Trouble with scandisk/FAT

Well, I woke up to a lovely X-mas present this morning :-( My mom's PC says disk boot failure when trying to load windows, and when trying to run in sfe mode, it is unable to find the file VMM32.VXD. When I try to re-install windows, it comes up with multiple files/folers that need to be fixed, and the gets stuck at a file called something like "L L L L.L L" in a desktop folder.
When I go to the desktop folder from the command prompt (I can get that far, anyway) and try to delete the folder (no one has any idea what's in it, so it can't be important - it's named after a relative) I get an error message saying "File allocation table bad, drive C: ".
I should also mention that it is failing to detect half the IDE drives (all on the secondary controller). The most recent change was to add software for a digital camera (Canon), although the PC does have other software for another camera already installed (Sony). The PC is/was running Norton SystemWorks, and is upto date as of about 2-3weeks ago.
I did a search for similar probelms, but only found one thread which did not help much, as it suggested using msconfig to solve the problem. Since I can't get to windows, this does not help me alot. :-/
Despite 5+ years working on PCs, I am continually amazed by the things that can go wrong with a PC, so all your advise/assistance is very highly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Andrew Hawes
IT Officer
Aiatech Malawi

 

Can you boot from a floppy ERU and run scandisk from it ?
regards

 

In addition to running scandisk, try running your av to check for boot virus.

Check to see if bios still sees the hd. You can also use FDISK, option 5 I believe, to get info on the hd and partitions if any.

Fdisk /mbr may work for you as it rewrites the Master Boot Record but there are some warnings with this. Read the info here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q69013

and see if the warnings apply to you. If not it should be safe to try.

Hope this helps.

 

The only good recommendation I have is to use Fdisk and delete the partition(s), then create new partition(s). Reboot and format, then do this command three times, "fdisk /mbr ". It will appear to do nothing.
Then install windows.
If any more file problems, or if the disk does not survive Fdisk and Format, trash the drive.

 

If I use fdisk /mbr, how will this affect any data on the drive? I have not tried anything yet, as I want to know everything I can first. In the mean time, I have disconnected the non-functioning HDD, set the 2nd drive as master, and installed windows, etc. on it. I plan on taking the drive to my ofice to scan for viruses from another PC.
The computer is actually my mother's, and she has a lot of e-mails and documents on it that she would like retrieved. One thing I noticed, however, is that the C:\windows\system directory does not apear to be there. This turned up only after continued exploration after my x-mas morning post, at which point I decided to implement the (temporary) solution mentioned above, in order to at least have a functioning PC.

Once again, all advice and suggestions are appreciated. I don't think we have an Emergency Repair disk, as I don't think she ever considered the possibility of either Norton failing to catch something before it did any harm, or physical failre. I suspect the latter is the case here, altho I am hoping for the former.

Will Keep u informed, and thanx!

 

Think of the mbr - Master Boot Record - as being stored in its own partition on the hard drive, a very small partition.

Fdisk /mbr only rewrites this partion. None other is affected unless, I've learned, you are running dual boot. It appears this command will rewrite the first OS mbr with dual boot but obliterates the second, leaving the user having to reinstall the second OS. There may be a way to use the fdisk/mbr command with dual boot but at this point I am unaware of it.

If you have dual boot set up on your moms computer then don't use this command without more info about it. If not, then the command won't harm any of the files already on the hd.

 

Just using the "Fdisk /mbr" will not solve the problem, it just rewrites the Master Boot Record. The data on the drive will not be affected by this.
You seem to have a corrupt FAT file, maybe due to bad sectors. Try to get what you can off of it, then format. Any bad sectors will be marked off, but I wouldn't rely on the drive if any are found.

 

<mumble, mumble> escape key <mumble, mumble>
I had this reply all typed out, but then I thin I hit the alt key, and things started going a bit crazy, and I lost all my typing!
Anyway, after all that, it seems to be working now. AV came back negative, and fdisk /mbr didn't seem to do anything, and certainly didn't seem to fix the problem. I have managed to fix it, though. I deleted all the files in C:\windows, and the instalation started fine, btu then complained about the desktop folder, which I then deleted. Now it apears to be working fine. All that remains is to re-install it in the original PC as a slave, since it had a second hard drive.
The reason I deleted all the folders in Windows, was because setup kept coming back with an error message that an OS already exisits, and could not be upgraded with this version of windows.
Thanx to all for the assistance tho!

 

Good to hear that you have it running.
FYI, next time you need to install windows on top of itself, and you get the message that an OS already exists, rename Win.Com to Win.Old or any other name and the install will work. This command does it.
ren c:\windows\win.com win.old