- Sometimes if you choose Retry, DOS will be able to read or write to the disk on the second or third try. However, even if this works, you may need to correct the problem by running the Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) to fix filesor Speed Disk (SD) to unfragment files. - If the problem is with a floppy disk, verify that your disk is properly in the disk drive. Is it upside down? - Sometimes the media in the disk gets stuck or out of alignment. Remove the diskette from the drive and tap the disk on its side to attempt to loosen up the disk, being careful not to touch the magnetic media. Place itback in the drive and try again. - Are you sure the disk is formatted? - Are you sure that the disk is formatted so that it can be read on this disk drive? For example, if you are using a 360K drive, and you have inserted a disk originally formatted as a 1.2 megabyte disk, it cannot be read. - If the problem can't be readily solved, choose the Abort option, and examine the disk with the Norton Disk Information (DI) or Disk Test (DT) command. - If you are convinced that the disk is properly formatted for this drive, but DOS is having trouble reading a file, try to correct the problem with the Norton Disk Doctor (NDD). Some legitimate programs create hidden files or directories on disk as a part of a file protection scheme. These are okay. However, some virus programs also create hidden files and directories in which destructive programs may reside. Using the Norton Control Center, you can see any hidden directories that may reside on your disk. If you see one that looks suspicious, investigate. Also, using the Norton File Attribute (FA) command, you can discover any hidden files on disk. Again, if you don't know why they are there, investigate. If you suspect a potential attack, besure to keep copies of all important files on backup disks until you are sure the danger is gone. This message occurs when you attempt to read or write something to a disk, printer or another device. If a disk is bad, or not properly in the disk drive, an error will occur, and you will receive this message. The meaningsof these options are: Abort - cancel the procedure. Retry - try the procedure again. Ignore - ignore the error and proceed. For example, during a copy, this will tell the copy to continue, but the resulting file may have missing information that could not be copied correctly. Fail - similar to ignore. The problem will be skipped and DOS will try to continue with the procedure. If the problem is the inability to access a disk drive, you may be prompted to enter a new current disk drive name. This message may appear if you attempt to change (write to) a file that hasits attribute setting as read-only. You may change this setting with the DOS ATTRIB command or with the Norton File Access (FA) command. Make sure you want to change this file before removing the read-only status. Access Denied may also occur if you attempt to use a subdirectory as a file, such as editing it. If you discover that your AUTOEXEC.BAT file has been changed, try to determine when and why the change was made. Some software installation programs change this file and the CONFIG.SYS file as a part of the installation process. This is okay. However, some virus programs may changethe AUTOEXEC.BAT file to run a destructive program or to run a counter program that will eventually release a destructive virus. You should examine your AUTOEXEC.BAT (and CONFIG.SYS) files and understand the reason why each command is included in these files. If a suspicious command appears, replace the old AUTOEXEC.BAT with your backup copy, or edit out the unknown command. If the suspect command begins an unknown program, determine where the program is and what it does. Remove it from your computer if its purpose is unknown. A well-publicized virus that was sent to hundreds of persons in the guise of a demo program used a command in theAUTOEXEC.BAT file to trigger its main counting mechanism. This message occurs if you enter a command at the DOS prompt that DOS does not recognize. For example, if you misspell the format command "FROMAT." Another possibility is that you entered a correct command, but were not in the proper directory, or you did not have your PATH command set up to find the command in its directory. Solutions for the second problem are to correct your PATH command (usually in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file) or to change directories with the DOS CD command or with the Norton NCD command. This message is usually caused when the file COMMAND.COM is not on the bootdisk, or DOS had a problem reading this file. If you attempted to boot froma floppy disk, was it a boot disk? If you were booting from a hard disk, you need to correct the problem by rebooting from the A: disk with a correct version of DOS, and fixing the problem on your hard disk. This may mean copying COMMAND.COM back on the hard disk root directory. If your hard disk is having problems, you may need to use the Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) to attempt to fix the problem. This error occurs when DOS cannot find the hidden system files required to boot the computer. You cannot make a disk bootable simply by placing the COMMAND.COM file on it. You must use the DOS SYS command or Norton Disk Doctor's (NDD) "Create a Bootable Disk" option to place these hidden files on a disk. This error may occur when you use the DOS RECOVER command. Instead of usingthis DOS command, use the Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) to attempt to recover damaged files. Your computer has booted from the hard disk in the past but now when you turn on your computer, it will not boot from the hard disk. When this happens, you must boot from a floppy disk in the A: drive, using a disk that contains DOS. Make sure it is a disk that contains the same version ofDOS that is on the hard disk. One problem that can cause this problem is that you no longer have the correct COMMAND.COM in your hard disk root directory. Once you have booted your computer, examine your hard disks's root directory to determine if it contains the correct COMMAND.COM. You should be able to tell from its date -- does it match the date and size on the original DOS disk? If not, copy the correct COMMAND.COM onto the hard disk, and try booting again. If the COMMAND.COM is okay, your system files may have become corrupted. You can use the DOS SYS command to transfer a fresh copy of the system files to the hard disk. Better yet, use the Norton Disk Doctor's option to "Make a Disk Bootable." This will place both COMMAND.COM and the system files on your disk. If this does not work, you may have physical damage to your hard disk. Take it in for repair. This error message usually means that there is a bad spot on a disk that istrying to be read or written. You can attempt to locate and correct this problem with the Norton Disk Test (DT) command or with Norton Disk Doctor (NDD). You may be the unfortunate victim of deliberate computer information destruction. One way this can occur is for your computer to be infected by a computer virus. These virus programs have been known to come from normal commercial software (rarely), from pirated software and from unsolicited "demos" that appear in the mail. Some virus programs are non-destructive and simply give you a message (and a scare). Other virus programs may attempt to destroy all data on your disk. Another kind of sabotage is a deliberate attempt by a person to destroy, change or erase information on your computer disk. Problems with virus programs have received a lot of attention in the press, but there are a few precautions you can take to lessen your chance of being a victim. And, if you are a victim, you may be able to recover some of your lost information. Preventative solutions for these problems include loading only software from reputable sources on your hard disk and keeping access to your computer limited. Also, set the attributes on important files to read-only.This should at least include the COMMAND.COM, AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files in your root directory. Another important step in being prepared for this kind of data destruction is having current backups of your computer. You might particularly keep a backup disk of the files in your root directory. Also, keep a current copy of your original DOS disk and a copy of the Norton Advanced Utilities handy. Virus programs continue to get more complicated and destructive. Depending on the nature of the attack, you may not be able to recover any information. However, if your computer's disk has been compromised by a virus or sabotage, Utility programs such as Norton Advanced Utilities PC-Tools and Mace Utilities offers some hope of recovery. This problem often occurs when a software program attempts to divide a number by zero. If the program is one you have written, you can correct theprogram in the code. If it is a commercial program you may need to contact the software company. If this problem occurs when running the Norton NU program, use the X switch to exclude drives that may be allocated, but do not really exist. This message can occur if the drive door is not fully closed. Check to see that your disk is properly in the drive, and the drive door is fully closed. The problem may also be caused by a defective drive. If this is thecase, you will need to get a qualified technician to correct the problem. This error may occur when DOS is unable to find the proper system information when attempting to boot the system. Turn off your computer and try again. You may need to boot the computer from a DOS disk in the A: drive, and correct the problem by writing a fresh copy of the system files to disk using the DOS SYS command, or use the Norton Disk Doctor's (NDD) option to create a bootable disk to correct the problem. This error may be caused by DOS unable to write system startup information to a disk. Use Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) or Disk Test (DT) to analyze and correct the problem. If the problem persists, attempt to copy as much information from this disk as possible. You may need to boot from a floppy disk in drive A:. To correct this problem, you may need to perform a low-level format of the disk. See the discussion on low-level formatting. This error can be caused during the FORMAT procedure by a hardware problem or a physically damaged disk. Probably, the boot record at the beginning ofthe disk cannot be read or written. A possible solution is to reformat the boot record. You can use Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) to attempt to fix your disk and recover information. This problem will need to be fixed by replacing your disk or getting a technician to correct the hardware problem, or you may need to perform a low-level format on your disk. See the discussion on low-level formatting. If you disks looks like it has been completely erased or formatted, you have several options: - Boot your computer