Antivirus by diskette

[Uzoma]

Hi everyone: I must have contracted a virus and/or trojan on my PC. It will only boot up by diskette and it's saying that there's nothing on my hard drive. Does anyone know (a) what might be wrong and (b) a good (possibly free) antivirus package that I can use by diskette to clean it up? Thanks in advance.

[j2buttonsw]

What do you mean by "there is nothing on my hard disk"? If you boot with a floppy and at the A: prompt type C: then return then type DIR what is the result? If there is nothing then you will have to rebuild your OS. If there are files then you may be in luck. If the C: turns out to be your CD drive (put a CD in to check) then you may have an NTFS partition (used for Windows 2000/XP) which DOS cannot see. Most antivirus programs are too large to fit on a floppy disk but most antivirus software CDs are bootable and will allow you to do a virus scan. Norton Antivirus is a recommended product and will boot and allow you to do the scan. It may repair your system and we will all live happily ever after but be prepared for the worst: a rebuild!

[Uzoma]

Hi j2button: By nothing, I meant at the C prompt just the command.com & a few lines that I think that it copied from the book diskette that I used. My CD drive was normally D: or E: but it's not recognising them both. Some of the antivirus programmes create an antivirus boot disk ( I hope). Any more info. would be great thanks.

[j2buttonsw]

I am guessing you have the Windows 9x boot disk: no files are copied to the C: drive but a "virtual" D: drive is created in RAM. Thus, if you see command.com on the C: drive it is from your original OS installation. Also. you should "see" your CD drives if you select the "add CD support" (or something) on the bootable floppy menu as it has the MSCDEX drivers. I am adamant that most antivirus software will not run from a floppy (I would gladly be proved wrong) so I still think getting NAV and booting it from the CD is the way to go. A test would be to get hold of the "Ultimate Boot Disk" floppy for Windows 9x (if you are running it) as it has excellent CD drive support.