how to clean virus from boot drive?

Question

Computer will not boot-up or enter boot sequence due to virus corruption

Answer 1

i'm afraid the only alternative is to re-format your hard drive.but you will lose all your files in the process.

if you really have some important file to save,you can connect your drive to another drive using a master-slave configuration.
you have to connect you drive to another hard disk with windows installed. (i'm just assuming you have windows OS).
your drive must have the jumper pins at the back configured fro "slave".there is an instruction for doing this on the stickers at the rear of these drives.

before anything else,make a temporary folder on the "master" drive.separate it from the other folders.and make sure there is ANTI-VIRUS software INSTALLED. and set for REAL TIME SCANNING.

you can then,transfer all your files using windows explorer.
after the transfer,do a THOROUGH SCAN of the folder.

but if you don't have really important files to save,get a win98 or winME start up diskette and boot your pc from there.

then do format.

a:format c:

this will give you a fat32 system,but you can always revert to NTFS (if are using that file system) during the windowsXP setup,when you get to the "format target drive"option.this is a lot faster than booting with spanned winXP floppies.

if you don't see your drives in dos,then you have to fdisk the drive.still from the floppy,type fdisk,follow the instructions to delete all active aprtitions.

reboot pc.fire up fdisk again.then follow the "create active partitions" from the menu.

now you can format your drive.

if this fails,then you have a very stubborn boot sector virus.
your MBR or master boot record is corrupted.repairing it will not remove the virus.there are MBR repair tools available on the net.but some viruses leave traces,executable mini-codes,very small mini programs.so in time your problem will start all over again the moment that code is invoked,either by the boot up process or by windows itself.

so,the only alternative is to "ZERO-FILL" your drive.it's a sort of low-level formatting.it will DELETE everything in that drive including that virus by writing zero's into the entire drive,including all sectors and tracks.

go to your hd manufacturer's website to download the software.
just remember - DO NOT USE a zero fill utility other than your hd brand.different instruction sets might ruin your drive.

there is one, i think from the OnTRACK website.it will work with compatible drives.

or do a google search for "zero-fill" utilities.

hope that helped.cheers and good luck.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

You'll need to make a boot disk floppy from a clean system
(you can use a friend or a family members computer) write
protect the 3.5 diskette:

1. Make a boot disk from a clean system.

2. Copy FDISK.EXE from your windows xp disc to the boot diskette

4. Write protect the boot disk.

5. Boot your computer from the disk.

6. Write at command prompt: FDISK /MBR

Your boot record will be rebuild and any viruses residing will be wiped.

OR all else fails Go to:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Download dban put it on a floppy and write protect the diskette so the virus can't corrupt it then wipe the drive with a quick pass if it's really stubborn should work but the drive will be wiped clean.

Answer 4

Unless you've got a utility boot floppy... well you will probably have to take it to a repair service.

Answer 5

HOW DO YOU KNOW it's a virus?