Boot Sector Suicide

What happens:

I turn on my computer, and it tells me that my boot sector has gone bye bye. The computer fails to load...But all the information is still there.

Symptoms:

My system slows down. A more direct result is that right before my computer dies, Microsoft Word crashes, and Ad-Aware SE gets stuck every time it tries to "deep-scan" the system32 directory.

I am running Widows XP Professional Service Pack 2

This is the third time that this has happened.

Another thing: I can never repair the boot sector. I am always required to reformat and reinstall windows. Scan disk never picks up any damamges before the boot sector dies.

--Thanks

 

Time for a new hard drive...

 

Boot Sector virial infection I wonder? Are you able to boot the system to a bootable media such as CD-ROM or Floppy and scan the HS?

Worst case scenario, most of the HardDrive manufacturers do have drive utilities, specificly low-level format utility which turns the drive into the same condition as it is sold fresh from the factory. Such utility I use and like is WesternDigital's WDClear (you run it from a bootable floppy, utility has two functions 1st one checks the drive for read/write errors which could be used as a diagnostic/integrity checker ( IMO, much better than a comprehansive mode ScanDisk), the 2nd function is what I mentioned above also refered as 'writing sectors with zeros'. Low-level format is pretty handy tool and to give you an idea on how long it takes: it takes about the same time for WindowsXP installation to full-format a same size disk.
I would not recommend people to run low-level formating on a new drive, size due to the process of writing sectors zeros, does tend to compress the platters a bit closer which could be good for older drives but somewhat not good for brand new or fairly new drives (to elaborate more on that, a drive that has been active/used average 2 hours a day for a minimum time period of 6 months should be ok to run low-level format on.)
If you want a zipped copy of WDClear (free utility), PM me but I am sure you could find it or similar ones from the Drive manufacturer's website as I remember seeing one on Maxtor's and Fuji's web site. If none of these helps then...yeah, time for a new drive.

 

We've actually taken the hard drive, made it a secondary hard drive on another PC and scanned it there. Never picks up anything, but ad-aware always gets stuck. I am going to try to repair the boot sector right now though...Unless anyone else has a better idea.

 

I have a question:


Is there anyway to repair the boot sector while the computer is running?

 

Never repaired repaired a software-oriented problem with the computer off that I know of

No idea what your talking about.

 

What can I do to accomplish fdisk /mbr while I have my computer running in XP? I am afraid to reset my computer and boot it up with DOS because last time the boot sector died on me when I did, and fdisk /mbr didnt help. I want to know if there is a way to accomplish this without having to boot the computer in DOS.

 

well booting to a 'startup' floppy diskette or CD is not exactly booting in DOS, it simply means you are booting to a command prompt.
So what happens if you boot to a bootable floppy or CD and try to run the comman fdsik /mbr (again I doubt it would be the cure according to the info you had given so far).
Did you also try running a read/write test on the HD as I mentioned earlier?

 

The WD Clear app doesnt pick up any hard drive at all... This computer is running a WD400 hard drive...Under model it says DRIVE NOT FOUND

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Could someone explain to me how to use the WDClear utility when I reformat my hard drive...

Thanks!

 

OK, the WDClear program itself is bootable, you get a BLUE DOS screen when the system boots in to WDClear, (from the sounds of it you were able to ge this far).
Now at the tope of the list your drive should be listed, according to your post, WDClea didn't even see your drive? That is not good, it sees all makes and models that BIOS sees <--(key info).
Does your BIOS see the drive? I am assuming it does not ( if I am wrong let me know).

Why Does WDclear/BIOS can not see the drive?
~ There is not valid connection between the Drive and mobo (check cables).
~ The cable used to connect the drive to mobo is bad (replace with another)
~ BIOS doesn't support the drive in question (has it ever seen it at all, if yes then scratch this possibility)
~ IDE/SATA connector on the mobo is damaged (try hooking up another Drive to the same connector (if the other drive works using another IDE/SATA cable then the initial Drive or the cable was bad, connector is good. If you use the same exact cable to connect the other drive to the same port and it works, then you just nailed it, the initial drive was bad. Using another drive and cable that was verified to be in working condition, you use the same connector on the mobo and BIOS doesn't see it then the connector was bad.
Most people yank the IDE cables out by hand and in a zig-zaggy way especially if it was tight to begin with. This uneven pulling actions can and does damage the cable (more caommonly) and the connector at either end (mobo or harddrive). You should always grab the cable by the hard plastic piece at the very end (even using a needle nose type pliers) and pull it out gently and evenly. The IDE type data cables are flat ribbon type, ATA-33/66/100/133 all have 40 pins but ATA-33 has 40 wires (1 not used) and ATA-66/100/133 has 80 wires(again 1 not used), any one of these thin wires could break generally at the end where the plastic piece is. Even with 1 or more broken wires, the drive could still appear useable yet odd errors are just a boot away...

Enough with the HW-101 lecture huh? Check your BIOS to see if the Drive is visible to BIOS and repost please, we will go from there. If you manage to get the WDClear to see the drive, the 'Read/Write test' verifies the integrity of the drive but conducting read/write actions on it. 'Writing sectors/drive with zeros' is the Low-Level formatting which wipes everything and puts the drive pretty much in the same condition as it first came out of the factory...

 

I think there is a miscommunication between the two of us here.

This has happened 3 times before and it is showing me symptoms, so I am in fear of the boot sector dying on me. So, I have yet to turn off my machine...Meaning that I am still running the computer with my operating system up (Windows XP Pro). I ran the WDClear while Windows was running in a DOS window...Does this make a difference at all? I am trying to fix everything now before everything goes bad.

Everything is plugged in fine and the BIOS picks up the hard drive perfectly fine aswell...

 

You are right, there is definitely an unintended miscommunication between us. I thought you were joking when I read the part where you mentioned you were running the WDClear utility within the DOS emulation window in XP, but to my fear you were not!! DOS utilities should only be run after the system was boot to a command prompt independent of the Operating System. Like running FDISK deleting utilities within Windows, yes you can run them alright and system would continue to work just fine...until you reboot though!
I thought I made it clear that you boot to a floppy diskette that the WDClear was copied on and then run the utility. At this point I am not sure what has happened and what will happen if you reboot. I suggest you back your important files right away onto a CD/Floppy, etc. Then reboot to continue with what I have advised earlier.

 

Okay, I just want to make sure I have the right WDClear

There are 4 different files in mine.

WDClear.exe
WDClear.txt
ATEC1.COM
File_ID.diz

I hope thats right...or at least close to it (I am running back and forth between two computers)

 

WDCLEAR.EXE that is the executable which you would need to run from a boot disk...