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Boot Sector Problems

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by jeff

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I have a hard drive that keeps losing its boot sector. I have run a utility that sees all my directories and files but reports my boot sector as not there. I have reformatted the drive and reloaded Windows. However, after a couple of days of operation I booted the computer and got the Missing Operating System message. The computer is an IBM Netvista 6269-D2U. I ran IBM's diagnostic program from the web site(After calling TechSupport) and of course the program tells me that there is nothingwrong with the hardware in my system. I believe that the drive is bad, but I can't prove it to IBM so that they will send me a replacement drive. However, I could be wrong so I am turning to TechRepublic members for help.

A post note - the utility mentioned at the very begining was run after I ran IBM's diagnostic utility. I also have NOT ran a anti-virus program on the boot sector, although I intend to run one just to eliminate that possibilty.

5 replies

by d_v ant

It could very well be a bootsector virus. They do cause this type of error. I would definitley do ao thorough scan for viruses. Also run a scandisk and do the surface scan. This should help identify if it is a problem with the disk.

Also see the Techrepublic article "200 ways to revive a failing hard disk" for more hints and tips.

by pgcarter

Definately anti-virus scan, right away, next scandisk. If scandisk doesn't find any physical probs you won't be able to prove to ibm it's a defective drive, because it's not. Physical damage doesn't just come and go. Virus or some other malicous code must be responsable. Anti-virus software like f-prot (free) is good for this because it runs from floppies so you can use it when system won't boot.
Hope this helps

P.S. I've also heard of this happening with pirated versions of XP with ntfs drives.

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