[Concerned]

On 02/25/2003, I put McAfee Spam Killer onto my Sony GR 370 laptop running XP and downloaded my first email to Outlook. I had never downloaded email to my computer before because I use it for business and needed to ensure that it worked and I was concerned about possible viruses attacking my computer and putting me out of commission for a while. I desperately NEED the data.

Prior to that date, I had always (safely???) read my email from http://www.mail2web.com (actually on its secure version). I had no email address book for a virus to send viruses to.

AT LEAST HALF of the email I keep receiving was pornographic in some way (either to increase male or female parts, or nude celeb photos, etc) and I was TIRED of not being able to get OFF their email list!

I bought McAfee Spam Killer because I was told I could send emails back to all the unwanted email sites and make it look like my email address didn't even exist (so they would TAKE ME OFF THEIR EMAIL LISTS). It would also find the ISP address of the source of the email and allow you to send a complaint to the source ISP, Webmaster, and Abuse Manager. But you could not use Spam Killer with Mail2web.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to read all of the instructions (and didn't put on a FIREWALL FIRST) before I loaded it and started sending out both types of emails---the not-a-legit-email-address and up to 3 complaints per spam email received.

I wasn't thinking about the possible consequences of my actions: that the emails would actually be contradicting each other because after just saying my email doesn't exist, I'm SENDING an email from that SAME mail address.

McAfee determined that some of the spam emails didn’t have a Webmaster address or ISP or Abuse Manager, but it would give the spam website’s URL address itself and it would create an email address e,g, abuse@sexgoddess.com , I wasn’t thinking about the fact that the email address could be going right back TO the SPAMMER and he would now know the connection number I was at (I don’t know the terminology), i.e. he could gain access DIRECTLY INTO MY COMPUTER AND WIPE THE DRIVE!

I got a pop-up right after I had sent out the several emails, but didn't really get a chance to read it well before having to shut off my dial-up connection and give my kids a bath. I THOUGHT it was just a TYPICAL pop-up, trying to sell me some virus protection, and I thought I’d just look at it the next morning. But the more I think back about it now, I THINK it was saying that it had just DETECTED a POSSIBLE virus, but that my virus protection (which was now a year old) wasn't current enough to do anything about it. I'm just not SURE what it said.

Anyway, I shut off the internet connection (which I usually DID NOT do at night) and the next morning, I couldn't get my computer to wake up (I remembered after the fact that I had recently changed its settings to hibernate instead of just sleep when not used for a while).

USUALLY, if I did disconnect for the night, I could just tap on the space bar and left click button and wake it up to the internet page I had left it on the night before and all the other things I had open would STILL be open.

This time, though, I had to hold the power button down (i.e. for a HARD, manual shut down) and punch it again a few seconds later to get it to start up again.

When it came up again, it said "OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND."

I tried to restart it again by holding the power button down and restarting, but it responded the same way: "OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND" and it continues to put the same line of words for 18 lines.

CompUSA (the company I bought it from) told me that for $30, they could TRY to retrieve and back up my data, but that there was no guarantee and I can't take the chance that they might put a new System back on and lose any possibility of retrieving my data. (I KNOW IT WAS STUPID NOT TO BACK UP REGULARLY).

Another CompUSA said that they would have to REMOVE the hard drive completely from the laptop (for $139) to try to salvage the data and that they THOUGHT they COULD retrieve my data.

Still another CompUSA tech guy said there is NO WAY to recover my data (which as I said, I desperately need).

On a Macintosh, I know you can use a Norton Utilities Emergency Disk to get a baby-version of the system up so you CAN get up and running to be able to recover your data, but everyone I’ve talked to said that you CAN’T do it on a PC (with Norton Utilities or anything else on the consumer market).

Can ANYBODY help me? I really NEED the files. BTW, I have also been told that there are some companies that can retrieve data bit by bit, but that it is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. I was hoping it could be done, but not cost an arm and a leg. Any serious ideas about how to recover the data?

Also, does anybody know how to determine WHO gained access to my computer to wipe the drive (or whatever they did)? I want to make a complaint to the Feds if possible.

[yonif]

Maybe take out the harddrive and just go to a friend's house and hook it up. Then, if he has a cd burner, burn all the info on to CDs.

If you have McAfee Virus scan, you should have gotten an emergency virus disk. Try that one.

[AppyPappy]

Two things: If you don't know how to take a computer apart, take it to someone who does.

If you do, pull the drive and hook it up on another computer

[Robert_Paulson2]

Another CompUSA said that they would have to REMOVE the hard drive completely from the laptop (for $139) to try to salvage the data and that they THOUGHT they COULD retrieve my data.

