Microsoft KB Archive/299933

= How To Prepare and Scan a FAT32 Partition for Virus Detection and Removal in Windows =

Article ID: 299933

Article Last Modified on 3/29/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

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This article was previously published under Q299933



IN THIS TASK
SUMMARY
 * Requirements
 * Cleaning and Rebooting the Computer After a Virus Attack
 * Troubleshooting

REFERENCES



SUMMARY
This step-by-step guide describes how to reboot and clean your server or workstation after a virus attack.

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Requirements

 * The file system on the infected computers must be FAT or FAT32. If your file system is the NTFS File System, refer to the notation in the &quot;Troubleshooting&quot; section in this article.
 * A virus-free and write-protected Windows 98 or Windows Millennium (Me) startup floppy disk (disk 1).
 * A working installation of an antivirus program with current virus definitions installed on a non-infected computer with which you can create a bootable MS-DOS-based virus scanner on a disk.
 * The infected computer must be set to boot from a floppy drive denoted as drive &quot;A&quot;.

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Cleaning and Rebooting the Computer After a Virus Attack
 Shut down the infected computer. Start the infected computer from the startup disk:  Place the startup disk (which is referred to in the &quot;Requirements&quot; section in this article) in drive A. Turn off the computer. Restart the computer.  Scan the infected computer with the antivirus disk:  Remove the disk from drive A.</li> Insert the antivirus disk (which is referred to in the &quot;Requirements&quot; section in this article) into drive A.</li> Follow the instructions that are provided by your antivirus vendor to run the disk(s) to clean the infected computer.</li> Restart the computer when you finish.</li></ol> </li></ol>

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Troubleshooting
There are viruses which can maliciously attack a server or workstation system files and render it unrecoverable. In such cases, it is recommended to rebuild the system from scratch and restore the data from a known good backup.

If your file system is NTFS, the MS-DOS-based boot disk will not be able to gain access to NTFS-formatted drives, therefore the virus scanning software will not be able to clean your files. There may be third-party programs which will allow you to start from an MS-DOS-based disk and read and/or write to an NTFS volumes; however, any third-party program or utility is not supported by Microsoft.

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