i believe a computer that i am looking at for friend has a boot up virus on it. i turn on the computer and its telling me to load up the system boot disk. the thing is, i don't have a system boot disk. the computer that i have is running "win me" yes to me a bad program. the thing is i don't know what other programs they have on thier computer, ram, or anything else. what can i do? thanks in advance.
you could reformat it with a window 98 boot disk and start over from scratch . or you could download one as stated in sparkyNi's post , will the machine boot into safe mode ? you say you believe it has a boot virus on it , are sure the hard drive isnt bad . when my last hard drive failed it wouldnt boot of course and i had no virus just a bad hard drive . hard drives fail after a while . as the old saying goes if its man made its going to crap out some time . how old is the hard drive and what makes you believe it has a boot vius ? it very well could have a virus , but than again the drive could have failed . im sorry if im steering you in the wrong direction . but its some thing to think about .
well thanks for the reply. i am just going by what i was told that the system may have a boot virus. i never thought about the h.d.. the computer i was told is 4yrs old and it is a compaq presario, 40gig hd. and yes i can go to safe mode. so where should i go from here?????
you could use msconfig to see a list of programs that are starting up . if it boots into safe mode i would believe that it doesnt have a boot virus . try shutting down some of the programs that are starting up . there may not be enough system ram left to boot correctly . how much ram does the computer have ? if all of the system resources are being used it doesnt have enough to boot correctly . the reason why i dont think it has a boot virus is because it still boots and that would lead me to believe that the master boot record is ok . try killing some of the programs from loading at startup and see if it will boot ok than .
To remove a boot sector virus, the first step you can do is fdisk the master boot record. Boot into dos, then at the A:/> type A:/> fdisk /mbr It sounds like that that the hard drive is either dieing or possibly a corrupt version of windows installed, though if you can boot into safe mode, it should be getting past that partcular error message. CJC
o.k. i did the fdisc. and i still get a A:\>. so what i did then was turn the computer off and then turn it back on and then i get an Invalid system disk, Replace the disk, and then press any key. so what i do then is put in the compaq system recovery disk and hit enter then it tells me to contact tech. support. if this is a bad windows disk how do i find out. and how do i find out if this is a back h.d.? and if this is a bad h.d. then how can i retrieve some of the info from the h.d.? thanks
Try from the A:/> type Scandisk C: let that go though and then let it so a Surface Scan. That will take a while. See if it has any bad sectors. What your better off to do, is take the hard drive out and put into another comptuer, and try and retrieve your data that way. CJC
o.k. thanks for the reply. if i do this and it doesnt work. how can i reformat the h.d. and reload windows m.e. on it. the persons computer that i am working on said that they don't need any info from the computer. they would rather start fresh.
Ok, first i would do the ScanDisk C: from the A:/> then let it do a surface scan, to see if there is any bad sectors. then it depends on what came with the computer. If it came with a Windows ME disc or Recovery CD. Either way, all you should have to do is put either one in the CD-ROM and restart. It should boot from the CD, then you just have 2 follow the on screen prompts. CJC
FDisk is used to format and partition drives. The MBR switch in FDisk is used to reinitialize the Master Boot Record, usually to eliminate a boot sector virus residing there. Follow this link for more info on FDisk: http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/ _X_X_X_X_X_[small][/small]
o.k. did everything i was suppose to. i tried reloading windows m.e. and after it does what it has to, i then get a message saying Standard Mode: Fault in MS-DOS Extender. then that is followed by some letters and numbers..
[bold]Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 87239[/bold] Bad Fault in MS-DOS Extender This error message occurs when the fault handler dispatcher in DOSX.EXE generates another cascaded fault while trying to handle a protected-mode exception. This error is usually caused by one of the following factors: HIMEM.SYS is unable to control the A20 line. DOS=HIGH is not functioning properly (related to HIMEM.SYS control). The RAM, static RAM (SRAM), single in-line memory module (SIMM), or dynamic RAM (DRAM) chips are not functioning properly. You are running DR DOS. The third-party memory manager is not configured correctly. The EMM386.EXE NOEMS x=A000-EFFF line is missing from the Config.sys file. You have an old, out-of-date ROM BIOS. Your CMOS settings are incorrect. Your Windows files are old or corrupted. To test this, create a new directory on the hard drive, and install Windows in that directory. Your disks are corrupted. Your system is infected with the Form, Forms, Noint, or Yankee Doodle virus. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;87239
hey all had a problem also with a pc using ME my scenario is this the pc boots the ME splash window then goes straight in the options screen of safe boot, step by step configuration and maybe 2 other options. if i choose safe boot the pc freezes!!! if i use a start up disk for ME i can get to the dos prompt and run scandisk, which takes a long damn time to complete, along with the scanreg utility, no problems are found? i ran fdisk/ mbr to re-establish a clean mbr also. no luck in the boot process. also i cant do a clean re-install of ME due to the fact I dont have the OEM cd avaible. What are my options or missed steps in fixing my problem? please let me know!! thanks
Simple solution, go out and get a copy of Windows XP and ditch Windows ME to start off with Windows ME is not the most stablest operating system. CJC
to update all on the booting up problem. i don't really know what the problem was with there computer, i believe it was a virus of some sort. but what i wound up doing was erasing the h.d. and loading x.p. pro on it. still had a problem though because i kept getting an error message. after a google search and after a couple of leads, i had to reseat the ram. and them bam i was able to load the x.p. on it and now they are up and running. so i would like to thank all for there input and help.....
