BOOT:IO problem cant read disk

Follow up to my agp440.sys problem and my suspiscion that I had a hard disk failure as I could only access very limited 'safe mode' with most functions not operating. In an attempt to try and resolve the problem by reloading XP, I get a message similar to the title above and I can't go any further. The PC will not now boot to DOS either. I have ordered a new Hard disk and will try set up the system on that but, in the meantime, any ideas, Does it sound like HD failure or something more ominous?

 

agp

Thanx Tony but it wont recognise the boot floppy or the CD drive so I can't do any diagnostic or repair. I still reckon its the HD failing or failed.
Seems likely?

 

Hi BG9208:

You have your bios set to boot first from floppy, then CD, and system doesn't recognize either? Maybe a motherboard problem?

Reset CMOS? CMOS battery low or dead?

I'm not very knowledgeable in this area, so I could be way off base. Anybody else think this a possibility?

Martin

 

Martin - I do think the same as you.

bg9208 - you should normally be able to boot from a floppy even if you have the hard drive in the kitchen and the PC in the bedroom.

 

unable to boot XP

Just an update. Since I couldn't get XP to boot either from CD or floppy and the only sense I could get out of the PC was to boot to safe mode which gave me just a little ability to do things. After two days of trying to get anything going, finally the floppy drive recognised the win98 boot disk so I was able to install Win98 as the OS - explorer still didn't work properly so I used Fastlynx to delete as many unused system files as possible (given my level of expertise, a risky business) and after a number of abortive tries, finally managed to get a Win XP setup to be accepted. Still having a variety of problems(Slow, System shutdowns etc) so I searched for the LSASS.EXE which flashed on the screen during one shutdown and I saw the light that the root of all the problems was the Sasser Worm virus, with this knowledge under my belt, and thanks to Windows BBS, I downloaded the MS patch and managed to delete the files listed as supporting the virus and for the past 6 hours been up and running better than before.
Incidentallty neither, SpybotS&D, Adaware or AVG found the virus even though they are all up to date.
Thanks to all who offered their help

 

Thanks for the update.

Surprising that AVG didn't see the Sasser worm but since it is not spyware, I would not expect Ad-aware or Spybot to detect it.

You may have gotten into the situation that usually makes us suggest that folks run online AV scans. Some virus/trojan/worm critters can disable your onboard AV so that it appears to work but in fact, does not. Thus a scan that finds nothing on a PC that is infected.

 

avg and Sasser worm

Thanks Newt,never occurred to me that the anti virus prog. could be compromised - next time(if any), difficult to type with your fingers crossed, I'll try running AVG online.
Incidentally, the HD, which I thought was causing the problem, seems to be OK, but I am replacing it with another( 6GB to 80GB) in any event.

 

My curiosity is aroused. Can a worm or virus prevent the motherboard from recognizing a floppy boot disc? Or a bootable CD? Would it have to had somehow gotten into the BIOS?

If it can and did in this case, how could the machine boot into Safe Mode? Why would the BIOS recognize the "C" drive, which it would have to do to boot in safe mode, a feature of the OS, if the OS wasn't starting in the first place.

Seems strange.

Martin