# Boot Sector virus HELP!!! LOL



## Rebel65 (Mar 7, 2003)

I need some help with a boot sector virus. My daughter must have downloaded somthing that crashed her computer. After fomating the hard drive and trying to boot with Windows XP boot disk's it got to disk 6 and locked up. So I started looking around in bios and turned on anti-virus and when I tried it again it came up with a boot sector virus. I have tried to figure out how to clean this up and can't get no where. The weird thing is that I can install 6.0 Dos no problem and it runs but if I try to install any Windows software it hangs up. I even down loaded Macfee 4.7 to try and clean it up and it corupted the files. I also tryed Dos 6.2 and it corrupted it. It also hangs on Windows 3.1 My biggest question is there a way around this problem or do I just need to get a New Hard Drive or is it in my Memory too? This is my fisrt time with a virus and need some help 

Thanks in advance
Rebel65


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## brushmaster1 (Jun 15, 2002)

Have you tried FDISKing the drive?

What virus is it? Some boot sector viruses are really tenacious and might require a low level format.


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## Rebel65 (Mar 7, 2003)

Haven't tried that yet but I will now and I have no idea the name of virus just when I turn on bios anti-virus because I have no software except Dos if flashes on sceen boot sector virus! right? when I trie to install Dos. I will let you know what FDSK does.

Rebel65


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## Rebel65 (Mar 7, 2003)

Well FDISKing did not work and tried different ways and still no luck. I tried one more thing and that was to change bios to boot up on CDROM and I put my Widows XP Home Edition in it and it started to read it but it came up with this line:

Line 5100 of the INF file \i386\txtsetup.sif is invalid
Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit


I tried this twice and same meesage came up it will also comes up with the 6 windows XP boot disks at times and other times not (WEIRD) Now I did this on a Freashly FDISKED and Fromated drive, there is no operating system or partition at all on the drive. 

Should I reinstall Dos and try booting from CD or do you have anymore suggestions on how to correct this or do I just need to get a New Hard Drive ???


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

Hi Rebel65 
You should take all your startup and other disks to a different system and scan them for viruses. Boot sector viruses spread by infecting the boot sectors of any floppy disks that are inserted into the system. Once you have a known good startup disk be sure to use the write protect tab on it Then in your systems bios turn off the virus protection. Many operating systems will not install correctly when it is on. Then with a clean startup disk from the A: prompt type FDISK /MBR Then reboot and type FORMAT C: /S This should get rid of any boot sector viruses on the hard drive. As long as you don't use an infected floppy disk you should be able to reload your operating system again. Was the system running XP before? If not the system may not be powerfull enough to run that version of windows. Try reloading the same operating system that the system already had on it. BOL


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## Rebel65 (Mar 7, 2003)

Thanks I'll try that and yes it was running XP before and I always keep my disks wright protected but I will still check them.


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## Rebel65 (Mar 7, 2003)

GRRRRRRRRRRRR Nothing is working I tried what you said and still nothing will install except DOS. I have tried everything I can think of but nothing to do with Winows will install, From 3.1 to XP booting from CD rom. They all try but when they go to restart to install puter either hangs up on restart or just trys to setup again. Could the virus have corupted my memory??

The reason I ask this is because when I do what you said to do with a clean boot disk this message comes up:

Drive C Insufficent memory to read all system info.
There was an Errorcreating the format recovery file.
This disk cannot be un formated.
Proceed y or n

And I Proceed and nothing install except Dos. So I tried a Good hard drive from my personal puter and it stated to boot up and made it past the windows screen but before it got to password screen the dark blue Exceptional error popped up real quick and it started to reboot again. So I stoped it and put it back in my puter and when it booted up it said Windows recoved from a fatal error. Weird Man I am lost on this one.

Do you think it's in the memory? or is there a way to check it I don't want to put it in my puter if it's infected. I have had my far share of probs with there puter. It's got a new Mother Board and Power Supply in it and was running fine then on day it went Black. The CPU was gon so I got a new one and it ran for couple of days then it would never boot back up except for everything I have explained anybody got anymore Idea's before I through this thing out the window LOL J/K This one has got me stumped.

Thanks
Rebel out


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

If you did a Fdisk /MBR correctly and have scanned all your disks and did not find any viruses, then you probably don't have a virus anymore (if you ever did) it's possible that something else on the system is causing you problems. (Any viruses left in memory go away when you power off) Try down loading the hard drive tests from the manufacturer of your hard drive and use that to test the hard drive. I think you can get a free memory tester here. 
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/download.asp

I would recheck the jumper settings for your new cpu also.


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## Personatech (Aug 10, 2003)

The fresh installation of a Windows OS must modify the boot sector and therefore will trigger any BIOS AV protection. Frankly, I'm surprised the DOS installation didn't do it as well.

Check your BIOS settings, jumpers, etc. on your mobo. I'm having much the same problem myself  after a CPU failure.


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## brushmaster1 (Jun 15, 2002)

Sometimes the new guy saves the day!
It never occurred to me that you might have your BIOS virus protection turned on, and that DOES sound like a very likely cause of the problem!


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## Personatech (Aug 10, 2003)

He admitted to turning on the BIOS AV protection in his first msg, but only after the onset of his problems. It *would* account for much of his subsequent frustration, however...

Glad to be of help!


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