I'm using Windows XP. It had a virus and I had successfully cleaned and removed of all of them, and you can take my word for that.

Now, in Google Chrome and IE I can't get to `google.com`, all other websites work but this one. I'm using a laptop under the same network and it works fine.

In both browsers, I typed in `http://66.102.11.104/` to get directly to Google and that worked. Once I'm in Google, I'd use the search bar and bang, again, 

> 
> 500 internal server error.
> 
> 
> 

What can I do to fix this?

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To make sure we're on the same page: My Windows XP hosts file is located at `C:\WINDOWS\system32\driver\etc` – and is the host file is called "host"? In my `etc` folder I only see: 

* lmhosts
* networks
* protocol
* service

These are my only four files. So, am I opening `lmhosts` with Notepad and checking that out. There are only comment lines, and nothing related to "google".

There should be a `hosts` file here, so I guess it's deleted. I copied the `hosts` file from another Windows XP I am currently using and wanted to paste it there. It asked me if I wanted to overwrite. I said "no", and now I presume that the file is hidden. 

I went to *Control Panel > Folder Options* and enabled "Show all hidden files". I go back into the folder, still nothing there. So I made a backup copy of the folder and attempted to overwrite the hosts file with the new one. 

I get an error, 

> 
> Cannot copy hosts: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."
> 
> 
> 

What now?