Removing Virus in the (MBR) File (How To Guide.)

Rule of thumb is always use the easiest options first.

Your first step would be to try using a virus removal application first.

hijackthis,
http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html

combofix,
http://www.combofixprofessional.com/combofix.html

Failing this try the following.

Fix the Master Boot Record (MBR). Some boot sector viruses encrypt the MBR and can result in a system that is
Inaccessible. The BIOS searches for system files, IO.SYS and MS-DOS.SYS. When these files have been located, the BIOS then searches for the first sector on the hard drive and loads the needed Master Boot Record information into the ram. The BIOS passes control to a program in the MBR, which then loads IO.SYS. This file then loads up the rest of the o/s.

Option 1.
You can repair this either through dos or with your xp cd. For now, we will use the easiest option the xp cd.

Step 1, Boot with the XP installation CD.
Step 2, Press R to repair a Windows XP installation. When prompted. I am presuming that c:\ is your windows installation drive.
Step 3, Enter the administrator password if prompted.
Step 4, Use the command fixmbr. You will see warnings etc. Proceed and press `Y’
Step 5, Type exit to leave the recovery console remove the o/s cd and reboot.

This is assuming that a corrupt master boot record was your only issue.

Here is a link for bootable disks fo all operating systems.
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

The following link provides an application that supports all leading vendors of hard drives and will allow you to low-level format. Although I still use fdisk if I can’t load o/s.
http://hddguru.com/download/software/HD ... 6.1181.exe

A simple format only appears to remove the data. Infact it is still there just not viewable. Data can still be recovered from 5 installations ago.



Regards,
Rogue.