---

this is indeed the wisest course of action. they will install it as a secondary drive on a larger system with data recovery tools and recover your data files. sorry, your drive is very likely toast for running an os on... you can reformat it and try to reinstall, but all data will be lost. and you very likely have a few bad sectors... as the programs that attack hard drives usually try and burn a bad spot into the boot sector... first.

[Cicero]

Maybe somebody with more knowledge of your particular problem can suggest a fix, but one possibility is to boot up with a floppy boot disk, if you have one, go to the C: drive at the DOS prompt, and see if you can't copy the files you really need over to floppy drives. Whether that's workable would depend on the type and size of the files in question.

Usually viruses don't delete everything but screw up your system files or your boot sector making it hard or impossible to get back into windows.

But hopefully someone has a better suggestion for recovery.

[tophat9000]

You need to boot system from floppy or the CD rom and see if ther are any files on the C drive
If you have of can get a "Start up" disk you can boot from floppy

[dennisw]

You may not be able to get one as fast as you want to but there are plenty of these on eBay. They allow you to mount a laptop hard drive in a regular old computer. Mount it as a slave. Once the laptop HD is a slave you can drag and drop all your needed files onto the desktop HD.

Reformat you laptop and start all over again.

[Alouette]

This problem happened frequently when I worked tech support. Here's what we did about 99% of the time:

Turn on the computer. After it goes through POST, press the F2 key to get to setup. In setup, autosearch all physical drives. If it finds your primary drive, press F10 to save and exit. Then boot up as you normally would.

Your problem might also be a loose connection. Maybe you need to reseat the HD if setup can't find it.

[Samurai_Jack]

Yeah,

OS Not Found means that your computer is unable to locate the program that provides the interface between the hardware and the user.

This can happen for numerous reasons, and nobody in their right mind would guarantee the recovery of your data from such a crash. That being said, there is a really good chance to recover your data.

Basically, they will get a functioning system and attach your drive as a secondary disk. The functioning system should automatically recognize the new disk as a new physical drive D: (the CD drive might come up as the E: drive).

Once they have successfully attached your data up as the secondary disk then its a matter of xcopy d:\mydocuments c:\recovereddata /s /e

It's always polite to keep all of your data located in the My Documents folder. That way the technician can back up the Documents and Settings folder without having to search all over the place for your data files.

Good Luck,

This tape will self destruct in 5... 4... 3... 2...

[TSgt]

CompUSA sucks! Be careful!

If you can create a boot disk you might be able to boot off a floppy and point to where XP is on your drive which get you back up.

Or try a Windows XP CDROM with the recovery option. I doubt that your data is lost. Most likely you just have a problem with your system files or master boot record MBR.

Check this out: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

You may need to edit the boot.ini on your floppy to tell XP where to find it on your drive.

[boot loader]
timeout=05
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Hope this helps!

Mike

[js1138]

I've seen this a number of times, most recently as a result of bad spots on the drive. If the drive is physically ok, you can reinstall XP from scratch without reformatting the drive. This will leave the data intact, although all programs will have to be reinstalled.

Two things: I agree with other posters that the safest course is to plug the drive into a working computer and try to copy your documents to a good drive. Then you can try to reinstall XP.

If the drive has bad spots there are downloadable programs supplied by the drive manufacturer that will clean and reformat it. Depends on how much it costs, whether it would be simpler to replace it.

[visualops]

A virus can alter the drive to make it appear unformatted. It's also possible there's corruption which is preventing booting.
First, get into the BIOS and auto-detect the hard drive, then try and boot up again.
If you still get the same error, acquire an antivirus program than you can run from a floppy and scan in dos.
This type of 'emergency disk' needs to be compatible with XP. If you have a boot sector virus that should get rid of it.
If you do pull the drive, be sure any system you put it on as slave is running an up-to-date antivirus program.

[Gone_Postal]

1st question does your laptop have a floppy drive and or CD drive.
If so go to set up and see if which drive is listed as 1st boot drive.
If either the floppy or CD drive are listed before the main HD then switch the order so the main HD is the primary Boot drive.

It may be that simple or a file could be corrupted in the OS

[monkeyshine]

XP has a way to roll back changes. I've used it once but can't remember exactly how it works. Look it up online or in the manual. I think if you can boot from the XP CD, you might be able to roll back to a date before you installed that crappy software, and be able to retrieve your data. Good luck. Otherwise, I think you should take the drive to another machine, and back all the files onto CD rom. Not sure if your files are really lost, or if just the OS is ruined.

