Solved Help - Windows 8 Dell Recovery & Restore Issues on Laptop

[Nexxsys]

Hi folks,

Wondered if anyone has any ideas to solve an issue I am having. Unable to get the Dell Recovery & Restore process to get past the Backup and Migration phase. You Tube of the Process

Quick Review
- Dell Laptop with Windows 8
- Laptop "contracted" a UKash Ransom Malware through a fake Flash/Java update
- When trying to set the safe mode boot for Windows 8, at the MSCONFIG checkbox step, the laptop "crashed" and rebooted
- Now unable to get into windows, suspecting the partial safe boot mode setup steps
- F8 or Shift F8 do no work or provide any boot menu options
- attempted to clean malware with Kaspersky Rescue CD and after 2 hours only 2000 "infected" files were cleaned and thousands more to still be cleaned but it seems they are not able to "cleaned" but the rescue CD
- Obtained Recovery & Restore USB from Dell but at the Backup & Migration phase the laptop reboots never completing the process.

What I have tried and have not worked
- finding registry options to try and get back into windows
- tried to find options to get safe boot to be enabled without getting into windows
- tried to use Windows 7 recovery disks to resolve the safe boot steps

Appreciate any recommendations or thoughts.

 

[SpringUpdate]

Since you have thousands of infected files, many of them may reside in the area you are trying to "backup and migrate" and they could possibly be hosing up your recovery efforts. Is there any way to skip that portion of the process and just do a clean factory reset? Now, I do understand that you would lose all of your data files; however, given your current circumstances, they may not be worth the effort of trying to save them at this point. However, if you absolutely need all of those data files, then please just ignore my suggestion.

 

[Nexxsys]

Yeah, I get what you mean and no I do not need to save any of the data. I have tried this, but just as the SKIP button becomes available is when the data migration & backup phase "reboots" the laptop.

 

[theog]

Are you using Dell Recovery disk?

 

[Nexxsys]

Yes, I am using the Dell Provided Recovery USB

 

[SpringUpdate]

What is the Dell model number of your laptop? Have you tried a factory reset via the recovery partition? Here is an example of how it is done for one particular model using the Ctrl + F11 on boot:

How to access Dell System Recovery Partition Hotkey & Instructions | MalwareTips.com

 

[Nexxsys]

Thanks tried that and doesnt work.

Model Number 15R 5520

 

[Lee]

The only recourse you may have is to remove the HDD and put in another or new one and reinstall the system that way, or put the HDD into a usb HDD box and attempt to reformat then reinstall the HDD along with the OS. . .sorry to here of your problem, wow. . .that one hell of a lot of crap. . .

 

[hawkman]

something to try

Hi Nexxsys,
as you can use your CD, download Malwarbytes to CD, using another comp and let that have a go at it.

Roy

 

[Nexxsys]

Hey folks thanks for all your help and suggestions. Here is what I did and it worked. I first removed the existing laptop hard drive and installed a 160 GB laptop drive I had hanging around. I ran the Dell USB recovery process and it completed without a hitch. It did not the missing recovery partition but I was still am to install and boot into a re-freshed windows 8. I knew that the USB recovery disk was not the issue, so I removed the hard drive and replaced it with the original laptop hard drive, booted into gparted and formatted the OS partition on the drive. When I rebooted with the Dell Recovery USB inserted the Dell Automatic repair began and restored the system back to original factory state.

Thanks again!