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Win 98SE reboot and now comp won't start - c drive not valid

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niteshs

Registered
Joined
Jun 20, 2004
Before you ask my XP is with a friend.

Apps were a little slow just before shutdown so could be a virus (I wasn't using a virus killer and the restart was when I was installing one - nod32).

Win 98se start-up floppy disk says that the c drive doesn't have a valid fat partition. How can I rescue my system or files?

I have s 512MB and a 64MB usb stick if that's any good.
 
Rebooting then suddenly a file missing error does sound like malware or a virus. I heard that there's an E-mail virus that's destructive like that, with an attachment called "invitation" or similar.

The OS failing to detect the partition sounds like malware or a virus.
Warning, if you gotten an E-mail with an attachment called "invitation" or similar, don't open it!

But, if the BIOS suddenly fails to detect the HDD, you hear a clink or a ping, probably catastrophic HDD failure!
 
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Does anyone know if i can use a usb disk containing an operating system to recover the info?
 
When this has happened in the past I have usually reformatted (sometimes after running fdisk) but this time i do not want to lose my files.
 
Go to the HDD manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software respective to your drive...

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/
 
niteshs said:
Does anyone know if i can use a usb disk containing an operating system to recover the info?
If your bios supports booting from USB then yes, I had dos 6.22 installed on a 32MB flash drive before.

However even if the OS boots from the usb drive there is no saying it will read the HDD. If the partition is corrupted then the fresh OS wont read it either. Wouldent hurt to try though,...

Do you have another computer you could just pop the HDD into?
 

Are you saying you've gotten this same error message before? If so, when and how often?


It first happened about a year ago within a week after installing Azureus, the bittorrent program. Then it happened the after second time I installed it. Then it happened after I installed Limewire (twice). Now it has happened twice without using any P2P programs. I have been using Norton,AVG or Nod32.

This time is different because fdisk and format do not even recognize that there is a C drive although the HDD shows up in the bios and startup screen.



Go to the HDD manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software respective to your drive...


My hard disk is a Maxtor - however the second PC in the house doesn't have a floppy drive so I cannot use the Powermax utility. (I am not allowed to open the second PC case). Can I transfer it onto a USB stick? My Jetway n2pap-lite mobo bios allows me to boot from USB FDD, USB HDD and USB CD-rom.
 
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