Win98 Virus Removal!

[Harry Potter]

I have a Win98 PC at my mother's house, and it has a virus. The virus is apparently a boot-sector virus, as Conventional memory in DOS mode is missing 3k RAM and all drives are in MS-DOS compatibility mode. Also, some other programs don't work properly. believe the virus is before 2003. I am looking for an inexpensive or free way to eliminate the virus. It only has to be run once on the hard drive and perhaps some floppies as well. I can just stop using the CD that appears to have the virus. Even a trial version of the software is fine. Any ideas?

 

[blazorthon]

Is wiping even the boot-sector and re-installing everything known to be clean a practical option?

 

[christop]

Man that is real old you might try malwarebytes But I am not sure that will support 98. It might be time to put that puppy to sleep!!!

 

[jemm]

I´d go for a clean OS installation -- go XP!

 

[christop]

I would throw it in the trash as I am sure it has a 20 gig hd and 128 mb of ram...

 

[bigcyco1]

Antivirus Tools

A frequently updated antivirus tool is one of the best ways to protect a Windows 98 system from infection and repair any existing problems. The Avast free antivirus software is one of the best reviewed free antivirus tools available today. Unlike many other competitors, Avast free antivirus operates perfectly on Windows 98 systems. The Avast free antivirus application protects Windows 98 computers in real-time from live threats and can scan a Windows 98 computer for any infections and remove them immediately.

General Spyware Tools

Spyware detection and removal tools can give a Windows 98 system an essential added layer of protection from web-based security threats by specifically targeting those malicious softwares that do not necessarily modify the Windows 98 code. There are numerous spyware tools that can run on Windows 98 that will provide real-time Internet Explorer protection from tracking cookies and other adware as well as scan the Windows 98 system for existing threats to be quarantined and removed. http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=139301

Rootkit and Trojan Tools

Rootkits and trojans tend to embed themselves into the Windows 98 system more deeply than standard tracking cookies and adware, thus making them difficult to detect and remove. Most rootkit and trojan scanners function perfectly in Windows 98 and can be used to protect the Windows 98 system from threats posed by rootkits and trojans. These tools generally scan all the active processes and pre-defined locations for issues and then output a log file to be used for further analysis online. With the help of these tools, a users can ensure that her Windows 98 system is free of problems.
Now download the below tools:

Install SpyBot - Search & Destroy Run a Scan
http://spybot-download.net/SpybotSD2.exe
Install Avast Free Antivirus Run a Scan

http://dw.com.com/redir?edId=3&siteId=4&oId=3000-2239_4-10019223&ontId=2239_4&spi=727a1aa73e19ab66ac5fda53fa331f08&lop=link&tag=tdw_dltext&ltype=dl_dlnow&pid=13023748&mfgId=85737&merId=85737&pguid=UU5QxQoOYI4AACk5l7AAAADI&ctype=dm&cval=NONE&destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fsoftware-files-a.cnet.com%2Fs%2Fsoftware%2F13%2F02%2F37%2F48%2Favast_free_antivirus_setup.exe%3Flop%3Dlink%26ptype%3D3000%26ontid%3D2239%26siteId%3D4%26edId%3D3%26spi%3D727a1aa73e19ab66ac5fda53fa331f08%26pid%3D13023748%26psid%3D10019223%26token%3D1364122938_828e1bf3f2860bf1f878d3b8d960ef4c%26fileName%3Davast_free_antivirus_setup.exe

 

[Guest]

I have a Win98 PC at my mother's house, and it has a virus. The virus is apparently a boot-sector virus, as Conventional memory in DOS mode is missing 3k RAM and all drives are in MS-DOS compatibility mode. Also, some other programs don't work properly. believe the virus is before 2003. I am looking for an inexpensive or free way to eliminate the virus. It only has to be run once on the hard drive and perhaps some floppies as well. I can just stop using the CD that appears to have the virus. Even a trial version of the software is fine. Any ideas?

Back in the DOS days, I used F-Prot AntiVirus for DOS, you can still find it floating around the 'net but it hasn't been updated since around 2006 or 2007 and is not available from their web site but fortunately you can still grab it on a direct download link: http://files.f-prot.com/files/dos/f-prot.zip

What I would do would is download F-Prot and unzip it onto the hard drive, don't run it though, then use a clean Win98 boot floppy and boot the computer with that. Navigate to where you extracted the F-Prot for DOS onto the hard drive and run it. Scan the drive and it will hopefully find your little nasty.

 

[Harry Potter]

I tried f-prot, and it didn't find the virus. I think I know what happened: the computer has no virus! I think I overreacted when I saw missing conventinal memory in DOS mode. This would explain why the computer didn't behave worse over time. This would also explain why nothing detected the virus, and cleaning out the system didn't work. So, where did the extra memory go?

 

[Guest]

I tried f-prot, and it didn't find the virus. I think I know what happened: the computer has no virus! I think I overreacted when I saw missing conventinal memory in DOS mode. This would explain why the computer didn't behave worse over time. This would also explain why nothing detected the virus, and cleaning out the system didn't work. So, where did the extra memory go?

Most likely that bit of RAM is reserved for the Extended BIOS Data Area or possibly a ROM BIOS Extention for an add-in card such as a network adapter.

 

[Harry Potter]

Most likely that bit of RAM is reserved for the Extended BIOS Data Area or possibly a ROM BIOS Extention for an add-in card such as a network adapter.

Oh. Thank you.