Can a double install of Avast! cause Windows to crash?

I recently lost the ability to boot Windows from my computer. I can’t get it to boot from hard disk, CD-ROM, or floppy (using the Recovery Console in the latter case).

This started immediately after I installed the latest version of Avast (5.0). I had just caught and cleared a virus that had been running up my CPU (first virus my computer had detected in a while) and wanted to do a thorough scan of the computer, so I figured I should update Avast.

My stepfather uses Avast and he told me how he had a really hard time with his computer once after installing the newest version of Avast, and later found out that you have to use an uninstall program to uninstall the old version of Avast first, because if not, both programs will try to one, and one will detect the other as a virus.

The question is, is this possible? Could the new install of Avast corrupted my Windows boot processes and boot files due to the older program seeing it as a virus, or vice versa? If so, how do I fix this issue? Right now I’m only able to use my computer via Ubuntu, which I’m running from the live CD because I don’t want to install it until I’ve scanned my hard disk, cleaned any viruses, and backed it up. But this is proving hard because I can’t get avast to work from the Ubuntu live CD (I posted this issue to another thread), and I’m wondering if a virus is even the problem at all!

Any help and/or insight is much appreciated!

Hi ZenStephanie,

I am sorry to hear about the problem that you are having. Firstly, could you please tell us the operating system you are using?
And could you please confirm, did you have avast 4.8 already installed and you tried to install version 5 over it?

Look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Adam

Hi, I am dealing with the same problem “boot failure.” This happened just after I installed avast 5.0. Any suggestions?

O and Adam, I am using Windows Vista and yes 4.8 was installed 14 months ago.
Thanks,
Noah

We need more info to help…
Which was your old antivirus before avast 5? How did you uninstall it? I mean, anything different that avast 4.8 itself. Something installed with the computer?
Other security programs? Firewall?
Which Windows do you have?

Sorry for the delay…

I was using Windows XP Professional (am currently using Ubuntu 10.04 off of the live disc).

I had Avast! 4.8 installed and installed 5.0 over top of it. Did not realize I needed to uninstall the old one, thought I was doing “the right thing” to get the latest version and just assumed it would automatically remove the old version.

Have not been able to get Windows up and running since. Am not sure if it is a virus or if the dual install of Avast either (a) corrupted the boot file(s) or (b) resulted in the computer thinking one or the other was a virus. It is possible it actually is a virus, just seems odd Windows ran fine until I installed Avast 5.0.

Thanks for your help…