Problem with computer at work:

[corder13]

Hey everyone. I believe this would be post number 1 for me. LOL I had a problem with a computer at work Saturday night, and I can't figure out how to fix it (without reformatting the hard drive). Here's what happened:

I ran a spyware scan on it, which came out fine. Then I ran a defragment on it, which it needed BADLY. Once the defrag was done, I rebooted the computer. NOW it doesn't read the hard drive. It has apparently done this before right after a defrag (which I just found out this morning). I'm trying to figure out how (if there's any way) to get it rebooted so I can AT LEAST get the work folders off so it can be reformatted. I've never seen this kind of problem before.

Here's what else I can say that has crossed my mind: 1) There was a virus on the computer that couldn't be fixed. I've heard of some virii being able to spread once a computer is rebooted. I've seen the popup for over a week now (Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition 4.0), and I think this MAY have something to do with it. 2) The computer is very rarely shut down anyway. I think I'm the only one who ever reboots it at all.

I'm sorry for the long post. If anyone can help me at all with this, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Rick

 

[technoman2]

don't worry about the posts size ... welcome to the forums .... When you say your computer will not boot how far do you get with the booting process .. can you hit F8 and boot into Safe mode ... Are you running Windows XP?

 

[ASSEMBLER]

if you suspect its the virus you can get software that will search the system without installing it you just use the disk. Norton can do this but you said norton may not have not got rid of it so it may be worth trying something else there is some powerfull software out there.

i gather that the system has not been shut down since it got the virus.
this may be the cause of the problem you need to eliminate the virus if it still does not boot then we need to think again.

is the norton that is on the system the latest and up tp date if not do you know someone with the latest antivirus software.

 

[technoman2]

norton could not get rid of it so it may be worth trying something else there is some powerfull software out there.
.

Don't listen to that user, Norton goes an excellent Job and i don't think your problem is a virus!

When you did a Spyware scan how much spyware did you get and when was the last time you updated Norton and did a full system scan?

 

[corder13]

It's running Windows XP. I don't see anything for a Safe Mode at all. I tried using all the function keys. To enter setup ont his one, it says to hit the "Delete" key. It gets to here on the boot process:

Verifying DMI Pool Data ...................
Boot from CD : failure.....................

Then it says it can't read the hard drive and to press CTRL, ALT, DEL to reboot the computer.

I'm normally pretty good with computers, but I've never seen one shut off after a defrag. I don't BELIEVE it's been shut off since the virus was there, but I'm not 100% positive. I know it's on almost all of the time.

Now I did change the BIOS settings to read from the hard drive first to see if that helped, which it didn't. When I did that, the only thing that changed was it didn't say "Boot from CD: failure...".

Rick

 

[technoman2]

Do you have a Windows XP Disk you could boot from?

I was about to say go into your BIOS but looks like you have that covered

 

[corder13]

It's not my computer, so I'm not sure when the last update was done with Norton. I believe it has the LiveUpdate enabled. Then again, I'm not sure when a full system scan was done and if he has it set up to do it automatically or not. I do scan for spyware every night I'm there, and Saturday I didn't come up with anything at all.

Rick

 

[corder13]

I don't have an actual Windows XP disc to boot from. If I set it back up to boot from CD, would that at least get it booted up in a normal mode so I could get some files? Or is that just going to start a reformat process?

Rick

 

[corder13]

I mean if I had an XP disc.

Rick

 

[technoman2]

Please don't post that many times use the edit button ... ok, when you changed the boot order in the BIOS did you remember to save it because sometimes i forget to save it!

is there any chance you can get hold of a WinXP disk because you will need that to boot from.