Check to make sure also that there is no floppy in the disk drive, or no CD in the CD drive. Your BIOS may be set to boot from floppy/CD first, in which case it won't find any OS.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Any serious ideas about how to recover the data?

Have you tried any of the WinXP repair features?

*Last Known Good Configuration

*Safe Mode and System Restore

*Recovery Console (method is recommended only if you are an advanced user who can use basic commands to identify and locate problem drivers and files)

[RedWing9]

First off, please be careful what action you take. Most of the replies here are pointing you in the wrong direction, BADLY. Some of the responses will screw you in the end.

One or two posters have your first step, boot from the Windows XP CD-ROM and try the repair option, your MBR is definetly messed up. here, here, to start. You should look up the instructions, read them full and understand them before taking on this task. If you screw this up, your data is lost.

And for G_d SAKES, DO NOT REINSTALL XP. First thing XP will do to a drive in your state is reformat the partition table... BAD... BAD... BAD. SECONDLY, this is NO JOB for Best Buy or Circuit City, they are HACKS, generally. You may consider yourself lucky to find a responsible tech, but that's like a 10,000 to 1 chance.

If you can't repair the MBR, and the data is worth hundreds of dollars, take the machine to a pro. Or study up on the utilities to repair the boot record of a hard drive.

[red-dawg]

If you are "almost positive" that the window that popped up said something about a virus detection, then I would not let your hard drive get within a thousand miles of my repair shop. The truth hurts sometimes and IMHO you are SOL. The last thing I would want to do is let the virus propogate.

However, as a last resort I would have a pc that I did not care about handy and use it to install your drive into to try and save the files. Or I would use a program called LapLink to connect the two together and transfer them.

But at this point you gotta take what you can get.

[jordan8]

Almost certainly this is a boot sector problem. Somehow removing certain registry values will cause this error. Virus protection programs cause a lot of problems in this regard. If you have virus protection in the BIOS you should probably turn it off. You should be able to solve your problem simply by booting the XP CD. It should have a restore function. I've never done this with XP, but with the Win2000 CD I would select the restore function, then select the console mode, then simply exit the console mode, and, Bob's yer Uncle, the boot record would be restored and Win2K would then boot normally, without data loss. In the future you should seriously consider partitioning your hard drive and storing all important data on a FAT32 partition, as well as regular backing up to a CD or external USB hard drive.

[VoteHarryBrowne2000]

Two easy things to check first 1) make sure there is no floppy in the floppy drive (if you have one) and 2) make sure there is no CD left in the CD drive. Your system could be trying to boot from either media. I've done this a few times and am always puzzled for a bit. If this easy fix doesn't help then follow some of the more detailed suggestions. If your system is hosed, I would definitely pay someone to recover the data and not try and do it yourself.

[DAnconia55]

Am I logged in?

[Clinging Bitterly]

I don't know much about WinXP, but the "operating system not found" error could mean just about any of the things others have said upthread.

I'll toss out a theory that your new software put a hook into your Master Boot Record for the purpose of detecting malicious changes, but maybe wasn't entirely compatible with your drive type and trashed it instead. Regardless of the virus type, a good anti-vurus program should have trapped low level disk writes, so I doubt your problem is from a real virus (all of the foregoing assumes, of course, that you are running some kind of an anti-virus package - but I dare say it's just plain dumb running any version of Outlook without it).

Personally, I'd scare up a boot floppy (make sure the write protect tab is enabled - not covering the slot) and start going through the nondestructive diagnostic tools that should be contained therein.

If the command line interface (formerly known as DOS) will list a C: drive directory then you might just have missing system files. SYS C: should fix that.

If DOS won't list a directory on the drive then FDISK /MBR will rewrite a standard master boot record without disturbing anything else.

You should run Scandisk with the report only (don't fix) option first. If it reports a very large number of lost clusters (thousands) in a large number of chains, then the root directory has probably been trashed. If you try to fix that with scandisk, it will give all your files and folders meaningless names and make the recovery chore very difficult indeed. Rather, you should go to someone who knows how to do sector level disk editing (I haven't had to edit a disk sector in a very long time, but I used to be pretty good at that sort of thing) and have them try to fix it.

Scandisk might also report mismatched File allocation tables. It's usually (but not guaranteed) safe to let scandisk fix that problem.

Beyond that, I don't know much about the more advanced WinXP recovery tools, but if they're like the ones included in other versions of Windows, I wouldn't expect much from them.

YMMV

Dave in Eugene