# [SOLVED] Corrupted Command Interpreter



## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

Help!
My computer (Tiny, pentium ii, 400 MH, windows 98, bought Jan 1999) has been acting oddly lately, freezing, failing to load properly, etc. These problems disappeared about a month ago, and its been acting normally since.

Yesterday, I was working on Dreamweaver (a 30 day download, downloaded since the previous trouble) when the document froze, and various icons on my desktop were replaced with the dreamweaver icon. I shut down, and on start up it wouldnt load at all. Instead, I get this message on a black screen:

THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPTED: C:\WINDOWS\SETVER\EXE
THERE IS AN ERROR IN YOUR CONFIG SYSTEM ON LINE 12
THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPTED: WIN.COM
THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPTED: COMMAND.COM
TYPE THE NAME OF THE COMMAN INTERPRETER (E.G., C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)
C>

I have lost my system restore (reboot) disk, and i really have no idea what's gone wrong or what i can do now. Please help! I need to use my PC. 
I assume I've lost all my files anyway?

Thank you for any help or advice you can give.


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## steamwiz (Oct 4, 2002)

Hi nowwearesix

At the C:\ type *scanreg /restore*

note the space between the g and the /

choose a date from the list ( but not the olest that usualy fails)

see if that works

steam


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

Thanks for your advice.
Nope, no luck - i've tried typing scanreg /restore every which way, and it always returns with 

THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPTED: scanreg /restore

TYPE THE NAME OF THE COMMAND INTERPRETER
C>



Any other advice?

Ta,
sam


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

My advice would be to find a kindly soul and put the drive in a second drive and attempt to recover any files that you might want to save! Something has significantly corrupted the disk, and more writing to the drive at this point can only make things worse.

My guess is something has overwritten the FAT, in which case you'll need to be considering a data recovery program.


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

okay, ta 
i could cope with losing files, but how do i get the computer working at all? will i just need to reboot it with a floppy? where can i get the right disk?

i'm afriad i didnt understand a lot of what you said - whats FAT? how could that have happened? how do u put the drive into a second drive?

i appreciate your help,
sam


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

I have just used 'housecall' to scan this laptop (which has had no problems at all) and it came up with 3 separate worms: worm_sircam.a, worm_sircam.b and w97m thus. The last one is triggered on December 13th, when it can overwrite various essential files on the harddrive - i think this is what i witnessed on my PC yesterday (december 13th!), and the cause of the 'corruption'.
Nice to know the cause, but it still needs fixing!
Thanks for your help so far,
sam


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

If you've the Windows bootdisk then start the computer with the disk and once at the A:\> prompt type -

*sys c:* [enter]

You should get the message 'System Transferred'. Take out the floppy, restart the computer and you should get the C:\> prompt.

If you dont have a bootdisk, you can download the program to create one from Windows Boot Disks


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

I wasnt able to download a boot disk at all, but Ive just been to pc world and the lovely man there gave me a boot disk without charge, and its worked to get it into ms dos, anyway. it has serious faults, though, and i cant get far without it freezing. ive run scandisk /all, and now im running the longer surface scan, but setup refuses because of the virus. i think i need to clean out the virus and repair the damaged areas before i can go much further - what would i need to do that?

also, what does the /restore do?

thank you for all your advice - at the least, i am learning a heck of a lot about my pc through all this!

please continue to add advice + possible hints here - its all useful,

sam


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

by the way, at the A:\> prompt, entering sys c brings up the message - PARAMETER FORMAT NOT CORRECT - C.

Help me!


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

> but setup refuses because of the virus


What do you mean by that? The Windows installation wont start due to scandisk errors?

You can skip the scandisk using this command -

*setup /is* [enter]

Did I understand the situation correctly or


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

The command is sys c*:* . You missed the *:*.

So at the A:\> prompt type,

sys c: [enter]

After c type *:* and hit the enter key!


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## steamwiz (Oct 4, 2002)

> I have just used 'housecall' to scan this laptop (which has had no problems at all) and it came up with 3 separate worms: worm_sircam.a, worm_sircam.b and w97m thus. The last one is triggered on December 13th,


I'm curious - *How* did you do this ?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

This is sounding more and more like the following sequence is called for:

FDISK /MBR
FORMAT C:/S

Insert W98 CD and run setup. 

Once that process has completed, the first order of business is to install a decent virus scanner BEFORE you connect to the Internet again.


