Windows Vista Ultimate deleting bootup files??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Ive had WinVista Ultimate for 2 weeks approximately, and allready Ive had to
repair the bootsector twice. Ive scanned a/v trying to pinpoint any bugs but
none are reported, and the only thing I can think of doing it would be the
disk cleanup tool doing this. I cannot reproduce this error under normal
circumstances. Its almost like its a come-and-go problem. Anyone have any
ideas what is going on behind the scenes?

If possible please respond to my posted email in display name.
 
Disk cleanup is not going to alter the boot sector. There are some 3rd party
utilities that may stomp on the boot sector. Many utilize the boot sector,
on your command, to do things prior to Windows loading - such as a boot time
defrag. If they are designed properly there will be no consequence, other
than at the next boot cycle. If they are written incorrectly who knows what
may happen.

I would suggest that you obtain the hard drive analyzer that is specifically
for your hard drive from the manufacturer. Run the test to see if your drive
is competent.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard Urban said:
Disk cleanup is not going to alter the boot sector. There are some 3rd party
utilities that may stomp on the boot sector. Many utilize the boot sector,
on your command, to do things prior to Windows loading - such as a boot time
defrag. If they are designed properly there will be no consequence, other
than at the next boot cycle. If they are written incorrectly who knows what
may happen.

I would suggest that you obtain the hard drive analyzer that is specifically
for your hard drive from the manufacturer. Run the test to see if your drive
is competent.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!



Thats the thing...I dont have any 3rd party utilities on this o/s at this time. The only thing that has anything to do with system integrity would be an a/v program that I have disabled 99% of the time.
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps if you enabled your AV program 99% of the time you would not get
infected with a virus.

--
Leo

Dante: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those
who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."
 
There is a ZoneAlarm beta, but it is not stable, Avast works with Vista.

Regards Bri@n.
Buy this man a BEER!. ©

Perhaps if you enabled your AV program 99% of the time you would not get
infected with a virus.

--
Leo

Dante: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those
who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."
 
if you run with your virus disabled 99% of the time, it is possible you have been contaminate.
suggest run several virus scanners, malware detection programs.
have you checked the bios for the protect boot sector from virus option and maybe enabled it.



(e-mail address removed)
 
I DONT HAVE A VIRUS. Trust me on this, I HAVE A/V software for this specific
purpose and if I HAD a virus I would KNOW I had a virus.

The PROBLEM is that the bootsector keeps being deleted. If there is a virus
in existance whos sole purpose is to delete the bootsector and nothing else
then I guess I need something else...but I allready have Avast.

What...exactly, is deleting this bootsector? ITS not a virus.
 
Excuse me please.

Even I could have a virus, anyone could, and not know it. With dozens of new
vulns coming out every day it is easy for one to slip through.

I have another computer that, as of yesterday, has been "rooted" - just by
visiting a web site. I clicked on nothing as I was sent there by deceit.

Nothing I had running on my computer, and I have a lot of anti spyware
programs as well as Avast running full time, could stop it from happening.
My normal 18:00 hr Spy Sweeper sweep picked it up - AFTER THE FACT!

So, don't be too certain about anything!
 
Im sorry I happen to know how to find, deal, and terminate viruses as I do
quite regularly do a/v scans if and when I use my internet. Now. I DO NOT
HAVE A VIRUS.

Lets please get back on topic here. I do know what Im doing on a computer
and I DO know that I dont have a virus, and I DO know that my bootfiles keep
being deleted. Im having to do this a 3rd time now as of writing this. If I
have a virus my a/v software should pick it up, should it not??? Unless I
happen to have a brand new virus (again whos sole purpose is to delete my
boot files) then this is NOT the problem.
 
OK

Allow me to state this then. In the past year I have not worked on one
single computer - NOT ONE - that didn't have crap on it that the user did
not know about. And, I have worked on hundreds of computers in the last
year.

I am just suggesting that you should always be suspect if anything out of
the ordinary is occurring that you don't have a plausible answer for.

Now, test your hard drive and see if it is competent. If it is not some sort
of boot sector virus the boot sector of your drive may be physically
damaged. Only a thorough drive test, using the specific manufacturers test
utility, will prove otherwise. If it tests good, I would still contact the
manufacturer as the test utility may not test the boot sector as a matter of
course.

Other than that I have no further comments on your problem.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Ok...after taking this to extreme measures, I checked my hard drive against
Norton, AVG, Trend-Micro Online, Windows Defender, making sure my firewall is
turned on, and stamping out -any- sort of spyware, spam, and anything
malicious as a tracking cookie, I have determined that I have nothing in the
way of any contaminates whatsoever on my hard drive, as I suspected. Believe
me when I say this, Ive been doing this for the past 6 years myself. As your
last post suggested, I thought perhaps it -might- be after all. No joy on
any malicious activity.

So I followed up on your suggestion to recheck my hard drive with utilities,
and with no avail, no bad sectors on the disk, no defragmentation that would
warrant deleting or stashing my boot files, and all known properties of the
hard disk is known to be in outstanding shape...and I still have no idea what
is causing the problem.

I will state for the record that someone did mention that it might be a
driver issue with my disk. I will look into this shortly hereafter as soon
as I igure out what exact drivers I am needing. Forgive me for being so curt
in earlier posts, as I am very frustrated and had several assignments due in
Visual Basics the other day and couldnt complete my assignments for class.
Thanks for the suggestions anyways.
 
Back
Top