How to Recover Data and Clean Viruses from a Crashed PC
Rescue Your Ailing PC with Trinity Rescue Kit
Trinity Rescue Kit can:
- Scan your computer with four different virus programs and clean up the viruses.
- Reset a forgotten windows password
- Serve up the computer's internal hard drive so files can be copied off over the network
Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) is a Linux LiveCD which means that it will boot and run directly from the CD without installing any software on the computer having trouble. It can also be installed to a USB drive if the computer supports booting from USB. Trinity Rescue Kit is primarily designed to repair Windows XP and not all utilities may function correctly with Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Getting Started
First download TRK and burn the image to CD. Insert the CD into the ailing computer and reboot. Most computers are set to try to boot from CD before the hard drive, but you my have to change the boot priority order in the BIOS. Refer to your computer's documentation on how to boot from CD. In most cases, you cn get to the BIOS by pressing F2 or the delete key as the computer starts up.
TRK is booted, now what?
The LiveCd boots up humbly to a command prompt, but the commands are simple. Each command calls a script that steps you through the repair process in most cases. Here a few common scenarios
You computer is infected with a pesky virus that you can't seem to get rid of.
Viruses can infest themselves so deeply into windows that you can't completely clean a computer while it is booted from the infected drive. Booting from a CD like TRK makes it simpler for the antivirus software to find and eradicate the virus without giving the virus a chance to replicate itself.
At the TRK command prompt:
virusscan -a clam
or
virusscan - avg
The rescue kit script will download the latest version of the antivirus software and virus definition updates. After the downloads are complete, it will kick off a scan for viruses of the internal hard drives.
Windows won't boot up, and I just want my files off of the darn computer
TRK can turn your computer into a Windows file server that will allow you to connect to another computer and allow you to copy all of your files off. This is a great tool when you just decide to buy another computer rather than have Windows fixed on your old computer, but you still want all of your stuff on it.
This process does depend on the broken computer and another computer being on the same network. If you have a cable modem or dsl router that allows more than one computer to connect internet at once, then in most cases, you have a home network that will support this feature.
At the TRK command prompt:
fileserver -g
This will start the fileserver with guest access where anyone can connect and download data. If you are concerned about other people accessing your data, then fileserver -s will prompt you for a usernme and password that will be required in order to connect to the TRK server.
I can't remember the password to my computer
All of the passwords in Windows are stored in an encrypted file on your hard drives. When Windows is booted up, it protects this file and almost all costs, but TRK can read and edit this password file.
At the TRK command prompt:
winpass
This command will reset the administrator password. If you have renamed the administrator account or want to reset the password to another account, then try winpass with the winpass -l option and that will print a list of the accounts for you to choose from.
I want to download the latest virus signatures, but my network requires me to configure a proxy server
Some networks are secure enough that you have to go through a server for internet access where it can be filtered. TRK can be configured to use a web proxy server.
At the TRK command prompt:
setproxy
If DHCP is not available on your network, then you can configure a static IP address with the setip command.
Trinity Rescue Kit can create a bootable USB drive for repair with the TRK2USB command.
Online Help
TRK has it own online instruction manual accessible through the command line with the TRKhelp command.
For more information and documentation on Trinity Rescue Kit, visit their website at http://trinityhome.org/Home/blog.php?front_id=15.
Published by Jinx
IT guy by day View profile
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11 Comments
Post a CommentVery grateful!The longer use of computers, the more software installed, registry garbage inside the computer registry will be more. Most of the software will add unnecessary junk to the registry which makes the computer crash or slower and slower. so we need registry cleaner software to slove the problem.I talked about it on my blog, if you have interest in it following me.http://www.freecomputerrepairservices.com/software/ten-free-registry-repair-software-reviews.html
Windows registry is the heart of each computer. The longer use of computers, the more software installed, registry garbage inside the computer registry will be more. Most of the software will add unnecessary junk to the registry which makes the computer crash or slower and slower. If you have the following problem, and answered yes, then you need to clear your PC using the registry cleaner software.Registry software could make you modify registry very easy, if you don't know which one to use, please reference the following introduction.Ten Free Registry Repair Software Reviews.
By the way I am the same Tony from a couple comments below. I would really appreciate help.
By the way I am the same Tony from a couple comments below. I would really appreciate help.
What is the best option for me? I need this fixed soon...should i buy a linskeys router? What other ip address should i use? i dont think changing the NIC is much of an option.
It really helps if you have a linksys router or something to provide the dhcp address to Trk. 192.168.1.1 may be the IP address of your router nd may not be a good IP to be used. Otherwise, your NIC may be too new to be recognized by TRK. Using an old PCI Network card my be a good option.
It really helps if you have a linksys router or something to provide the dhcp address to Trk. 192.168.1.1 may be the IP address of your router nd may not be a good IP to be used. Otherwise, your NIC may be too new to be recognized by TRK. Using an old PCI Network card my be a good option.
I ran trk again and watched closely on startup...and it said the ip adress wasnt foud...and it said i could set it with "setip eth0" and i did that, but i wasnt sure what ip address to use..so i just used 192.168.1.1 and for the rest it asked for i used the settings i had on my other computer. such as my subnet mask etc. then i mounted them to fileserver -g but it still wont show up....then i went to "run" on my pc...and typed 192.168.1.1 and it didnt do anything....Am i doing something wrong?
I ran trk again and watched closely on startup...and it said the ip adress wasnt foud...and it said i could set it with "setip eth0" and i did that, but i wasnt sure what ip address to use..so i just used 192.168.1.1 and for the rest it asked for i used the settings i had on my other computer. such as my subnet mask etc. then i mounted them to fileserver -g but it still wont show up....then i went to "run" on my pc...and typed 192.168.1.1 and it didnt do anything....Am i doing something wrong?
To the commenter below: Hopefully, the computer will show up in network neighborhood after running fileserver -g. If not, you can force a connection by going to the run command under the start menu and entering the ip address of the trk computer in the \192.168.1.x format. You can find out the trk ip address by typing ifconfig into trk.