Reinstalling XP due to malware infection

[jgabble]

To try and make a long story short (hardly):

About a month ago my laptop became infected with multiple viruses (I believe that they wrapped around my 100GB hard drive - although doing a PSA [Pre-boot System Assessment) on the laptop (Dell Insipiron e1705 or 9400), it revealed no errors. Two of the main viruses were Windows Police Pro and Advanced Virus Remover. Attempted to run Malaware Bytes and ComboFix, but these viruses (which I understand they duplicate .exe and .dll files and make it very difficult to detect and remove) kept blanking my desktop.

I had downloaded http://ad13.geekstogo.com/Win32kDiag.exe to my flash drive and attempted to copy/paste it to my infected laptop. I was unable to run a complete report. The problem escalated to my not being able to boot (in any mode: Safe Mode, Last Known Configuration, etc.) to my desktop but only to receive a blue screen error :

STOP: c0000218

I had no Windows XP CD (if I had to go to my last resort and reinstall Windows) because the software was OEM (pre-installed), but was able to get my hands on another XP CD. From there, I went to the Windows Recovery console and attempted to fix the registry error by typing these commands (booting from the installed XP CD):

md tmp

copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak

copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak

copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak

copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system

delete c:\windows\system32\config\software

delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam

delete c:\windows\system32\config\security

delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software

copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam

copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security

copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

The results of this were:

After typing the first "copy" line, I get the following error:

The system cannot find the file specified.

The next 4 "copy" lines were able to copy

The first "delete" line after I typed it displayed this:

No matching files were found.

The next 4 "delete" lines had no errors.

The first "copy/repair" line displayed the following:

The system cannot find the file specified.

I was able to copy the remaining 4 "copy/repair" lines.

From there I can only "EXIT" to boot up which I get:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"

\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I called Dell and they sent me reinstallation CD's for the laptop. Before I proceed with this, are there any other options to try and remedy my dilemma?

If I do reinstall Windows with the CD's, will the reinstalled version get corrupted with these viruses? What would be the step by step procedure to get rid of these?

Any guidance/assisstance here would be much appreciated,

Thanks,

Jeff D.

[screen317]

Topic closed at request of topic starter.