Assuming it was the CIH virus (and there's an excellent chance it was) here's an extract from DataFellows web site about this virus:
> What makes the CIH case really serious is that the virus activates > destructively. When it happens the virus overwrites most of the > data on the computers hard drive. This can be recovered with recent > backups. > > However, the virus has another, unique activation routine: It will > try to overwrite the Flash BIOS chip of the machine. If this > succeeds, the machine will be unable to boot at all unless the chip > is reprogammed. The Flash routine will work on many types of > Pentium machines - for example, on machines based on the Intel > 430TX chipset. On most machines, the Flash BIOS can be protected > with a jumper. By default, protection is usually off. So even if you do have a data backup your BIOS is probably fried. For more information see: http://www.datafellows.com/v-descs/cih.htm Good luck On 27 Apr 99, at 12:38, Mitch Blevins wrote about Re: Hit by virus !? Help, please...: > In foo.debian-user, you wrote: > > after my kid was playing games on win95 yesterday > > evening i was unable to boot into Linux - actually unable > > to boot into win95 also... Looks like some kind of > > virus destroyed boot sector with partition table. > > > > i can remember approximate partition sizes and order. > > > > Is there any way to recover partition table and the system > > as well ? > > You got hit with the CIH virus. It was well publicized at least > a week prior to the detonation date (yesterday). All reports that > I have seen don't hold much hope for recovering without a full reinstall. > (hope you backed up your data..) > > It is an unfortunate fact that if you want to run Windows on a machine > nowadays, you must pay tribute to the antivirus gods or suffer their > wrath from time to time. > > -Mitch ============================== Jan M. - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Fingerprint:397D 093C E802 964E 5316 B90A 93CE 6696 Thought for the day: Concerto (n): a fight between a piano and a pianist.