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Thread: Help with boot sector virus.

  1. #11
    Member carenath's Avatar
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    Question Boot sector virus fix...

    Originally posted here by 4quarters
    Thanks for all the feedback. I have tried all except slaving the HD in another. Nothing is working yet. I have been able to actually partition and format a portion but when I go to actually install on it, it has changed size and states it is now a non-dos partition. On occasion I get the feedback that it has 2 boot records. Aaaaargh! It is now off to my day job and back at it again tonight after the fireworks. Any other ideas? I really appreciate you guys trying.

    I am including a set of utilities that I've used on HDD's that might work. I do not know for sure if they will work on HDD's larger than 512 MB but it might be worth a try. Please let me know if they help. The file inside the ZIP with the lst extention is a description of what each util does. Good luck

  2. #12
    Junior Member
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    Mar 2002
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    Preep- I was just heading for the attic to dig out the trumpet to play Taps, but after your last post, perhaps I'll hold off. This thing is like spending three hours trying to make a shortcut in windows work, when the shortcut only saves you 3-4 seconds in the first place. I will tackle your suggestions tonight. I have tried Fat, 16, 32, ntfs, os2 and back again. None will allow writing to the boot when finished. Hopefully putting another HDD in as master will work.Interestingly enough, I get considerably less scrambling of characters now, though it does still happen.

    When I try to install windows, it immediately states..., Nuff said, I'll try your suggestion tonight. I'm feeling like I'm back in school trying to convince a date to go home with me. Maybe I just need to ask another HDD to dance.

  3. #13
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
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    One other suggestion - have you checked your BIOS?
    Some virii can alter the BIOS, so it might be worth re-flashing it. Most manafacturers give you the option of downloading a file which you can use from a bootable floppy to re-flash your BIOS.
    Also make sure that you have the options in the BIOS set correctly to allow the MBR to be re-created. This is often labelled something like "anti virus protection" in the BIOS setup screen.
    In Award BIOS for example, you can set this so that the BIOS pops up a warning message if something is trying to overwrite the MBR.
    From the symptoms you have described, it may be that the BIOS is preventing fdisk/format etc. from doing this ...

  4. #14
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2002
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    Could you tell me what the size, make and model number of the hard drive is? I have a few utilities and some writeups on various hard drive makes that might be able to help.
    vvirtho
    All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

  5. #15
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
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    Exclamation DO THIS!!

    Your lucky I came around, To save your HD from a land fill death. Do this!
    1 Get a startup disk
    2 Run Debug (the one to clear the boot sector)
    3 Run fdisk and recreat the partions
    4 Format
    5 Install your OS
    6 Have fun with your new comp

    P.S. If you need the comands for the boot sector Debug I might be able to get them for you.

  6. #16
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2002
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    ViRuZ18 & 4quarters -

    I have a small tutorial containing the MS DOS commands so I pulled out the ones for the Debug program. Here they are:

    * debug
    Runs Debug, a program testing and editing tool.

    DEBUG [[drive:][path]filename [testfile-parameters]]

    [drive:][path]filename Specifies the file you want to test.
    testfile-parameters Specifies command-line information required by the file you want to test.

    After Debug starts, type ? to display a list of debugging commands.

    * debug commands
    assemble A [address]
    compare C range address
    dump D [range]
    enter E address [list]
    fill F range list
    go G [=address] [addresses]
    hex H value1 value2
    input I port
    load L [address] [drive] [firstsector] [number]
    move M range address
    name N [pathname] [arglist]
    output O port byte
    proceed P [=address] [number]
    quit Q
    register R [register]
    search S range list
    trace T [=address] [value]
    unassemble U [range]
    write W [address] [drive] [firstsector] [number]
    allocate expanded memory XA [#pages]
    deallocate expanded memory XD [handle]
    map expanded memory pages XM [Lpage] [Ppage] [handle]
    display expanded memory status XS

    Hope the hard drive is still salvageable! Let us know what's up.

    V.
    All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

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