formatting results in: unable to write to boot. format terminated.

[scooby]

Hey guys,

Trying to reformat a drive that was infected with a virus, apparently one affecting the MBR. I've run FDISK /MBR on this 5GB hard drive previously running Win98. When i try formatting the drive i get:

Formatting 95.79M
Formatting complete.
Unable to write to boot.
Format Terminated.

Haven't seen this before and though and wanted some opinions on what i'm missing.

Thanks

[sinergy]

I would suggest fdisking te drive deleting the partitions, recreating the partitions and then formatting the drive.

If that dosent work you have have to run a debug script and clear everting

hers a good bebug script to clera MBR

Boot with a DOS floppy that has "debug" on it; run "debug". At the '-' prompt, "block-fill" a 512-byte chunk of memory with zeroes:

f 9000:0 200 0

Start assembly mode with the 'a' command, and enter the following code:

mov dx,9000
mov es,dx
xor bx,bx
mov cx,0001
mov dx,0080
mov ax,0301
int 13
int 20

Press to exit assembly mode, take a deep breath - and press "g" to execute, then "q" to quit "debug". Your HD is now in a virgin state, and ready for partitioning and installation.

[scooby]

Thanks sinergy i will try your debug code.

I had fdisked the drive, deleted partitions, recreated partitions and when i tried to format the drive is when i got the message i posted.

[scooby]

worked beautifully thanks!

What can you recommend to learn some of these debugging techniques?

Thanks again

[sinergy]

heres a really good site with the most used debug routine


http://www.computerhope.com/rdebug.htm


but id do a internet search for more indepth info