Structure of Boot Sector Changes

**Orangeman** · April 5th, 2004, 11:25 PM

Hey Gang,

Here's the problem. I am running Win98SE, w/2 hd's 1st is WD 20GB, 2nd is Seagate 40GB. I used Diskwizard from Seagate to install the second hd. Bios has been updated.

Every few days the structure of my boot files seems to change. When this happens I run AVG Antivirus's "Restore All" boot sectors fuction (from the AVG boot disk), and it functions normally.

What's happening is that before I use the Restore All function my system resources go to 91% on bootup and my RAM is 511mb. When using Restore All from AVG it goes back to 92% on bootup and RAM is 512mb.

Yesterday I had to use Restore All function again. This was after I was trying to install a game that seemed to have a corrupted file. I never installed the game but I noticed that resources were back down to 91% and RAM was 511mb.

I've boot-scanned for viruses, I've checked with PestPatrol and with Adaware and unless I replace the boot sector with AVG's "Restore All" function from the boot disk, I will still get this lessing of resources and RAM.

Does anybody know what's going on?

Thanks,
Orangeman

**NooNoo** · April 6th, 2004, 04:32 AM

512 ram and 92% loaded?
What on earth are you running all the time?

Rather than using a fancy program, have you considered

fdisk /mbr

to rewrite the master boot record?

sys c:

to rewrite the boot files?

Does your bios have mbr protection? Is it enabled?

**Orangeman** · April 6th, 2004, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

512 ram and 92% loaded?
What on earth are you running all the time?

Rather than using a fancy program, have you considered

fdisk /mbr to rewrite the master boot record?

sys c:to rewrite the boot files?

Does your bios have mbr protection? Is it enabled?

fdisk /mbr to rewrite the master boot record?
I haven't tried this yet

sys c: to rewrite the boot files?
I tried this and it worked

sys c: to rewrite the boot files?

I tried this and it worked

Thanks NooNoo,

Its good for now, but I don't how long it'll stay like that.

Orangeman

**Orangeman** · April 6th, 2004, 06:11 AM

Hi Again,

I just did an Fdisk /mbr and rebooted. Now reboots are faster and system resources are 94% at startup.

Thanks Noo!

Orangeman

**NooNoo** · April 6th, 2004, 06:26 AM

94%???????

What the hell are you running?

Whats in your startup?

or do you mean 94% free?

**Orangeman** · April 6th, 2004, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

94%???????

What the hell are you running?

Whats in your startup?

or do you mean 94% free?

I'm running Norton AV Auto-protect, McAfee Crash Protector, (Roxio) GoBack Poll, and AOL Webspeed on startup. Currently 94% of system resources are free on startup.

**NooNoo** · April 6th, 2004, 07:35 AM

I would dump all of those, but thats just me

**Orangeman** · April 6th, 2004, 07:39 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

I would dump all of those, but thats just me

Well, I need an anti-virus, I need GoBack because that restores my system in case I make a mistake. Crash protector is self explanatory, and Webspeed makes my internet about 30 faster......so I guess I'll keep it....

**NooNoo** · April 6th, 2004, 07:43 AM

Uhh ok,

30 times faster, that a fact?

**Stalemate** · April 6th, 2004, 11:09 AM

That's faster than comparing dialup to DSL.

**Orangeman** · April 6th, 2004, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by Orangeman

Webspeed makes my internet about 30 faster......so I guess I'll keep it....

Hmmmmm......I'd like to say 30x faster than dialup but that's a bit fast, even for AOL. So guess I'll just say 30%.......I can load WD's homepage in abut 7-10 seconds....

**Orangeman** · April 6th, 2004, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

I would dump all of those, but thats just me

hmmm....

Okay, anything you say....

BTW, what kind of computer do you have.....

**NooNoo** · April 6th, 2004, 04:34 PM

Which one? the p166 with 48mb ram?
The amd duron 800
The amd athlon 1gig
The p4 2.8
The pair of msi bare bones 400 celeron/500p3
The 810 based 500 p3?

Oh , all but the 2.8 p4 were built from second hand parts and donations from upgraders. The 2.8 I built up over 2 years.

**Orangeman** · April 6th, 2004, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

Which one? the p166 with 48mb ram?
The amd duron 800
The amd athlon 1gig
The p4 2.8
The pair of msi bare bones 400 celeron/500p3
The 810 based 500 p3?

Oh , all but the 2.8 p4 were built from second hand parts and donations from upgraders. The 2.8 I built up over 2 years.

A P166????

What do you do with it?

**format c:** · April 7th, 2004, 01:47 AM

I never use the hard drive manufacterurs software to set up a drive, I use their zero fill utility to wipe drives and make them like new, For set up of Win 9x I use fdisk and then format.com
For XP I use the set up that runs from the cd , I have never had boot sector problems, Only once I have FAT problems with an old 1 gig quantum on an ALI chipset board
I agree your system is doing good at 94% free and running those background tasks, I would dump te crash guard but keep the antivirus running , I hope Macafee is better than the old Norton wincrasher :>)
You may want to consider a zero fill, Use fdisk to repartition and then use the format.com to format the drive. I think bootdisk.com has good info on doing this