In theory it's possible.. In practice it's nearly impossible without expert knowledge of the linux forensic tools and an intimate knowledge of the internals of XP. Plus it's a laptop. Try the XP recovery console first, if that doesn't work then thats's pretty much it. Do you have any idea what virus it was? Sounds more like a corrupted file...
The only linux live distro that has these forensic tools is knoppix-std, which is seriously not for the inexperienced. I think a specialist linux forensics forums might be a better place, but help will probably be limited because everybody will think you are trying to access data on a stolen machine.
Sorry.. My linux know-how is pretty good, but I can't even begin to guess where to start with this problem.. Reinstall winblows over the old one, then run a-v procedures and hope. ;-)
XP repair install..
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm And some ideas..
http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/advice/t-3815.html
Good formatting tools are on the damn small linux live disk http://www.damnsmalllinux.org At the penguin screen boot prompt the command is "DSL 2"
Wait a while and at the next prompt "cfdisk"
Be very sure which partition you are formatting, as laptops can have system partitions with names like * which you don't want to touch.
Just highlight the partition you want to format, and select the type (can't remember..it's a number. Don't panic, there is a list) and select format and write changes and exit.
cfdisk is an easy tool to use.
Or if you want to attempt to recover anything google "mounting ntfs drives under linux" and see if you can find your SAM file where your admin/user passwords should be stored. While you have the drive mounted.. If you use something like slax-killbill edition you will find the burning tools are fantastic and you should be able to back up any data you need. If it has a burner in it of course :-)
Here (Bottom of page)
Is the program you are talking about. You download and burn the iso to a disc, and it contains mini linux distros to repair your computer. Good luck.
