[SOLVED!]
Pleas guys! Anyone with AVG installed can you please find avgboota.sys in Windows\system32\drivers and send it to me? It probably has to be a Win8 installation.
If anyone knows another way to solve this, I appreciate any help!
Yes, but I'm trying to see if anyone has it first. I'll have to install it on another laptop over TimeFreeze, and I'm worried it may cause some problem with this other computer too. system32
No worries anyways, problem solved by retrieving the files from another installation (shielded by TimeFreeze, thanks ToolWiz!) and copying them to the troubled laptop.
Details for those who love those dirty bits:
I once had AVG Free in this laptop. I did not like it, so I uninstalled it. No biggie. Then, yesterday, many moons later, I was rooting out unnecessary files, such as remaining Privatefirewall files, Panda's too, etc etc, and one product which had left files was AVG. So that's what I did, I deleted some files from system32. So was I asking for trouble? Let's see how AVG themselves suggest we solve an AVG-related Window boot problem:
Disabling AVG when Windows cannot start Instructions
If your computer fails to start and you suspect that AVG may be causing the issue, take the following steps to disable loading of AVG during the computer startup.
Browse to /mnt/sda1/Windows/System32/drivers Note: If you have more hard drives in your computer, the Windows folder may be available in /sda2/, /sda3/, etc. instead of /sda1/.
Scroll down to view files starting with "avg" in their name, such as avgldx86.sys,avgmfx86.sys, avgtdix.sys, etc.
Select each file starting with "avg", and then press the keys SHIFT+F6 on your keyboard to open the file rename dialogue.
Change the "sys" part of the name to "old" in the to: line, and then pressENTER to confirm the change. The name of the file will then be e.g. "avgmfx86.old".
When all AVG files are renamed, remove the AVG Rescue CD CD or USB drive from the computer, and then restart the computer (press CTRL+ALT+DELETEkeys simultaneously).
Once your computer starts, uninstall AVG by following the steps in the article Uninstall AVG.
So, now these ghost files are still here and still needed by my system for some reason... and I had to be working since yesterday when the doo-doo hit the fan, so back to work for now, thank god, and I'll get rid of the files permanently later.
EDIT:
Using AVG's standalone self-uninstaller, I was able to get rid of the files with no problems later on.