Harddisk Boot Sector... Help!!!!

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 10:46 pm

Hi all,

I have a problem with my harddisk boot sector. The original harddisk is infected by virus, I pluck into another PC and do virus scanning. But no virus was found on boot sector......

I low format the hard disk and fdisk/mbr the hard disk.

But whenever i pluck this harddisk to my another PC, I will have this msg telling me something is about to write to my boot sector. Type Y to go ahead or any keys to cancel....

Why issit so???

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 11:16 pm

do you have "virus detection" enabled in your system BIOS (setting may be called something similar if it's not called "virus detection").? if so, this is common when formatting and installing your operating system. just press "y" to continue with the process and not worry. out of prudence, i woukld still install an anti-virus application, update it and run a full system scan as soon as possible.

i will add, however, that there are virii that can embed themselves in something like your mainboard's keyboard buffer or NVRAM... they are very very uncommon, but they can be really difficult to get rid of. even if you put in a completely new/blank hard drive, the virus will just reinfect it.

do you have any other hard drives in your system that could be infected? or a CD-R or floppy disk?

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 11:23 pm

Besides what Faust said, Yank the battery out of the system and jumper the NVRAM to clear it for a min.

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 11:55 pm

So you mean the harddisk is free from Virus???

I am afraid to click Y as i fear it may corrupt my other PC.....

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 12:11 am

Originally posted by Nottiboi
So you mean the harddisk is free from Virus???

I am afraid to click Y as i fear it may corrupt my other PC.....

we don;t know if it is free of the virus or not.

i am saying that if you are formatting your hard disk and reinstalling your operating system, and you have virus detection enabled in your system BIOS, you will get a warning that something is trying to write to your boot sector. this is common when formatting/reinstalling your operating stystem, and does not necessarily mean you have a virus. formatting and reinstalling your OS requires some writing to your boot sector.

from the sound of it, you have already reformatted the hard drive, so pressing "Y" to continue won;t present any danger to your computer (assuming you don;t have other hard drives in that computer with data still on them). if you don;t want to run the chance of infecting your other computer, unplug the network cable from one of the computers until you get your operating system installed and have run a full anti-virus system scan.

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 12:29 am

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 1:17 am

Thanks fellow brethren of the IT Guild!!!

I will try it later when i get home....

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 1:30 am

Originally posted by Nottiboi
Thanks fellow brethren of the IT Guild!!!

I will try it later when i get home....

and thank you for saying "Thanks"

. not many people take the time to thank people who are trying to help.

if you have any problems or if you still have a virus (which i don't believe is the case, but it never hurts to be cautious), let us know and we will help you out.

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 9:00 pm

Its okie now.....

Thanx all brethren once again...

I have a doubt.... If i suspect my boot sector to be corrupted.....
If I fdisk\mbr to fix it, will my Win98 and data gone???

Becoz i can`t boot up my another system... It say no system found... pls insert system disk and press any key...

I have tried rerunning the setup of win 98 but once it reach scanning for system registry, the pc hanged and there are 3 colourful spot or sometimes some funny logo. I have tried scanning for virus but no virus was found......
I know if i reformat the whole hard disk will be okie... but i have some impt mail on my incredible mail.....

Wat should i do...

Any advise on this issue???

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 9:30 pm

Forgive me if I'm wrong with this command. It's been a while since my 9x days. From a 98 startup disk at the a:\ prompt type

sys a: c:

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 11:10 pm

Originally posted by Sid
Forgive me if I'm wrong with this command. It's been a while since my 9x days. From a 98 startup disk at the a:\ prompt type

sys a: c:

I have already tried this on a clone hard disk and when i boot up,
It state that the registry have a different configuration and it only allows me to boot up to command prompt mode..... can`t even get into safe mode.....

any advise....???

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 12:45 am

Have you tried any of these commands?

scanreg /restore
scanreg /fix

Here's a good artical about the registry repair tools.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;184023

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 12:57 am

Originally posted by Sid
Have you tried any of these commands?

scanreg /restore
scanreg /fix

Here's a good artical about the registry repair tools.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;184023

Thanks once again... I will go back and try and let u know if it works

Ppl here are sure helpful....

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 5:54 am

Originally posted by Nottiboi
If I fdisk\mbr to fix it, will my Win98 and data gone???

Negative, you're data will remain there. It's a forward slash...not a backslash. You want fdisk /mbr

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 6:01 am

one more thing...... when you get to the command prompt, make sure your at the C:\ drive and type "dir" to see what's on it. if the data is still on the drive (which it probably is, just the system registry is hosed up) and you can't repair the registry (let's hope you can, but just in case), you could take the hard drive out of your other system, put it into your main system as a slave and move the data/folders over to the main system's hard drive, then put the hard drive back in your other system and do a complete format and fresh operating system installation, then move the data or e-mails you wanted to keep back to the other system over the network.

doing many full system virus scans as you go (never hurts to be safe).

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 8:46 pm

Thanx all for your help.....

I tried A: sys c:
It overwrites all but when i try to boot up, Can`t get to windows due to different configuration in registry. Was redirected to command prompt. When I try Scanreg, its say the program is too big to run in memory.....

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:38 pm

Aquire a 98 startup disk from a known clean computer and boot to it(and write protect it), then run scanreg. From the sounds of it you may have a virus lurking around in the drive somewhere.

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:46 pm

Yeah Sid, I agree, he has either a boot virus or the hdd is going bad...

Either way, I wouldn't trust it...

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:47 pm

Dear Sid...

I did try to run a startup disk to run setup on my Win98, Scanning files and system is okie... But once it reach Scanning System Registry..... It Scan for more than hour...... not moving....???? What Shud I Do????

I have scan the harddisk many times and no virus was found.....\
Hmmm.....

Nottiboi · Post by **Nottiboi** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 10:57 pm

The error msg is " This Program is too big to fit in memory"
I tried edit command.com .... still same msg... Any advise???

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 5:36 pm

choose option 2, boot with out CD Rom support. This may give you enough memory...

I believe that you either have a boot virus or a bad hard drive... You can't get rid of some boot virus... Either way I would throw it in the trash...