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

okay, i think ive confused a few people!
i have 2 separate computers - myPC and a crappier laptop. the pc has completely crashed. i ran a scan on the laptop, using an internetsite called housecall, and the laptop came up with 3 viruses (7 infected files), none of which had affected it noticeably yet. one of those viruses is w97m_thus, which has a payload on dec 13th - i therefore suspect that the same virus disabled my pc on friday (the 13th).

the pc really is very unhappy - it dislikes most commands, and setup is stalled almost immediately by a message "boot write! virus: continue: y/n", which does not respond to anything.

i now have a bootup disk courtesy of pc world, and i can do a couple of things, but most is greeted by 'bad command'. 

i'll try the latest advice, though.

by the way, sys c: was recognised (thanks!), but it brought the information: 
CANNOT FIND SYSTEM FILE IN STANDARD LOCATIONS ON DRICE C: SYS CAN ONLY BE USED ON DRIVE C: TO ATTEMPT A REPAIR OF AN ALREADY EXISITING INSTALLATION OF WINDOWS. USE WINDOWS SETUP TO MAKE DRIVE C: BOOTABLE.
A:\>

But Setup fails me.

shall i just kick it really hard?


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## mrphster (Dec 4, 2002)

The correct syntax for the sys command is:

sys c:

Must have the colon. 

BTW, are your floppy disk write protected? Looking at the floppy disk, can you see two holes or one? You should see two. Otherwise the floppy disk may be infected with a virus.


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

okay, i think im finally getting somewhere!

when the computer first crashed, i had entered setup and for no proper reason 'enabled' the boot sector virus protection, and it was that that was preventing me setting up, i think (as the error message was :boot sector write!! virus: continue, y/n?) - it's now mid-setup and all is (so far) looking good.

crossed fingers....


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

Missed that setting in BIOS...

Good, so installation completed? Any errors? If the installation is complete and you're able to use the computer. The first thing would be to install an antivirus and getrid of that virus...

Do an online scan at House Call. It would be better if you install the Free Edition of AVG Antivirus from Grisoft


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## mrphster (Dec 4, 2002)

She probably does not have a virus. If the Boot Sector Virus setting in the BIOS is enabled, the computer sees any attempt to write to the boot sector as a virus. Windows must wrtie to the boot sector to install. Disable that setting and away she goes.


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

YES...I understand. Thats possible!!!


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

The responses to sys c:\ sound like the drive isn't being recognized or the partition info has been lost (often the case with "command interpreter" errors). What do you get when you enter

fdisk /status

?

If the hard drive is recognized at all (check the BIOS for that), the partition information has probably been lost. If you enter just

c:

do you get a c:\> prompt? Can you get anywhere with dir c:

By the way, be careful about using floppy's interchangeably on both systems. If one was infected, the infection could be spread to the other, that's the usual method of how boot sector viruses get spread. Write protect them after they have been created on a clean system.


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

ALL SOLVED!! 
My computer is now functioning, but its not exactly its former self...sob! Ive lost so so much(my dissetation, my address book, endless resources and files, emails, downloaded programs, my entire music collection on Jukebox, a website I was half way through creating for a primary school...), but the biggest pain is that the Settings will only allow me 16 colours - I've tried everything - what's that about?
I'm going to run Housecall and then install a comprehensive anti-virus -and this time I'll keep it up to date! I'll check disks too.
By the way, I am certain I do have a virus, as my laptop scanned +ve for a virus that likes to destroy your hard drive on december 13th (w97m thus) and infects word 97 - my PC crashed on december 13th before my eyes, just as i opened a w97 document. howeve, the 'boot sector virus' thing was a completely unrelated message which came up because id enabled that thing.

Thank you very very very very very very much - I am very grateful for all the help Ive received on here,

sam


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

Glad things are better now.

About the colours, you've to install the video card drivers. Hope you've the motherboard drivers cd or atleast know the make/model of the video card...


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

nope, havent got a clue!
but i have found my system restore pack (after all that!), so im rebooting it again to see whats new - it already seems to be better, and i'm still on the system restore screen!
ta,
sam


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

Not sure about the _System Restore Pack_.

Its always a good idea to know about the video/sound drivers...will be useful at a later stage as well.


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## nowwearesix (Dec 14, 2002)

no, the reboot has worked brilliantly - ill keep these disks in a safe place from now on. Everything seems to be working well, and i'm back on true colour.
thanks, and i promise to learn all about video cards and drivers soon, ok?!
sam


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## pvc9 (Jul 7, 2002)

[tsg=yourewelcome][/tsg]

Great!

About the video/sound cards, please learn asap, because if there is anyone who'll benefit later its *you*.


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