Command.com vanishing - win98

[ross......]

Hello

I am running Windows 98se on an older pentium II

I am having a problem with files vanishing. It's either in my root
directory, or my windows dir.

It's not just the file command.com, but the whole dir.

This first happened a week ago when I was installing a slave harddrive
filled with data. I had it removed and was just putting it back.
When I did it, I accidentally grabbed the wrong HD and plugged in a
drive I had pulled from another computer that was set to MASTER and
contained an install of Win2K. Having these 2 master drives plugged
into the first IDE channel meant I could not boot. When I finally
realized what happened I unplugged the Win2K drive and found that all
the files in my root dir were gone. This included command.com,
msdos.sys, autoexec.bat. config.sys, and a few downloads I had just
gotten and put into the root temporarily. The folders were all fine
I figured that somehow the Win2K interacted with Win98 and caused the
problem. I reinstalled commnd.com, etc from a floppy and all was well
again. I though this was the end of that hassle.

On Wed I did system maintenance, defrag, clearing temp files, junk
files, and all of that. The computer was working fine when I shut it
off. Yesterday morning I booted and it booted to dos, but would not
load windows. I soon discovered that every file in the windows
directory was gone, except the swap file. The windows/system folder
and other sub folders were fine. I replaced everything from my most
recent backup, and everything worked fine again.

Last evening I was online and everything was working. I went to shell
to the dos prompt, when suddenly an error message popped up that
command.com was missing. This time all files in the root dir were
missing again, and command.com ONLY in the windows/command directory
was gone.

What the f**k is going on??????

Last evening I ran Spybot SD and found "Mediamotor". I removed it.
I tried to run Norton AV and needed to update the vir defs. No matter
what I did, the download would lockup, using "Liveupdate". Yet all
other downloads worked fine. I finally downloaded Avast AV and found
ysbactivex.dll (win32istbar - av trojan).
None of the websites that discuss the trojan or spyware say anything
about deleting files. Both are more in the range of "adware".

So, wtf is going on?
Scandisk says my HD is ok.
I have since cleaned the registry and checked to be sure that all 3
instances of command.com were identical and original.

Right now everything is working fine, but I am suspecting this will
soon happen again. I have no clue why??????

Can anyone please help.

Note: I dont have any batch file or anything that will delete these
files, nor did I delete by mistake.

Thanks

Ross

 

[meow2222]

Hello

I am running Windows 98se on an older pentium II

I am having a problem with files vanishing. It's either in my root
directory, or my windows dir.

It's not just the file command.com, but the whole dir.

This first happened a week ago when I was installing a slave harddrive
filled with data. I had it removed and was just putting it back.
When I did it, I accidentally grabbed the wrong HD and plugged in a
drive I had pulled from another computer that was set to MASTER and
contained an install of Win2K. Having these 2 master drives plugged
into the first IDE channel meant I could not boot. When I finally
realized what happened I unplugged the Win2K drive and found that all
the files in my root dir were gone. This included command.com,
msdos.sys, autoexec.bat. config.sys, and a few downloads I had just
gotten and put into the root temporarily. The folders were all fine
I figured that somehow the Win2K interacted with Win98 and caused the
problem. I reinstalled commnd.com, etc from a floppy and all was well
again. I though this was the end of that hassle.

On Wed I did system maintenance, defrag, clearing temp files, junk
files, and all of that. The computer was working fine when I shut it
off. Yesterday morning I booted and it booted to dos, but would not
load windows. I soon discovered that every file in the windows
directory was gone, except the swap file. The windows/system folder
and other sub folders were fine. I replaced everything from my most
recent backup, and everything worked fine again.

Last evening I was online and everything was working. I went to shell
to the dos prompt, when suddenly an error message popped up that
command.com was missing. This time all files in the root dir were
missing again, and command.com ONLY in the windows/command directory
was gone.

What the f**k is going on??????

Last evening I ran Spybot SD and found "Mediamotor". I removed it.
I tried to run Norton AV and needed to update the vir defs. No matter
what I did, the download would lockup, using "Liveupdate". Yet all
other downloads worked fine. I finally downloaded Avast AV and found
ysbactivex.dll (win32istbar - av trojan).
None of the websites that discuss the trojan or spyware say anything
about deleting files. Both are more in the range of "adware".

So, wtf is going on?
Scandisk says my HD is ok.
I have since cleaned the registry and checked to be sure that all 3
instances of command.com were identical and original.

Right now everything is working fine, but I am suspecting this will
soon happen again. I have no clue why??????

Can anyone please help.

Note: I dont have any batch file or anything that will delete these
files, nor did I delete by mistake.

Thanks

Ross

I dont know the individual nasties personally, so this might not always
apply. But often one nasty invites its friends along, and soon youve
got a whole pile of pests. Add to that the fact that av/trojan etc
scanners are not perfect, or even close. Add to that the fact that
something is interfering with your AVs. All in all if I see that kind
of carry on I'd remove the data drive and thoroughly wipe out the C:
and reinstall. Bear in mind some nasties can hide in RAM during format,
so format alone isnt always enough. A utility like fdisk can leave a
hdd unreadable and unwritable, put it like that and cycle the power,
and only then make it an active dos partition and format it. I dont
think theres any gremlin that will survive that.

Then I'd check the ata drive with all the main scanners, such as avg,
s+d, aaware and whats it called, coolshredder or something.


NT

 

[meow2222]

NT

All in all if I see that kind of carry on I'd remove the data drive and thoroughly wipe out the C: and reinstall.

Recovering data if kept on c: is safer using linux live, as many viri
etc wont be active when its booted into linux. C: is not the no 1 place
to put your data tho.

NT

 

[Bennett Price]

Perhaps use the attrib command and set all the exes, coms, dlls, etc. to
Read Only and Sys. It might help.

 

[CBFalconer]

Perhaps use the attrib command and set all the exes, coms, dlls,
etc. to Read Only and Sys. It might help.

Don't top-post. Read the following

--
Some informative links:
<<http://www.geocities.com/nnqweb/>
<http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>
<http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html>
<http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html>
<http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/>

 

[Noozer]

Don't top-post. Read the following

Don't hijack threads or post off topic.

 

[meow2222]

Perhaps use the attrib command and set all the exes, coms, dlls, etc. to
Read Only and Sys. It might help.

the infections have already taken hold. To continue using that install
at all is to seriously endanger your data.

NT