Virus removal compaq presario 1245 floppy drive

[schris]

Hello,
I have an old compaq presario 1245 that I still compose on because it has software that I like and is unavailable for my newer computer. It is too slow for internet access so I use my newer computer for that. By use of a floppy to move data, I recently seem to have infected the old computer with a virus my newer computer acquired on the internet (since removed from my newer computer). As a result, every floppy I put in the floppy drive of the compaq now has all of its data and even formatting stripped. So I cannot get the files I need from the old computer off of it since it doesn't have a driver for a USB device nor to burn CDs. Is there a way I can remove the virus? It had McAfee virus software on it but of course it is about 12 years old so it's impossible to find any help on the McAfee site.
Thanks for any ideas.

 

[WR2]

Hello schris;

About the only solution I can think of is remove the HDD, attach it a PC and scan it from the PC.

 

[WR2]

Without knowing what HDD you have I'm guessing you'll need a 44pin to 40pin IDE HDD adapter like this one:
Laptop 44pin IDE HDD to 40pin and molex adapter for PC IDE HDD cable.

 

[apache_lives]

why dont you have original copys of the software? or find newer versions for your newer pc or find alternatives?

chances are you will never get your data off - newer a/v products WILL NOT WORK on your older unit/os/limited specs

caddy the hdd perhaps...

 

[Singleton_60]

why dont you have original copys of the software? or find newer versions for your newer pc or find alternatives?

chances are you will never get your data off - newer a/v products WILL NOT WORK on your older unit/os/limited specs

caddy the hdd perhaps...

I'm having the same problem as Schris. Did a System Restore with the original CDs but the problem persists. I'm thinking to replace the floppy drive, Geek Squad at Best Buy concurred. Any thoughts?

 

[hang-the-9]

The drive itself is fine, and a system restore would have cleaned up any viruses on that computer. Did you clean out all of the disks?

 

[Singleton_60]

No but I tried other floppies including one to reinstall a program; got a message that the a:\ drive was not accessible.

 

[hang-the-9]

That's probably not a virus. Try the disks in another computer, if they work, check to make sure that the floppy drive is installed properly (cable is installed in the right direction), try a brand new floppy, if that fails, a new drive would be the first thing to try.

 

[Singleton_60]

I did the floppies in another computer; the formatting was gone. I'm going to order a new drive. Thanks for your time, will let you know it turns out.

 

[hang-the-9]

I did the floppies in another computer; the formatting was gone. I'm going to order a new drive. Thanks for your time, will let you know it turns out.

What do you mean "the formatting was gone"? You need to format the floppies before you can use them. Format one then see if you can use it in your drive.

 

[Singleton_60]

disks with files on them B/4 the problem(s) arose (formatted) either came up with a message that the drive a not accessible or that the file needed to be formatted. Took them to my HP desktop and got the needed to be formatted message again.

 

[hang-the-9]

It may be a bad floppy drive, if the heads get out of alignment, the disks you use in that drive can get messed up. I don't know if a partition recovery tool like testdisk will work on recovering floppies, but you can try something like that. If it was a virus that wiped the disks, a recovery program may get the files back. Or just try to format the drives on the other PC and see if they are usable on yours.