No boot after virus

I need some help. On a windows 98 machine, a virus was found after opening an email. Avg recoginized the virus and said "run scan ". The operator of this machine ran the scan, but half way through it the computer froze and now will not boot. We do not know at this point which virus it was and without being able to boot up don't know what to do. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

beth1949,

Hold control key down while booting to get menu and select dos. Then at the c:> prompt type
scanreg /restore
Note: space before /
When the c:> prompt returns, reboot (ctrl-alt-del). Let us know if that helps.

 

Will not be able to get to her machine for a couple of days, but will let you know. Thnaks.

 

If, when booting the computer, and you see is 'Starting Windows 98' and the hard disk light is lit up, and nothing else is happening, boot the computer with a boot up floppy, and do this command at the A:\> prompt.
scandisk /surface
Let it repair errors found.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back. Worked on the computer today and tried the suggestions from Mark and Sparrow. Nothing worked. The best I could do was to boot in safe mode and even then it would not allow me to do any troubleshooting. In a normal boot it gets to the windows 98 screen and stops. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

At this point I'd say try installing Win98 over the existing load as a repair.

When you start on installing 98 again it should see the existing version and ask if you want the new one in a different folder like windows.000. Say no and force it to load to the same folder.

This should unscramble things and hopefully (normally) not mess up any software you have installed now.

 

Coud you give some instructions for doing this, please. I would think that I would boot with start up disk and choose boot with cd rom support. At that point I would get the A: prompt. What command would I type? I'm sure it's something I should know, but I can't seem to remember except for reformat C: and that would take off everything. Thanks.

 

Yep! At the A:\ prompt, type E:\Win98\setup.exe (that's assuming your cd drive is now D. When it asks what directory to install to, it will most likely have C:\Windows.000 preselected. Choose another and direct it to C:\Windows so that it overwrites the existing system files rather than create a duplicate set.

 

Well, I got the new copy of Windows 98 on and the computer will still not boot. It got to the screen that says "getting ready to start windows for the first time" and that's when it quits loading. It will still boot in safe mode, but still no trouble shooter. Don't know if that would help me anyway. I am not a total novice with computers, but this has got me stumped. I wouldn't think it could be a hard drive failure coincidental with the virus detection because then it wouldn't boot in safe mode either - right? I'm guessing that the next step would be a total reformat, but I've got a feeling that will not work either. Any other thoughts would sure be appreciated. I will be out of town for the next 10 days, but will try anything else you can suggest when I get back. Thanks.

 

It may be too late to do this, since you're in the middle of an installation attempt, but...

Suggest in safe mode you do:
start, programs, accessories, system information, tools, system configuration utility, startup tab; uncheck all boxes, click apply and ok.

Then reboot to safe mode an see if avg antivirus will run to completion.

Try to save any important files. I suspect you're looking at a repartition, reformat, and fresh install if nothing else works. That will get the computer working again and remove any viruses but your friend will lose any information stored on the HDD.

Do a repartition with fdisk first and it should work.

 

Worth a try.

Start with bootdisk, without support is fine. At A:\ prompt

fdisk /mbr.....enter
fdisk /mbr.....enter
fdisk /mbr.....enter
exit and restart.

(is that the right command, DOS folks?)

You might also scroll back up to markp62's post and click the link for FProt for DOS. It is an AV scanner that I'm pretty sure will fit on a floppy. (or maybe he'll post back in to verify and you can scroll down )

 

About F-Prot.
The entire zip file will not fit on a floppy. If you unzip and copy it onto 2 to 3 floppies, then create a folder on the hard drive and copy them over to that folder, it will work fine.
Here are the commands to do this in dos, assuming you are at the non working computer, and after you have booted the computer with a boot floppy, and have the copied f-prot floppies ready.
Create the folder first.
At the A:\> prompt, do this commands, pressing Enter at the end of each line.
c:
md\prot
Remove boot floppy and insert the first f-prot floppy.
copy a:\*.* c:\prot
Change f-prot floppy and repeat the above command for each one, until all of them have been copied.
After copying the floppies, put the boot floppy back in, this is important to do this, else you get a 'cannot find command.com' error. Use this command to start the program.
c:\prot\f-prot
Use arrow keys to get around, I believe it will be ready to scan at the start, so all you need to do is press Enter.

Noahdfear has the right commands for repairing the Master Boot Record.

 

Sorry I've not gotten back in a while. Actually went on vacation and took some time away from the problems. When I got back home, I tried several things that have been suggested with no luck. Finally went for the reformat. My friend's compter is back up and running. Thanks for all your help. Glad you guys are here. I always know where to turn when I get in trouble!

 

Sorry to hear nothing worked, but good to hear it's running again. Hope nothing important was lost. Thanks for posting back.