whaddya think...virus?

[yawningdog]

Win2k and Mandrake dual booting on a 10 gb hd. W2k crashes, Linux still boots. Couple of days later, Linux wont boot either. Machine wont boot at all in fact, not even from floppy.

In desperation, I attempt to re-install Linux, but when Linux tries to format, it says it cannot write to mbr. (?!?!?!?!)

I dig out an old 400mb drive and load win 98. Okay, it works, so my bios appears ok. Next I rig up the 10 gig hd slave to the 400 mb dog, so I can at least scandisk and virus check. No joy, win 98 can't read the disk, which is no surprise I guess, considering the filesystems involved.

Next day, 400mb drive with 98 installed wont boot either, and again I cannot boot from floppy either. I bite the bullet and buy a new 40 gig 7200 rpm drive from best buy (60 bucks after rebate, pretty good deal I think), load 98 and Linux, and now I'm up again at last, sans the old 10 gig drive.

Two questions:
1. Is this a virus?
2. Is there any way to salvage this drive without putting it into my machine along with my new drive? (Don't want to risk screwing up my new one)

[Steve]

Wow. I'd avoid that 10gig HDD. Maybe take it to a sympathetic tech and see if he would be willing to test and reformat it. It could be a virus. Seeing that your 400MB drive went belly up, I'd take that one with you when you go down to the tech.

You got a good deal on that 40 gigger. :) I wouldn't risk it. Yup. It could be a virus and take the two problem drives to the shop. It would be worth a try. :)

[randyrhoads1981]

Bassically all they will do is sprinkle holy water on the drives then do a zero fill and reformat. I have a zero fill app if ya email me i'll be happy to send you a copy its just 75k..stick it on a 98 startup disc. Make a NEW bootup floppy and be sure the write protection tab is in place. Unplug the new drive and connect the 10gig as master and the 400meg as a slave. Boot with the floppy and see if you can write zeros to both then repartition and reformat them and you should be ok. Then shutdown, turn the PC off and unplug it. Although if ya still paranoid then id at least take the 10 gig to a shop the 400meg really isnt worth it unless you really need it.