Frequent BSOD and return of virus contained in HP_Recovery partition D

[fredvau]

Purchased late August 2016. Came installed with Windows 7 Pro + installation/repair disk and driver disk and a similar set to upgrade to Windows 10. Upgraded to Microsoft free Windows 10 issue but had numerous errors, lock-ups and BSOD and downgraded back to Win 7 Pro. Had problems with downgrade with numerous system files not returned from W10 and restored W 7 from an image taken prior to upgrade. Since then system name is Windows 7 Professional 64 bit (recovered). Updates are direct from AMD and Intel as HP issues updates causing BSOD and having to revert to previous drivers.

Running SFC finds nothing wrong and often restart gives screen that HP will start repair.

There was an update regarding Conexant which was installed but after a repair the virus is back in drive C. A full scan with MSE shows that the virus is locked within the Recovery partition and each time puts it back onto drive C.

Tried doing a repair install with the original Operating System DVD supplied by HP and selecting doing an Upgrade install - so that I do not lose programs and files - gives message that the disk is not compatible with the version currently installed.

There is a page by HP which advises to re-install and then run a system image to restore everything but that would most likely again re-install that virus MonitoringTool:Win32/MicTray/Debug.

Of late Windows Backup does not run with System Image included and can only do a seperate backup followed by a seperate system image.

Can anyone suggest why the Upgrade re-install will not run and how to get rid of the virus in the Recovery partition.

Because of frustrating attempts to change to Windows 10 I would rather continue with Windows 7 Pro as it ran well for two years and do not want to pay Microsoft for W 10 and besides I use Office 2007 without problems, several other programs that may not be compatible, printer and scanner are incompatible and Office 365 is now an annual paid subscription. All in all would cost many $$$ to upgrade to W 10.

[CF4]

Hi

If Windows 10 has previously been installed it's activation key may still be on the Main Board, and I use Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinderInstaller to view it and write it down on the back of an old envelope.

I suggest trying the Kaspersky Rescue Disk KRD.iso burnt to a DVD/USB and booting from that and let it scan all volumes.

If you have a NON OEM W7 licence then try...

This may require another PC. Find and Download your .iso from…
(You will need a NON_OEM key for W7);
W8.x and W10 should activate automagically from their embedded licence key.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

For when it’s a NON MS OS ( iOS / Linux ) creating the install media.
www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

A 3rd party site is (Courtesy of @CherylG)...
http://getintopc.com/softwares/operating-systems/windows-7-home-premium-free-download-iso-32-bit-64-...

Even though it has NO actual HP software/drivers included, you may be able to
XCOPY the C:\Users\* area onto a ‘large’ USB stick, via the Command Prompt.

You’ll need to try various drive letters; D:..-..Z: until it’s matched - could be G; mine’s S:

C:\>XCOPY C:\Users\* S:\ /e /i /h (then files like those 3 listed below get copied over)

C:\Users\desktop.ini
C:\Users\All Users\agent.1509128044.bdinstall.bin
C:\Users\All Users\HP Deskjet 2540 series\Help\flash\zoom.swf

Then you can try System Recovery Options / Advanced Options shown in the screenshots.

NB:- W7 Try running a Startup Repair more than once for a full fix.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/install-windows-7-from-usb

If you can get a "clean" DVD/USB of W7 Pro then the Recovery area could deleted.

I use Belarc Advisor to print out all my settings and Licences.

If in doubt please ask.

[fredvau · Accepted solution]

Thanks to the Professor for a reply. Whilst I am reasonably comfortable finding and fixing errors, the reply is a bit beyond me. Nevertheless by reading others' problems and other places I did pick up about a little program named System Ninja.

I do have MSE but also have CCleaner, System Mechanic Pro and Malwarebytes (free version).

The Professor recommended getting a Windows 7 download but I do not think that HP supplies an activation key hence using a download won't be of much use as I would need to re-activate. I do have a full retail DVD but that is already set up on my desktop and has only one license. Besides, re-installing outside of HP would most likely make the laptop - still within warranty for another 13 months - a non-HP supplied system.

I downloaded and installed the free fersion of System Ninja, ran it and to my surprise it found 1145 items on my supposed clean laptop. So much for CCleaner.

I chose to delete all, restarted and now two days later find that my laptop is running faultless.

As for the failing Windows backups, running backup without a system image runs o.k. and then follow up making a system image. That seems to work but I also downloaded AOMEI free version and that runs without problems.

Perhaps I may have answered those having problems with Windows backup in Windows 7.

[CF4]

Prego.

Ccleaner is not an Anti-Virus, BitDefender is.

MalwareBytes RootKitRevealer is aslo useful.