Error Booting Window 98

[young&wild]

This morning, I uninstalled a few programs including McAfee Anti-Virus from my father's pc. Then i installed a free copy of AVG 6. I restart the pc, i choose safe mode to defrag the pc, the new virus software ran some boot scan. then A blank screen with a white cursor appeared.

I decided to restart the PC since it was slow. Later the screen then showed the following:

Loading Boot Record from Floppy....Not Found
Loading Boot Record from IDE-0....OK
Bad Command or Filename
C:\

I typed the "dir" command and was shock to find out that there was only 2 folders left on the only hard disk drive: Win98SE & Windows directory.

How do i tackle this problem? Can i save his document files and mail?

 

[Vehementi]

Uninstalling McAfee probably released the quarantines of several viruses on your computer, which quickly ate up the entire HD.

You're going to have to reformat, and reinstall W98.

His mail & documents are probably all deleted by the viri, if there's only the Windows folder.


Otherwise, do as Papa says, he knows best

 

[young&wild]

Thanks for the reply Veh,

I just hooked up my father's pc's HD to my pc and scanned for virus. The Anti-virus software later detected across a file Sircam.exe which in fact is a deadly worm by the name I-worm/Sircam. It has been known to wipe out any folders in the HD randomly.

http://www.avp.ch/avpve/worms/email/sircam.stm

Well the problem is solved now, I'll have to reformat the HD and reinstall W98.

 

[Rick]

the new virus software ran some boot scan.

Quarantined viruses won't get out like escaped convicts from a maximum security prison or anything... If they aren't run, they are not a threat.

What it sounds like to me is the virus software toasted your boot sector OR you had a dormant, encrypted boot sector virus just waiting for your to scan for it.

You may be able to repair the boot sector using the Windows 98 startup disk.

 

[young&wild]

Unable to start pc...

I've just connected my father's HD back to his pc...when i pushed the power button, nothing happened but a blank screen appeared! I could only see the Power and HDD LED on. I can't eject the CD-ROM tray. I'm pretty sure that is not the PSU's fault, it worked before i switch of the pc to remove the HD to place it in my pc. I'm confused. Any advise?

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Check that all cables are in place and there are no short circuits. Try booting without hdd.
The worst thing that could cause this is a virus - there are some that can destroy BIOS data, too. Hopefully it's something simpler.

 

[Phantasm66]

Originally posted by Rick


Quarantined viruses won't get out like escaped convicts from a maximum security prison or anything... If they aren't run, they are not a threat.

What it sounds like to me is the virus software toasted your boot sector OR you had a dormant, encrypted boot sector virus just waiting for your to scan for it.

You may be able to repair the boot sector using the Windows 98 startup disk.

That gave me images of the ghosts escaping when the quantum prison thing is opened in "GhostBusters!"

Try booting from windows 98 boot disk.

Issue this command:

sys a: c:

and see if your HDD now boots.

 

[SilentNoise]

If you don't have the Win98 CD, you can always go to Bootdisk & get a boot floppy there.

 

[Vehementi]

Originally posted by Rick

What it sounds like to me is the virus software toasted your boot sector OR you had a dormant, encrypted boot sector virus just waiting for your to scan for it.

I bet that slowness you experienced while running the boot scan was hard drive armageddon...:dead:

As for your second problem, I'd do as Mic says. Check ALL your connections.