[Alex Ethridge]

Twice in about the last two weeks, I have encountered the following set of circumstances in different locations with people who don't know each other. Anyone know of a virus going around that might be causing this:

• The user states it was running fine when they left it (left it on).
• When the user returned, the computer was displaying a black POST screen with a message (words to the effect) indicating the system cannot find the boot sector.
• Examination of the hard disk indicates there are no partitions
• Data recovery programs find absolutely nothing on the active partition and only a very few unrecoverable file (names) in the system recovery partition.

To be clear, it is as though the active partition has been zeroed.

[RootbeaR]

Windows 7 - The Linux killer.

[Alex Ethridge]

Neither of the machines were running Linux.

[mrss]

It wasn't the Chernobyl virus was it? That goes back 5 years or more and only attacks 98 and ME though.

[Alex Ethridge]

Both were Windows XP.