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I have a PC with windows 98, and the other day I think I got a virus. I'm not sure what caused it, but whenever I try to boot up it gives me a "Invalid System Disk" warning. It won't read anything off the A drive, the only disk of any kind I've gotten to work was the Norton 2003 one, and all it does is run and not find any problems. When I was looking for what to do I came across a forum on here, but it was two years old, so I signed up and posted a new one. Here's the old one, I've tried what they've suggested with bootdisk.com.
It looks like she solved her problem with the floppy disk, and my machine won't read it for whatever reason. I tried thier solution, it couldn't read it.
Here's a quick list of the symptoms:
-Invalid System Disk message when I boot up.
-It says drive C has 15 files, all the names are in dos characters and exclaimation points.
-It calls my CD drive A: when it used to be D:, and my floppy drive B: when it used to be A:
-It wont read floppys
-It wont read my Win98 backup CD, but will read the Norton CD
From what I've read this looks like and "AntiCMOS" virus, but the solutions everyone has given have either not worked or required something I dont have. If you've read this far, thanks at least for your time, even if you can't help me. It's pretty important that I get this computer fixed up pretty soon, and if I get it running you can bet your *** I'll donate to this site.
I don't know what you mean by "dos" characters, but this sounds like very bad news. The drive is probably corrupt. You can try running scandisk c:\ from the floppy boot disk, but I don't have much hope for it.
However, exactly how did you create the "bootdisk" that you got from bootdisk.com?
If you simply copied the "exe" to a floppy and booted with it you will get an "invalid system disk" error when booting.
If this is Win98 be sure to get the OEM version of the boot disk available here:
Make sure any new boot disk you create is done from an uninfected machine and the boot disk is write protected after it is created. Slide the little tab over the slot to write protect it.
You do not download or copy it directly to floppy. Instead you run the exe from the hard drive to transfer the files to a floppy and boot with that.
You should not get an invalid system disk error booting with it, unless the floppy drive is bypassed all together. You should end up at an a:> prompt. (you do not need to select cd-rom support). If you do not end up an an a:>prompt, and never even see anything being loaded, let us know. If the a:drive does not access at all it will likely be because it is not selected as the first boot device in the BIOS.
At the a:> prompt first enter fdisk /status
Is your partition information and the c: drive properly identified?
enter dir c:\
Is the Windows directory there?
Try the sys c:\
command then. If there is an error message with that, report it exactly. If you get the "system files transfered" message, remove the boot disk and reboot. If the problem is not resolved, return to the a:> prompt and try
fdisk /mbr
then remove the boot disk and reboot. Report exactly any error messages along the way,
Ok, I did all the things right to begin with, I did the install thing onto the floppy, not just save or copy, but the problem is that on the infected computer it will not read anything I put in the floppy drive. It wont boot from there, and when I access it it knows the drive is there but when I type "dir" it says it cant read it.
As for the "DOS symbols", I guess that wasn't the best way to describe them. All the names have a symbol that looks like the clubs from a deck of cards, and besides that they're a mixture of some other symbols and exclaimation marks. They're all about 5 characters long. My dad describes them as "A bunch of garbage", not dos characters, but I guess that's why it's better that I write this.
I'm not sure what you mean by "it will not read anything I put in the floppy drive".
Are you getting to the a: prompt? When booting with it do you see the floppy being accessed at all?
If you enter dir a:
can you read the files on the floppy itself?
Does the fdisk command execute?
If the floppy has been created properly, and you can boot with it on another system, the only thing I can think of that would prevent it from working on the "damaged" system is the presence of disk overlay software which is sometimes used to allow larger hard disks to be used with BIOS's that would not otherwise support them. I think the fdisk command should still execute though, but I might be wrong about that.
As for the "DOS symbols", I guess that wasn't the best way to describe them. All the names have a symbol that looks like the clubs from a deck of cards, and besides that they're a mixture of some other symbols and exclaimation marks. They're all about 5 characters long. My dad describes them as "A bunch of garbage", not dos characters, but I guess that's why it's better that I write this.
With my windows 98 startup disk, it doesnt recognize it at all, but I put that one in before thinking to write protect it, so it may have been infected at the bootup.
With the bootdisk.com disk, if I boot up with it I get the message "Problem reading the disk" and under that it says "insert a startup disk and press enter". If I boot up with the norton CD i can get to the normal dos command line thing. For whatever reason, the CD drive that has always been labeled D: is now A, and i know this because when I go to it in dos it lists the files that are on the CD. The same thing happens with the floppy drive, it was always A and now it's B. If I go to the B drive, it knows it's there because it says "B:\", and when I type in "dir" the floppy drive lights up and it makes a whirring noise. Then it says "General Failure reading drive B" and "Abort, retry, fail?" From there I can only abort.
I checked, and it's set up for a 3.5" floppy. It might also be important to note that it's called drive A in my CMOS too, but it's still B when I go to it in dos.
Try creating another floppy boot disk. If you have a different brand you can try, preferably a new one, use that. Perhaps even install a different a: drive if you can swing that.
Have a look in the BIOS to see how the drives are identified. You might want to reload the setup defaults while you are at it. All this is just to get you so you can work from a floppy. I doubt there is any hope in saving the files on the hard drive itself, but at some point you are probably going to need to reformat, possibly repartition as well.
If the C: drive is recognizable, and all else fails getting a floppy to work, AND you have a Windows system CD WITH the product key --- you can, from the BIOS set the CD to boot first and run setup from the Windows CD. I guess you can already do that if the Norton CD will boot.
I tried with a new floppy, it didnt work. I tried starting with norton, then taking out the CD and putting in the windows one, but then it just says "General failure reading drive A" when I go to the CD drive. I did the setup defaults already, that was one of the first thing I tried, but it didnt help.
"General failure reading drive A" when I go to the CD drive
?? I don't know how the Norton CD was booting, but you shouldn't get that message if the CD-Drive is set to first in the Boot Order in the BIOS, and you are booting with a Windows CD, and there is no floppy in the A: drive.
Going to the setup defaults probably placed the a: drive back in first place in the Boot order.
An off the wall longshot here is that you have a corrupt CMOS caused by a weak or dead battery. I'd replace that. This will likely reset the defaults again, so if you want the CD-ROM first you will have to modify that setting again.
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