Virus Hiding C: Drive?

[RainMeister]

A few weeks ago, my Norton Internet Security warned me that it no longer had
access to the C: drive. Upon doing a NIS einstall, NIS detected what it
described as the W32.Randex.gen virus. This was followed by an error
message: "Norton Antivirus has encountered an internal program error
(3009,1003)".

In an effort to rid of the virus, I tried reformating the drive using a
Win98 Start-up disk (I'm running WinXP), but I could not access the C:
drive. I then tried to uninstall NIS thinking it was the problem. After
countless measures (including deleting suspect registry files), I was
finally able to uninstall NIS using the trial version of PC-Cillin,
following which I again tried to reformat the hard drive but encountering
the same problem.

Thinking the virus was the problem, I ran PC-Cillin and an on-line version
of McAfee, but found no virus. I then re-installed WinXP without a hitch
(Did this to make sure none of the registry files that I deleted weren't
causing the C: drive to go into hiding).

I have access to the contents of the C: drive in Windows, but when I try to
reformat the hard drive, I am still unable to access the C: drive from the
DOS prompt.

Any ideas on what may be causing this problem? TIA.

 

[Anon.]

A few weeks ago, my Norton Internet Security warned me that it no longer had
access to the C: drive. Upon doing a NIS einstall, NIS detected what it
described as the W32.Randex.gen virus. This was followed by an error
message: "Norton Antivirus has encountered an internal program error
(3009,1003)".

In an effort to rid of the virus, I tried reformating the drive using a
Win98 Start-up disk (I'm running WinXP), but I could not access the C:
drive. I then tried to uninstall NIS thinking it was the problem. After
countless measures (including deleting suspect registry files), I was
finally able to uninstall NIS using the trial version of PC-Cillin,
following which I again tried to reformat the hard drive but encountering
the same problem.

Thinking the virus was the problem, I ran PC-Cillin and an on-line version
of McAfee, but found no virus. I then re-installed WinXP without a hitch
(Did this to make sure none of the registry files that I deleted weren't
causing the C: drive to go into hiding).

I have access to the contents of the C: drive in Windows, but when I try to
reformat the hard drive, I am still unable to access the C: drive from the
DOS prompt.

Any ideas on what may be causing this problem? TIA.

Windows 9x can not read NTFS Partitions.
if you want to reformat the drive, use the WinXP install disk.
during the installation process it will format the drive.
Or you can try to use FDisk on the 9x boot disk to remove the non-dos
partition,then re-install WinXP.
Hope this helps.