Screwed by install of Drive Image - HELP!!

[Bill in SD, CA]

OK, decided to install Drive Image in order to back up my drives.

Why not? After install I made rescue disks and decided to back up my main C & D drives to a networked 20 GB patition on another system.

Program said I had to re-boot in order to do the operation.

OK, let's re-boot. On re-boot immediately after "Verifying DMI Pool Data" I get the following:

ERR 5: Error finding VFLOPPY.SYS

ERR 8: Fake Floppy Driver Not Found

Press any key to boot into active partion. (Which does BTW get me back into 2K)

However, I can't get past these messages even after I uninstalled Drive Image which BTW was installed to D:.

Re-installed to C: and get the same message.

Thought "OK must be something int the boot.ini file." NOPE!!

What went wrong and how do I fix it?

System was working perfectly prior to the install.

Bill

Try a 'FIXMBR' from the Recovery Console.

[Bill in SD, CA]

I have the Recovery Console installed as a "boot" option on my system.

Should I use that option or go from my CD?

Isn't FIXMBR a little dangerous?

Can I loose the system by executing it?

Just trying to be careful here.

Bill

I've never used it but from the CD, I would go that route.

I've also never heard of or had experience w/ losing anything by using 'FIXMBR'. All it does is rewrite the Master Boot Record. I think you only have to worry if you have a "drive overlay program" used from some drive mfr's. You can do the same thing w/ 'FDISK /MBR' from a 9X bootdisk. You may need to use 'FIXBOOT', I'll have to read and see which does what, either way, trying both is not going to hurt anything.

[Martoch]

From Micro$oft...

FIXMBR
fixmbr device name

Use this command (where device name is an optional device name that specifies the device that needs a new MBR) to repair the master boot record (MBR) of the system partition. This command is used in scenarios where a virus has damaged the MBR and Windows cannot start.

WARNING: This command has the potential to damage your partition tables if a virus is present or a hardware problem exists. This command may lead to inaccessible partitions. Microsoft suggests running antivirus software before using this command.

The name can be obtained from the output of the map command. If this is left blank, the boot device's MBR is fixed, for example:
fixmbr \device\harddisk2

If Fixmbr detects an invalid or non-standard partition table signature, it prompts you for permission before rewriting the MBR.

I agree with Rick, your data should not be touched by either command.

Fixboot writes a new boot sector on the system partition.

Fixmbr repairs the boot partition's master boot code. The variable device is an optional name that specifies the device that needs a new MBR; omit this variable when the target is the boot device.

[Bill in SD, CA]

I'm positive that I have no viruses or trojans.

Going to pick my 13 year old up from school and give it a go when I get back.

Maybe I'll let him do it.

In the worse case scenario, I should be able to slave the drive and recover data .... right?

There's a lot of stuff on there. Estimated 35 CR-RW's for the ghosting. It's a 120 GB drive. That's why I wanted to ghost to the network drive that's empty.

Bill

By "damaged", they just mean unbootable. There's NO WAY it can physically mess up the drive.

And just so you know, it can sense you, don't be afraid to 'FIXMBR' or 'FIXBOOT' it.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Here I go!

See you on the flip side.

Bill

[Bill in SD, CA]

Worked like a charm!!

Thanks!!

Now to see if I can back up the main drives to the network drive.

Bill