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What's FIXBOOT & FIXMBR?

C

ClickCardo

n00b
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Messages
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From MS's website I found FIXMBR and FIXBOOT that, executed in Recovery Console, might solve my possible MBR virus problem. I see how to use MAP to help me out. What I would like to know is should I do it to ALL my HDD's? Do I use both commands or just one and in what order? Finally, if I did this would it probably mess up my current files on their existing drives/partitions (just worried about data drives not boot)?

CC
 
I don't think that would get rid of the virus's see if you can delete the MBR and then rebuild it using fixmbr or fixboot, both should be able to be used without hurting anything. You would need to do it with all of your drives and it will leave your file system intact meaning all of your files will be fine. Not a bad idea to backup but losing your data is very unlikely in doing fixmbr and fixboot, with a virus involved might be a good idea to backup.
 
How do you Delete the MBR? Are you sure deleting the MBR would probably not mess up the files?

Thanks.
 
Just google it, you'll find a ton of info on it, looks like fixmbr should delete the mbr and replace it so that should work.
 
I've already done a TON of Google'ing, and even Microsoft's own pages telling how to use it, and I cannot figure out if I need FIXBOOT too and if it should go first. Maybe it does not matter. Can anybody tell me and even better give a link?

Thanks.
 
ClickCardo said:
How do you Delete the MBR? Are you sure deleting the MBR would probably not mess up the files?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

No, it recreates the master boot record and that section has nothing to do directly with where your data is stored.
I've done it many many times.
 
FIXMBR grabs the original MBR code from the drive's EEPROM chip and restores it, effectively wiping out anything that might be in there, be it LILO, GRUB, a Windows bootloader, and any possible traces of a virus, etc. When that command is finished, the MBR is as good as it was the moment the drive passed QA testing at the factory.

FIXBOOT restore the native ability for Windows to boot with the NTLDR file and bootloader, simply put.

There's also BOOTCFG which lets you modify boot time parameters just like you can inside Windows by modifying the boot.ini file under Advanced System Properties.

There's also a proper order for the commands if you need to use them from the Recovery Console:

FIXMBR first, then FIXBOOT right after that, then type exit and press Enter to reboot the 'puter.

Hope this helps...
 
these last two posts are golden.

my tech guy had me copy the latest, renamed, ASUS BIOS update ROM file to floppy. I did it from the machine in question and booted that floppy to update. Could doing that have infected the BIOS or EEPROM thing you speak of? If it could how likely was that? This pc I post to this forum from may be infected also, sooooooooo.
 
ClickCardo said:
these last two posts are golden.

my tech guy had me copy the latest, renamed, ASUS BIOS update ROM file to floppy. I did it from the machine in question and booted that floppy to update. Could doing that have infected the BIOS or EEPROM thing you speak of? If it could how likely was that? This pc I post to this forum from may be infected also, sooooooooo.
Click to expand...

Your EEPROM is the chip that acutally holds the bios code.
What you did was overwrite your existing bios. If it was downloaded from ASUS its not likely to have a virus.

Why are you thinking your bios has a virus? What's it doing?
 
I'm not up on BIOS details or even what an EEPROM is hence the question seeking more info if it was possible.

I got my XP reinstalled on my Raptor on my newer pc. I installed trial of BitDefender a few times before/after doing the FIX and it found no viruses. Have not used the system much except for that. Just had a boot and CHKDSK showed Index errors, but it still got into XP ok. I scheduled a full CHKDSK scan and rebooted. First 4 stages passed fine. Stage 5 Free Space verification I had no idea what it said because almost instantly after displaying results the system rebooted. Probably was ok. I'll just not load too many programs while I use it for some time to see how things go.

Thanks everybody for your help.
 
Guidance on FIXBOOT was much appreciated. After installing new virus software and running a registry cleaner, my Windows XP PC would not reboot. I could not seem to get the F8 key to work.to go into Windows XP safe mode. Next, I got my XP CD out and booted from the CD and went into Recover mode. For kicks I just tried "dir" om the C drive (I was thinking my virus checker had corrupted AUTOEXEC.BAT - perhaps). DIR command issued "An error occurred during directory enumeration." When my heart rate returned to normal I searched some more and found your advice here about FIXBOOT. FIXMBR did not seem to make a difference. FIXBOOT actually came back with a message indicating it did detect a problem and corrected it. Thanks for the help.

Just our of curiosity should a registry cleaner or virus checking software cause or expose this kind of problem or was this a chance occurrence?
 
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