Invalid drive specification

Hi, I followed your " read and run me first" instructions and got as far as Bitdefender before freezing. On rebooting I got a boot failure message.

On using a startup disc I get "no fixed disks present. Invalid drive specification"

For some time now, when trying to run any virus scans (Trend on my hard drive and various on-line scanners) my computer has froze or shut down after a few seconds. I also have the same problem when visiting certain websites.Outlook express is also playing up and behaving strangely.

Have previously ran adaware and spybot but suspected there was something lurking in the background. I use windows 98se.

I'm using an old windows machine to visit your forum, can you help me?

Thanks, Ken

 

Thanks,
I'm still getting " searching for boot record from floppy..not found" message.

when I insert a 98 recovery floppy (I made some time ago using the same computer) I get windows 98 start up menu

then.
preparing to restart your computer
windows 98 has detected that drive c does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. There are several possible causes
1 drive may need to be partitioned
2using 3rd party disk-partitioning software
3a virus may cause drive c not to register

diagnostic tools loaded to drive c

If I click on help there is a little more information and it asks to use F1

When I do this I get a message No Help, unable to find help topic

I still have my original windows98 cd but nothing will run from the cd drive

I can also get the windows98 startup menue by using the original recovery floppy disc and I used:
restore original system files
original INI files
original CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT files
Restore original registry information

but get the message
no fixed disks present invalid drive specification

Thanks, Ken

 

How can I find out?

does that mean "everything"? and "may" does that mean "will"?

I don't use any 3rd party software to partition and setup the drive

can't remember the memory size but it's a 5 year old machine so probably not that much!


thanks, Ken

 

ok,
by using the del button after re-set I got in.
I saw a line in there that said " auto detect hard drive" so I clicked on that (yes) then "save settings and exit"

Used ctrl alt and del and it restarted with scandisk

Windows now loaded. I removed the internet connection, should I know try and run bitdefender or should I try and do some sort of backup?

My spec is:
2gb hard drive 1.36 used
available space on drive c 659mb of 19530mb (FAT32)
79% system resources free
128mb ram


When I was looking around in computer properties I found that the direct memory access controller is showing a yellow exclaimation mark.
device status message reads:
the VDMAD.VXD device loader for this device could not load the device driver (code 2)

to fix this click on update.

I done that and it said the best driver was already installed

but the error is still showing

if I go into system information, problem devices, it says this device has a problem, device failure.

Has this anything to do with my problem or is there still something else lurking in there?

I'm frightened to do anything with it now in case I lose everythinhg!

Thanks, Ken

 

Ok thanks, have now run all the steps in 6

Tried to run a full virus scan with trend but still get a fatal exception message. Click any key and windows reappears with @ closing real time scan and pc-cillen.

It won't close unless I use ctrl alt and del.

It does seem to be running faster though!
Thanks for your help, Ken

will try and add the driver files from the link you give me

 

Hijack this log as requested.

Cheers, Ken

 

OK chaslang , thank you for your help. Yes, thats a legit start page.

I will go ahead and have HJT remove the lines you suggested.

Thanks, Ken

 

After you complete Chaslang's last post, attach a fresh HJT log to confirm your clean.

 

Found this when I went into spybot to switch off some of my start up programs:

Value: ScanRegistry
Current filename: c:\windows\scanregw.exe

Database status: not required - virus,spyware,malware or other resource hog

added as a result of <A HREF=\"http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.stator@mm.html\"target=\"_blank\">GWGHOST</a>

VIRUS! Not to be confused with the real ScanRegistry above - which is a vital Windows file. The executable & quot; Scanregw.exe&quot;is located in %winder%\\System (where %windir% is the windows directory - C:\\\Windows or C:\\\Winnt)

I take it that this needs to be removed, can you tell me how?

Thanks, Ken

 

oops! found another.

current value: System Tray
current filename SysTray.exe

Database status: Not required - virus, spyware, malware or other resource hog.

added as a result of the <a href \"http//www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.bigfoot.html\"target=\"_blank\"BIGFOOT</a>
VIRUS! Note - This is not the valid System Tray above.

 

Download the following two files, create a folder on your desktop, call it TSC. Save these 2 files there!

Sysclean Package

Pattern.zip

Once you have these downloaded into the folder you just created, REBOOT INTO SAFE MODE!

Once in Safe Mode double click the file sysclean.com. When the system cleaner loads, click SCAN to start the scanner. After you complete the scan reboot and attach a fresh HJT log.

 

Ok, done that and also scanned again after rebooting. Start up programs are still showing in spybots list which I enclosed also.

 

Scan with HijackThis and Check the Boxes for the following:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Error Nuker] C:\Program Files\Error Nuker\bin\ErrorNuker.exe autostart
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [MSDTC] msdtcw -start

Make sure All Browser Windows are Closed when you Click FIX.

NEXT:
Run CCleaner to clean up cookies and temp files.

Run full scans with Ad-Aware SE & Spybot S&D and have both programs fix what they find.
Note: Remember to get all updates before doing the scans.


After you complete ALL of the above, reboot and follow the below steps...

Please Download TrojanHunter 4.2

• Install TrojanHunter, At the end of the install setup will prompt you to update definitions. Click YES to update TH!

