and got the same message "CANNOT FIND THE FILE SPECIFIED"

So it won't let me uninstall or re-install spysweeper or Spybot. I did manage to download and run AdAware, found 55 critical's, 8 of which were something called "ALEXA" the rest were IEcache data miner's.

So why is it refusing to run or uninstall Spysweeper, refusing to install both AVG and Spybot?

I am worried something has got in and is stopping me from doing this stuff???

Any idea's?

Here's the Adaware item logfile BTW if it's anyhelp;

ArchiveData(auto-quarantine- 2005-06-09 23-58-03.bckp)
Referencefile : SE1R49 31.05.2005
================================================== ====

ALEXA
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[0]=Regkey : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a}
obj[1]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "MenuStatusBar"
obj[2]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "Script"
obj[3]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "clsid"
obj[4]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "Icon"
obj[5]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "HotIcon"
obj[6]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "ButtonText"
obj[7]=RegValue : S-1-5-21-299502267-842925246-1060284298-1000\software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\cmdmapping "{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a}"

TRACKING COOKIE
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[8]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@counter13.sextracker.com/
obj[9]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@casalemedia.com/
obj[10]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@jmbugo.cjt1.net/HTM/693/0
obj[11]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@mediaplex.com/
obj[12]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@serving-sys.com/
obj[13]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@advertising.com/
obj[14]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@z1.adserver.com/
obj[15]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@apmebf.com/
obj[16]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@ehg-oreilly.hitbox.com/
obj[17]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@doubleclick.net/
obj[18]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@fastclick.net/
obj[19]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@server.iad.liveperson.net/
obj[20]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@sextracker.com/
obj[21]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@bs.serving-sys.com/
obj[22]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@adserver.adreactor.com/
obj[23]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@valueclick.com/
obj[24]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@questionmarket.com/
obj[25]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@bluestreak.com/
obj[26]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@servedby.advertising.com/
obj[27]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@cs.sexcounter.com/
obj[28]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin
obj[29]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@edge.ru4.com/
obj[30]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@tribalfusion.com/
obj[31]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@statse.webtrendslive.com/
obj[32]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@atdmt.com/
obj[33]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@ehg-bbc.hitbox.com/
obj[34]=IECache Entry : Cookie:matt cowan@hitbox.com/
obj[35]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@adserver1.cdcovers[2].txt
obj[36]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@advertising[2].txt
obj[37]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@apmebf[1].txt
obj[38]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@atdmt[2].txt
obj[39]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@bluestreak[1].txt
obj[40]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@casalemedia[1].txt
obj[41]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@cgi-bin[1].txt
obj[42]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@cgi-bin[2].txt
obj[43]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@doubleclick[1].txt
obj[44]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@ehg-autotrader.hitbox[1].txt
obj[45]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@fastclick[2].txt
obj[46]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@hitbox[1].txt
obj[47]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@list[1].txt
obj[48]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@mediaplex[1].txt
obj[49]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@qsrch[1].txt
obj[50]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@servedby.advertising[1].txt
obj[51]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@statcounter[1].txt
obj[52]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@trafic[1].txt
obj[53]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@tribalfusion[2].txt
obj[54]=IECache Entry : C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\matt cowan@ww3.shoshkeles[2].txt

See if you can run HiJack This:

http://www.isecurity.org.uk/downloads/hijackthis.zip

If you can then post the log in a new thread in the HiJack This section:

http://www.d-a-l.com/help/forumdisplay.php?f=8

I can run it, so gonna go post a log there. Thanks!

see if you can format it and then do a clean install

autoexec.bat is a system file. That migh have caused the problem, but i don't think so. But have you checked the specs of all the Anti-Virus software?

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