Boot Sector Virus Repair

Most boot sector viruses detected by some of the best commercial antivirus software such as Symantec's Norton Antivirus, Microsoft's Security Essentials, or Kapersky's Antivirus can not be removed by these applications. And in many cases a boot sector virus is capable of alluding these applications unless the drive is connected to a clean system that has the AV software actively running.

What is a boot sector virus? This is a computer virus that infects a diskette or hard drive in the area which contains information about the configuration of the disk. The boot sector is used by many computer operating systems to determine how to access the diskette or drive. These viruses replace the critical boot sector program used to start the computer with their own malicious program often causing frequent computer crashes, allowing other malware infections, and performance issues.

This Tech note will outline some basic steps to take to repair computer systems containing such viruses.

Repair Process

The most effective way of repairing a computer system that has been infected by a boot sector virus is to over-write the boot sector. In this process, you will need a copy of a Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 DVD and a DVD drive in the computer.

1. Boot the system with a Windows Vista or Windows 7 DVD
2. Select Next when prompted
3. Select Repair Your Computer
4. Select Next
5. At the command prompt run the commands:
   BOOTREC /FIXMBR
   BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
6. Type Exit to return to Windows
7. Restart the system and then shutdown the system
8. Remove the drive
9. Connect the drive to a slave computer and scan it again for viruses

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