How to Fix a Boot Sector Write Virus

In the world of viruses, boot sector viruses can be the nastiest. Also known as MBR viruses (for "Master Boot Record"), this type can spread easily and operate relatively undetected until it eventually causes catastrophic data corruption. You can also lose entire drive partitions. While the other virus types can be eliminated by formatting the drive (assuming a scanner doesn't work), this doesn't affect an MBR virus, and it can also interfere with your attempts to remove it. You will need to create a rescue disk instead.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• High-speed Internet connection
• CD-burning software
• Blank CD

1. Navigate to the website linked below in Resources. This page contains links to several rescue CDs you can download and use for free. Select your rescue CD and download the file.

2. Open this file in a CD-burning application, such as ImgBurn or Nero Burning ROM. Insert your blank CD and burn the rescue disk image onto this CD.

3. Restart your computer and enter the BIOS. (Consult your motherboard documentation for manufacturer-specific steps.) Change the boot order so that the CD drive containing your rescue CD boots first. Save these changes and boot your computer again.

4. Follow the instructions that appear when the rescue CD boots. The rescue CD will now scan and hopefully remove the boot sector virus. If it does not, you may not have a virus, or you may want to try another rescue CD made by a different antivirus vendor.

Tips & Warnings

• Many viruses can recognize an installed antivirus scanner and interfere with it (or prevent it from installing). MBR viruses can infect your computer when they are on a floppy disk that is inserted when the computer boots up.
• Rescue disk virus definitions are updated periodically, so do not use a disk containing old definitions.

References

• Download ImgBurn
• Download CDBurner XP

Resources

• Download a rescue CD