PLEASE NOTE BELOW.

Important Note: To see if Vbuster can recover your damaged hard-disk do the following before.

In order to see if vbuster will work on your system, please run the evaluation (download at vbuster.com) copy of V-Buster, press F1 and then "X". You need to download this from another PC and unzip it. Copy all files to a diskette. Make sure you are doing this in DOS. Take the diskette to your PC which has a damage hardisk. Run Vbuster from this diskette. If the message is "An original V-Buster will be able to recover this hard disk" then V-Buster can recover the Boot Sector and Partition Table." Then it means it will work.If you do not want any headaches then write an email so we can arrange to fix this from our office. We will get back to you on the cost etc. We do have a backlog though so if you think you can do it yourself, read on.

Read on for more information to help you.

1. Any computer which has used V-Buster before, either the original or evaluation copy to check their hard disk will be able to press "F1" and then "X" to recover their hard disk when it crashed. All that is needed is for them to have used V-Buster before once only. I have placed a one byte marker in their hard disks. This is to ensure that only V-Buster users will benefit. Otherwise people will be using other anti-virus programs and just borrow a copy of V-Buster to recover their hard disk when the hard disk crash.

2. For those who have never used V-Buster before and their hard disks happen to crash will have to copy the partition table from another similar hard disk partitioned in the same way. This means you need to have an exact partition table as the one you have in the crash disk. If you do not have then vbuster will not be able to help. Vbuster will copy this partition system from the hard disk having the exact partition as yours to your damage hard disk to rewrite the information so your Dos can see it again. Only vbuster can do this. Using Disk Manager may help but it may be the case that the virus have over-written the original codes which makes it unreadable. Reinstalling it may be an option provided the virus is deactivated. You can try this first. Of course the best way is to use vbuster from the outset, even the demo is better than having to pull your hair now.

Follow the following steps. They are useful if your Windows refuses to start or you have a bad virus infection in your hard disk:- 1. Copy PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE to the ROOT or MAIN directory of your hard disk.

2. Use PKZIP.EXE and zip all the subdirectories in your hard disk. Zipping the files in \WINDOWS and \WINDOWS\SYSTEM subdirectories is usually enough to restart your Windows. To make like easier, zip all the subdirectories in your hard disk. To zip the files in \WINDOWS subdirectory, change to the \WINDOWS subdirectory by typing "CD \WINDOWS". From the \WINDOWS subdirectory type "C:\PKZIP WINDOWS.ZIP". Do the same for the other sudirectories.

3. Run CHKSUM.COM from the VBUSTER subdirectory of your V-BUSTER diskette. Windows will not start if any of the Windows files are damaged by a virus or a malfunction by Windows which is a very common thing. If your Windows refuses to start, or your hard disk is infected by a virus run CHKSUM.COM, and note down all the subdirectories where files have been altered.

4. Use PKUNZIP.EXE to unzip all the subdirectories where files have been altered. You can do this by changing to the subdirectory, like typing "CD \WINDOWS" and then typing "C:\PKUNZIP WINDOWS.ZIP". Repeat this for all the affected subdirectories. You will find that these steps are better than all the anti-virus programs in the World put together. You should also create a proper BOOT disk for use if your Windows crashes. The Windows Startup disk is NOT a proper BOOT disk. DOS 6.22 will be able to read a hard disk with a 12 bit FAT table. For a hard disk with a 32 bit FAT table you will have to prepare a DOS 7 BOOT disk.

You can do this by follwing the following steps:-

a. Boot up your hard disk,

b. Exit to DOS.

c. Change to \WINDOWS\COMMAND subdirectory by typing "CD \WINDOWS\COMMAND".

d. Insert a formatted diskette in your disk drive and type "SYS A:".

To be honest, with CHKSUM.COM and the steps outlined above you do not really need any anti-virus program (and I will go bankrupt!). Even Worms will be detected by CHKSUM.COM as it will list out the addtional COM or EXE files added to a subdirectory. They will usually be WORMS or TROJANS unless you have added the files yourself.

Best Regards, H.T.Looi 19-01-2000

OK, I received a lot of emails every day saying/complaining about hardisk problem so In the meantime I am added this VBSP.ZIP containing a special evaluation copy of Vbuster.Exe which can be used to restore a crashed hard disk. Unzip with Pkunzip, boot up a DOS diskette in drive A, run Vbuster.Exe, press "F1" and then "X". Vbuster.Exe can only automatically restore a crashed hard disk if you have used V-Buster (evaluation) on your hard disk previously.

If you have not you will have to use the alternative method explained below. If the message says "error encountered", type "C" to check the hard disk. If the message is "Error reading drive" then you have a hardware problem. Changing the PC Board attached to the hard disk with that from a good hard disk will usually solve this problem. This must be done by someone who knows hardware. If the "Error encountered" message appeared when you press "F1" and then "X" and no "Error reading drive" then you can do the following: 1. Go to another computer with a similar hard disk partitioned in the same way. 2. Run Vbuster.Exe, press "F1" and then "4" to save a copy of the partition table and boot sector. 3. Boot up DOS in the computer with the crashed hard disk, run Vbuster.Exe and then press "F1" and then "2" with the saved boot sector and partition table in drive A, to copy the Partition Table over. 4. If the problem is still not solved, do the same but press "3" to copy the Boot Sector over. If everything fails, then you can use TIRAMISU by Ontrack Systems to recover the files. If that fails then try to use Disk Manager to restore the partition table. DO NOT let Disk Manager do anything else besides restoring the Partition Table.

Best Regards, H.T.Looi 20-09-2000

Still not working ? Try reading this for a change. This is a collection of 200 ways to fix your hard disk found at techrepublic.com. Not bad if you have to choose between a sleepless night or having something to read. NOTE: we are not responsible for the content.

For those who are having Master Boot Up Record problem try this MBRKILL.ZIP ( We are not responsible for this tool and use at your own risk.)

MBRKILL is a generic cleaner and immuniser for all kind of boot viruses infecting the MBR. You can browse their website first to find more information by typing MBRKILL in any search engine. Hope all this helps. Like I said many times, we will try our best to help but at the end of the day, we do need to sell our vbuster product.

To sent us an email info@vbuster.com