funny characters

[supa_dre]

A friend of mine's computer has a problem.

When I turn on the computer, it goes through the usual motions until it gets the the blue WINDOWSs98 screen. It flashes this screen for a second and then goes back to the C:> prompt. I tried SYS C: with a boot diskett, but to no avail. Then I noticed that when I listed the directory, the first ten or so files were scrambled with lots of funny characters. Scandisk could not correct the problem fully. Could this be a virus. Also, the os on this pc is WINDOWS98 PLUS but I only have Windows 98 SE. Should I format the drive?

[Randy_tx]

Sounds like a virus or a serious cache write-back problem might have happened. If you can get hold of a DOS virus checker you can determine if it's a virus or not(as long as it's current)......Reinstalling Windows in the same directory as it currently resides ..ie C:\Windows will preserve all his programs and possibly allow you to run a virus program (Norton Antivirus 2001 is excellent and about $29) or go to Internet & this site: http://housecall.antivirus.com/default.asp There you can check and even remove the virus if that's what it is, for free. If Windows is seriously corrupted you might have to reinstall it in a NEW directory which will at least preserve his data (but all WIn programs will have to be reinstalled). And lastly, you could back up his important data in DOS and Format - Reinstall Windows.

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT

[supa_dre]

Thanks for the response.

Here's what I am going to do. Since my friend does not have any important data on that computer,(I asked first). I am going to format the whole thing and start fresh