Every Windows based hard drive is divided into numerous small sectors. The first sector among all the sectors is known as the boot sector, which further consists of MBR (Master Boot Record). The MBR is the first sector that contains information about bootable hard drive partition. Corruption in boot sector can occur due to various reasons like, improper system shutdown, file system corruption, operating system malfunction, and malicious software like virus. In most cases CHKDSK displays an error message when the boot sector gets damaged. Two major hazards of boot sector corruption are system unbootability and data inaccessibility. These problems can be easily surpassed in case the user has maintained a complete backup. But, if the user has not maintained any backup or backup falls short of restoring the backup, then you need to use advanced
Data Recovery Software to recover the data.
Out of the above causes of boot sector sector corruption, virus attack is the most common reason. Few of the boot sector viruses are:
SCA (Swiss Cracking Association)
Michelangelo
Stoned
Stealth_C
Byte Bandit
Byte Warrior
Brain
After any of the above viruses hits the boot sector, it gets automatically loaded in the memory and corrupts a non-infected disk that is accessed by the computer. Underneath is the error message that CHKDSK pops up on the screen post boot virus infection:
“653312 Total Bytes Memory”
To resolve the above error message and to access the system's data, follow these measures:
Run DOS SYS or DOS LABEL command to restore the boot sector.
Run FDISK /MBR to replace the MBR.
Run an anti-virus software to remove the virus.
However, if the above resolutions fail to resolve your issue, then you need to format your system. While formatting removes all the viruses from your system, it also deletes all the previously stored data from a hard drive. The formatted data can be recovered only by advanced data recovery software. A
Hard Drive Data Recovery utility is easy-to-understand and allows even a non-technical user to recover formatted data. The recovery software also allows you to preview the recoverable data and restore it at required location(s).
Data Recovery is one package that recovers lost, deleted, missing, or formatted data. Compatible with FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file systems, the Data Recovery utility supports recovery from almost all kinds digital storage media. It is designed for Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000.
