[River]

ok, working on son's computer, Gateway, amd k7, windows98se, he got infected, not sure all with what, but computer was junk, couldn't get anything to work, kept getting msgsrv32.dll errors, browser was hijacked as well, and before bigger problems set in I ran antispyware, adware so on, and found tons of entries, one which i could not get rid of.

decided to reinstall windows, and do a reformat, clean reinstall (have done this hundreds of times with no major problems) but problems from the start.

have tried win98se boot disk, and booting from win98 cd, as well as booting from boot cd, none of it works. following errors are reported:

1..c does not contain a valid fat or fat32 partition. (hard drive was previously partitioned, c for OS, d for programs, e for backup, f for cd music.) also reports at times that unable to make temporary directory for installation.

2..when trying to run "fdisk/mbr" reports back that mbr NOT changed.

3..when booting from win98 cd, reports back "run time error R6003, integer divide by 0".

have tried "killdisk" but it can't run either because of the problem.

suggestions please, and many big thanxz if you get me to get this one back up and running
River~

[Judas]

try and find the brand name of the HD... and report back with the model name

[River]

Judas,
20 gig IBM DPTA 372050, ata ultra 66
thanxz
River~

[PangingJr]

Boot from the emergency Win 98 floppy disk,
at the prompt enter the following 3 commands, and then post back the infomation or any error messages that you received from each command...
fdisk
fdisk /status
c:


--------------------

[River]

Net,

on cold boot with boot disk in, first message says that windows has detected that drive C does not contain a valid fat or fat32 partition, there are several causes. then it lists three possible reasons
1..the drive may need to be partitioned.
2..you may be using third party disk partitioning software.
3..a virus

fdisk= error reading fixed disk
fdisk /status = Disk (1) Drive Mbytes Free Usage (%)


(1 MByte = 1048576 bytes)

from Boot disk's A prompt when I type in C I naturally change prompt location to C: and so you know I then typed in "dir" = volume in drive C is MS-RamDrive with 15 files and no directories

[PangingJr]

okay D/L this Mcafee BOOTSCAN - http://vil.nai.com/vil/virus-4e.asp
read the instruction in the emergency.txt inside the file emscan.zip
then run a scan with this command.. BOOTSCAN C: /BOOT /CLEAN /NOMEM
or enter BOOTSCAN /? for more information.

after that, try booting the PC from an win XP or win 2k CD, see if it allows you to enter setup, you don't have to setup the windows,
all i want is to have the windows partition manager works on your HDD's sector 0. i'm not sure this will help but pls post back.

[PangingJr]

before you try booting from 2K/XP CD, try this first...
change the BIOS to boot from floppy drive before HDD, then boot the PC with the win 98 emergency/startup disk, select no CD drive support.
then at the prompt, just enter FORMAT C: and hit enter key, post back... what message do you get by doing this ?

[River]

when i cold boot with win98 emergency/startup disk, and select no cd drive support i first get the messages I told you about, "windows 98 has detected that drive c does not contain a valid fat or fat32 partition, possible causes; drive may need to be partitioned, you may be using third party disk partitioning software, so on and so on, and last, some viruses cause your drive c to not register.

then at the prompt after typing in "format c:" it returns a "format not supported on drive C, format terminated.

still reading what to do with the Emscan
River~

[PangingJr]

okay, just D/L the zip file, no need to update all the dats files now, unzip and extract all the file to a formatted diskette,
then boot your PC wih 98 boot disk, at the prompt replace the diskette and enter the virus scan command...

[River]

Summary report on C:\*.*
Master Boot Record(s)....1
Possibly Infected......0
Boot Sector(s)..............1
Possibly Infected......0

[River]

in a couple of hours I will also have available Disk Commander, do you think this will do the trick? we are hoping so.

[PangingJr]

i don't think the problem is caused by boot sector virus but do the scan anyway,
then try booting the PC from an win XP or win 2k CD and let its partition manger repairs your HDD, see if it allow you delete the partitions, if so delete it and post back.

[PangingJr]

i get a disconnect sorry..,
i don't think you should use any partition manager yet, let try as i mentioned first, then using a partition manager after.

[PangingJr]

well if you will have a DOS version of Disk Commander coming later, you can wait and try that or if the 2K/XP CD is not available..

---------------------

if i understand correctly this Disk Commander is the Winternals Disk Commander, i was thinking about another program ealier.
and if this program can do an automatic repair/rebuild partition table then i'd say you should be okay.

[River]

ok in the last couple of days i have tried several different programs, disk commander in dos, and a killdisk program to wipe the hard drive clean. both of these programs will not run, as i get an error, and a message that says some thing about can't recognize hard drive or some thing else related.

i then went searching and found a program to test the hard drive and it reports "0MB" so I am assuming that this means the hard drive is dead?

I have heard of them crashing from posts here and all over, but have never had one die on me before (not a virgin any more) so even when the hard drive is dead(if it is?) you can operate from dos? learn some thing new everyday i guess?

ok, well, if thats it, easy solution with an upgrade, think son was talking bigger hd anyway, right time, and not much cost.

thanks for the suggestions and such, appreciated.
River~

[PangingJr]

i'll PM you a link to one of a newsgroup's message, don't want to quote it and post here, you'll see that the problems similar to yours, and see how he managed to fix it, see if you can get the HDD to work, and maybe you can still use it for storing something else like some less important files. i never have the exact same problem like this with my HDDs before so i don't know any good software that can be recommended. good luck!

[River]

found dos program to test hard drive, it was dead. bought new 80 gig western digital for $89.99, with $40 rebate, final cost $49.99 for 80 gigs, hard to believe when you think back 10 years and it would cost you close to $5 for each mb.

removed old hd and cable, installed new ones, used my system to create the western digital boot disk, used that on son's system, booted up, went in to dos program, created 4 partitions, formated and installed OS on one, programs on another, and other partitions are for his huge cd collection, and other for downloads.

entire process only took about 2 hours or so, went easy, and he picked it up this morning, took it home, hooked up broadband and is probably now busy surfin to find all of his "favs" and try to remember email addies (he never saved them to cd, only on other partition on the hd that crashed."

thanks all for the help and suggestions you offered, appreciated!
River~

[PangingJr]

No problem
it's time for a new drive like you said, all worked now and more space and better than before, he will like it.