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cannot move files

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by lnn5432 1 view

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okay, I hope someone can help me with this problem. A friends computer has a virus, I think. I cannot move files at all...I have tried to move a file to a drive & it will not work...zip drive nothing...I have even put another hard drive in the computer & cannot move, copy & paste or anything...the files will not move at all & he has a TON of stuff on this computer. It is a Compaq computer, windows 98 128mb Ram & intel 800 mhz. Please help, I want to reformat & start over but his files are much needed. Thanks in advance for your help!

10 replies

by chris

Have you tired copying and moving in DOS after booting with a bootdisk?

Sounds like the virus changed permissioning on the files. Did you look up the virus on a AV site?

by sgt_shultz

instead of putting another drive in the BAD computer, how about putting the bad computer's drive in another computer as slave drive. see if you can get files off when it is not the boot volume. scan for viruses first...

by donmars

The virus cannot change file permissions since there are no file level permissions in Win98. You should scan for Virus using an up to date scanner. Also include boot sector and memory scanning. Another idea is to reinstall Windows in its same folder, on top of itself. This way all your apps and files will be untouched and available.

by ann777

Sounds like there's absolutely no space for file manipulation.

1) clear out all temporary Internet files, ~*.*, *.tmp and anything he does not need. Use Start --> Find --> etc and select the files and delete them from the search window.
To make space you might consider uninstalling (control panel --> add/remove programs) some of the Application programs that are installed and that you know he has the original cd and serial numbers for.
You also should run a scandisk and a defrag on this computer after making space on the hdd.

2) is the current drive making any kind of unusual noise? If yes, then the drive might have crashed and doing anything with the drive may cause more problems. If you do not know what you are doing, he's best off taking the drive to a data recovery specialist.

3) if there's any chance of a virus being on this machine, you will need to get the specific virus name and the instructions for virus removal. www.symantec.com --> support --> search--> virus name you think he's infected with ?

Are you getting any error messages when you do try to copy? How large is his hdd? How much "available space" does he have?

by wuppass15

I would see if he has readd perfisson on these folders. If not try and save them to a cd or a floppy. Then I would rebuild.

by n4whk

I would not move files using DOS as you will loose long file names. Pull the HD and install it as a slave in a PC with up to date Virus protection and run a scan.

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