• Once installed and updated, select drive C:\ and do a Full Scan. Remove all found infections.

• After you have completed the scan and removed all found infections reboot and attach a fresh HJT log.

 

Hi, ran all those and trojan hunter both in safe mode and rebooted.

One other thing! Spybot sometimes reports blocking Avenue1 when opening these forum pages?

Thanks, Ken

 

That's Spybot for you, its probably a cookie, nothing serious at all. Personally I would disable that feature in Spybot and use Spyware Blaster & Spyware Guard.

Your HJT log is clean, are you having any further malware problems?

 

Ok thanks for all your help.

I think my other problems must be software/hardware related then. It seems to run ok until I connect to the internet then I get sites crashing after a short while having to reboot at least twice. I still cannot run a full virus scan in normal mode, it will only run in safe mode. I use trend PC-cillin

Cheers, Ken

 

I tried this. Removed trend pc cillen and tried to download avg. On installing I kept getting an install error message so deleted the downloaded program and tried avast (all from your site) it seemed to install ok but when I try and run it it stops after only a short while scanning (same as trend) and gives an error message. A little vague.(probably conflicting with software or hardware already installed)

I'll try it in safe mode and let you know.

 

Let's run one last scan to be sure we got everything, I have a gut feeling!

Please download Spy Sweeper

• Click the link above to download the program.
• Install it. Once the program is installed, it will open.
• It will prompt you to update to the latest definitions, click Yes.
• Once the definitions are installed, click Options on the left side.
• Click the Sweep Options tab.
• Under What to Sweep please put a check next to the following:
  
  • Sweep Memory
  • Sweep Registry
  • Sweep Cookies
  • Sweep All User Accounts
  • Enable Direct Disk Sweeping
  • Sweep Contents of Compressed Files
  • Sweep for Rootkits
  • Please UNCHECK Do not Sweep System Restore Folder.
• Click Sweep Now on the left side.
• Click the Start button.
• When it's done scanning, click the Next button.
• Make sure everything has a check next to it, then click the Next button.
• It will remove all of the items found.
• Click Session Log in the upper right corner, copy everything in that window.
• Click the Summary tab and click Finish.
• Paste the contents of the session log you copied into notepad and save it as spysweeper.txt and attach it to your next post along with a fresh HJT log.

 

taken ages with this one.

Downloaded spysweeper from your site and got an installation error message.... download files corrupted and told to reinstall. Tried this several times using different methods.ie: uninstalling, rebooting, downloading etc.

Then went to webroot.com and downloaded from there but had the same problems. I did manage to get the main window to open and clicked on the update button but when it was about finished I received the installation error again.

Also from the main website you can do an online scan. That wouldn't work either, would begin to run and then freeze.

Don't know if this is relevent but thought I should mention it.
Something I remember happening for quite some time a few weeks ago was zone alarm reporting alerts about 2 to 3 times every minute to the point it was slowing the computer right down. The only way I could stop this was to disconnect from the internet, wait several minutes before reconnecting. This was happening regularly. I have logs of these alerts if they are of any use?

What's my next step before I buy a new one

Thanks again, Ken

 

Download the TrendMicro AntiSpyware Utility

Save to your desktop and double click to run it! Afterwards attach the log from this scan if possible, if you cant let me know if anything was found.

 

Wow! Some tool that one. After running all the other anti spyware tools this one still manged to find:

87 adaware entries
1 browser helper
1 dialler
4 tracking cookies
1 alexainternet.inc
1 dial_livesvc
1 webenhancerCorp
1 profiling cookie
1 mediaplex.com
1 atdmt.com
82 Bonzi.com entries

There were a lot more details about these entries but I couldn't copy and paste them or save them.

I clicked on remove so I hope that was the right thing to do. I'm going to download trends pc-cillin again and see if it will run ok now.

It took 2 attempts to download and run the program, it also crashed while scanning but finally it did run ok. When finished it took 2 attempts at rebooting. I also ran this on my other computer and had the same problems rebooting afterwards. It managed to find stuff on that one that nothing else had so am very impressed.

Will post how I get on, Thanks, Ken

 

Did you remove the entries the Trend Spyware Cleaner found?

 

yes I removed all those and am about to reconnect to the internet and check all is working ok.

Fingers crossed and thanks for all your help. Hope I don't have to post again

 

Let me know if any problems remain!

 

When I try and run trends new antivrus scan in normal mode, after a short while I get a blue screen with:

a fatal exception OE has occurred at 0028:CD4FA6A4 in VXD VSAPI 132 (01) + 000A2274 the current application will be terminated

press any key etc etc.

If I press any key and it is terminated sometimes. Other times I have to restart. wo is me!

Could we be getting into hardware problems now?

After reading this about the isearch toolbar doing permanent damage it leaves me very concerned!
http://www.ahbl.org/notices/isearch.php


I also have Error Nuker on board, is there a problem with that?

 

Sounds like you need a reinstall of your OS, I would go to the Software Forum and post this problem there. If needed you can come back here for any leftover infections.

Good Luck!

 

OK thnks for your help.

You are the best place I've found online for computer help with helpful people with the knowledge and understanding to help out us lesser mortals at no cost.

You guys are tops!

 

Glad we could help!