At 04:12 PM 11/02/1999 , Ronald G Jobe wrote:
>I just had a friend show me a problem I've been working to solve too.
>Sporadically,
>we will each get a message that the master boot record has been changed.
>When
>that happens, the CD-ROM drive is no longer available. A temporary work
>around
>has been to FDISK /MBR, but I'd like to fix the problem for good. This
>is seen on 2
>different systems. Please don't suggest it might be a virus. I've had
>this happen
>right after formatting the drive, while I was reloading all the
>peripheral drivers.
>The first is a home-built system with a Microstar motherboard, PII-266,
>96 meg
>RAM, 2 gig HD, WIN 95B, bus master drivers loaded. The second is an Acer
>P5-75,
>8 meg RAM, 1 gig HD, WIN95A, bus mastering is not supported.
This is interesting that you have decided it could not be a virus
considering that the two systems have little or nothing in common.
The first thing you need to do when troubleshooting a problem like
this is attempt to find the common factor in the two computers to solve
the issue. Since they have no common hardware, then the issue must
be software related.
Although you do not want to hear it, in reading this I would strongly
suspect a virus. Formatting the hard drive will not remove a boot sector
virus. You must remove the partition and then add it back to the hard drive
in order to remove a boot sector virus, although using FDISK /MBR should
have wiped the virus.
The next thing to suspect is the software you are loading back onto the systems.
You will need to virus scan everything, CDs, floppies and any other software
you are loading even if it is original from the manufacturer. You cannot take
anything for granted with a boot sector virus... it could be hiding on about
anything.
I know you did not want to hear it, but based on your input, I see this is the
most likely candidate.
Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group
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