DISAPPEARING PARTITION WINDOWS ME

[bountybar]

I used fdisk to partition my HDD. My HDD is 40Gb, so I made 2 partitions of 20Gig each. They were displayed as Crimary DOS partiton, and D: Extended DOS partition. I set C to Active, formatted both, then installed Windows ME.
In Windows, My Computer shows both drives, C & D, and the CDRom. I can save & swap between both drives, and they apparently OK. However, when I boot from Floppy, my HDD is not recognised, and if I run fdisk, and display information, it shows only one partition C: as a NON-DOS partition, using 100% of the drive.
Can somebody help? Have I got a virus? I think I'm partioning OK, because the partitions show correctly before I install and run Windows ME.

Colin

 

[edfair]

You are probably booting with an earlier bootdisk that can't recognize the primary partition.
You have to be careful when doing fdisk and formatiing to target the filesystem to something the OS can see. And be careful to use a comparable floppy.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[bountybar]

I have fdisked, formatted, and am installing programs one by one. Up to now, all is fine, and startup is still recognising my HDD partitions. I will next go on to my regular websites, and check after each site that my disks are still recognised. I think I picked up a virus called 'Monkey', which destroys partition info, but still lets you operate normally from Windows. It's only when you come to boot from a floppy that it becomes apparent. The only way to get rid of it, is to fdisk and re-format. This obviously destroys all data on the extended partition and will try to determine if it came via email or a website.
From now on, it's 'Back up everything on a separate Drive'!!
Once bitten etc!!

 

[bountybar]

It's happened again!! I fdisked with the command; 'fdisk/mbr', which apparently replaces the master boot record, partitioned my HDD and re-installed Windows ME. Everything was fine for around 22 hours. Periodic start-ups from floppy showed that all was OK. I have been online for about 4 hours during that time. I have just started my computer from floppy, and the HDD is not recognised, the Ramdrive virtual disk is shown as drive C:. When I run fdisk, it shows 100% of drive C as a NON-DOS partition, where it should show Primary DOS partition.
Has anyone come across this before? Please Help!!!


Colin

 

[bountybar]

P.S. I forgot to mention something. All my disks and partitions are OK from within Windows, even when I fdisk from the Windows DOS prompt, everything appears to be OK. It is only when I boot from floppy that the problem is there.

 

[wolluf]

http://www.computerhope.com/monkey.htm.

Says fdisk /mbr doesn't cure this virus. Also - did you write protect your boot floppy before using it (otherwise, IT will have been infected.

 

[bountybar]

Yes, I have two computers on a home network. Both were infected, but only the one that has been online today is now infected. I tried the same floppy on both, one is OK and the other is not.

 

[edfair]

The original stoned only activated in something like 1 out of 20 boots. I'm not sure if monkey carried that forward. If so, an infected floppy will only activate and infect the hard drive part of the time.
That may be what is driving you up the wall.

Stoned was benign, once in a while you were informed you were stoned.
Haven't seen either of these in years.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.