Boot Sector Virus

[Norbert_A_beaver]

So I believe I might have a boot sector virus because I was trying to reinstall Windows XP on a computer. And I recieved an error message, which indicated it was a virus or a couple other possibilities that I have ruled out already. Now I can't remove this virus via any antivirus software because I can't boot Windows. So I wanted to reformat the harddrive and start fresh. So I used a boot disk to load DOS however none of my two harddrives show up in DOS. Both the harddrives are formatted in NTFS. Is there anyway to read and then reformat NTFS drives?

 

[Woodman]

I think you can pop your XP cd in, and format your drives via the menu that'll show up.

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[sjonnie]

Formating won't remove a boot sector virus because format doesn't erase the boot sector. You need to use a utility specifically designed to write over or erase the boot sector / MBR.

Out of curiosity, what error did you get which made you think you have a virus. Boot sector viruses are pretty rare these days so it is highly unlikely you have one. Did you perhaps see this message
<pre>Boot Sector Write!!
VIRUS continue Y/N
</pre><p>
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[Norbert_A_beaver]

I would use the XP cd to reformat the harddrive but the error message pops up after the setup and before the main menu. The error being a BSOD 'Stop 0x0000007B' I read about the error at Microsoft and they listed some possible resolutions all of which I have looked into and after trying the rest of the solutions, a boot sector virus seems the only possibility. I too thought it was a streach but I still want to wipe and reformat my harddrive regardless of virus or not.

 

[Norbert_A_beaver]

Alright So I found the Western Digital Installation diskette, which also has some diagnostic tools on it, so I put it in, to see if it could tell me anything. So I load the Data Life app and after i get passed the lisence agreement and to the main menu to check stuff out the computer shuts off. Any ideas why?

 

[Crashman]

I'd take it to someone with a lot of experience and have it looked over. It could be a power supply problem or a shorted drive!

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[Norbert_A_beaver]

I took the primary harddrive (the one I was assuming was causing the trouble) out and ran the Western Digital diagnostics test on the secondary harddrive which said that there were no errors on it. So the primary harddrive can be assumed very very screwed up then I am guessing. Anyone have any guesses as to what or why?

 

[Crashman]

Try setting the drive up as single (that is, no jumper) and alone on the end connector of the cable. See if BIOS can find the drive, then try running WD Diagnostics. If either of those things doesn't work, the drive has probably devoloped an internal short or open circuit, which means it's permanently deceased. I've had 2 drives out of 1000 or so develope an internal short (which caused the system not to power up), and several blow circuits open (which caused them not to be seen by BIOS).

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[sjonnie]

Boot from a floppy or CD to a safe OS and run fdisk or Norton tools from there. Alternatively stick the drive into a second computer as a second hard disk and run windows based diagnostics on it. If you can't access the drive RMA it.

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[ste]

i think it's normal, when you re-install windows xp it re-writes the boot sector, so if you have norton installed it reports that something is writing on the boot sector but no problems.