from the original DOS disk, then use the Norton Undelete Directory to see if there are any directories and files that can be saved. - Some virus attacks have been known to rename files and directories. You may have to examine recovered information on a file-by-file basis to determine what it is. - If the disk was formatted, you can try to Unformat the disk using the Format Recover (FR) command. Hopefully, you have recently run the FR/SAVE command, which will make the recovery easier. Virus attacks are becoming smarter and more destructive. Having backups of your files is very important. There are some attacks that completely destroy data. For these problems, recovering your information from backup diskettes is the only solution. Somehow DOS has lost information about where files are stored. This information is normally in the File Application Table (FAT). There are usually two versions of the FAT on disk. By using the Norton Disk Doctor's "Diagnose Disk" option, you may be able to recover information from the duplicate FAT. This error occurs when the COPY command is used, if you leave off a required destination. For example, the command COPY MYFILE.TXT will produce this error since DOS will not allow the file, if it exists, tobe written to itself. This error occurs when DOS is unable to write a file to a directory. The directory or disk may be full. If this is the case, deleting unnecessary files can make room for the file. If you want to write to a file that has the Read-Only attribute set, you will need to either change the file's attribute (use DOS's ATTRIB command or Norton's FA command) or save the file under another name. Also, the disk could be physically damaged, and DOS tried to write the file on a bad spot on the disk. If this is the case,copy all files off the disk and reformat the disk or use the Norton Disk Doctor (Diagnose) to find and mark bad spots on the disk. This error can occur if you attempt to access a file that is not in the current directory or is not in the directory of the specified path. You mayalso get this message if the file space on the disk is damaged. If this is the case, attempt to reclaim the file with Norton Disk Doctor's "Diagnose" option. Use the Norton Unremove Directory (UD) command to recover each directory and associated files that have been erased. Use the Norton Quick Unerase (QU) command to recover these files. Other programs such as PC-Tools also have programs to unerase files. Unerase your files before writing new information to your disk. This error message is displayed when DOS cannot figure out why a problem occurred. In this case, you may have to do your own fishing for the culprit. If you are attempting to access a disk in a drive, you might make sure the disk is readable. For example, are you attempting to access a 1.2MB 5 1/4 inch disk in a 360K drive or a 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk in a 720K drive? Also, check to see if your diskette is correctly in the disk drive. Is the disk upside down? Is the disk drive door closed all the way? The problem can also be caused by a damaged disk or disk drive. Try the disk inanother disk drive, or use Norton Disk Doctor to attempt to read the diskette. When hard disks are manufactured, they contain random magnetic information on the disk. To make them usable, the manufacturer of the hard disk drive or disk controller performs a low-level format on the hard disk. This is a much more thorough format than the DOS FORMAT. It prepares the surface of the hard disk to receive a DOS format, and checks the surface to detect badspots. Occasionally, a working hard disk will develop problems that cannot be corrected except by performing a low-level format on the disk. Some machines have low level format programs built in to their ROM software. Using the DOS DEBUG program, you can tell this program to begin operating. However, the low-level format is usually a completely destructive format --and there are other low-level format programs that are non-destructive. If your hard disk contains information that you have not been able to recover, but you need to perform a low-level format, you should use a program such as HFORMAT, a part of the HTEST software program from Paul Mace Software, 400 Williamson Way, Ashland, OR 97520 (800) 523-0258. Using this low-level format procedure, you may be able to recover some information from the disk. If you want to perform a low-level format using the machine's built in program, follow these instructions: Boot the computer using the original DOS disk in drive A:. On the DOS disk is a program called DEBUG. Begin the DEBUG program, and a "-" prompt shouldappear on the screen. At the "-" prompt enter the message: G=C800:5 and press the Enter key. Wait for a minute. If nothing happens, your machine probably does not have a built in low-level format program. You must now re-boot the computer -- you'll need a program such as HFORMAT mentioned above. If a low-level format program exists in ROM another prompt will appear. Youmust now enter an interleave number - this controls your hard disk access time. The interleave determines how much information is read from the disk on each pass. You should choose an interleave number from 3 to 6. On most AT-type computers, choose an interleave of 3. On most PC or XT type computers, choose an interleave of 6. If your PC-type computer is a "turbo", you may be able to choose lower interleave than 6, which will makeyour disk access faster. However, if you choose a sub- optimum interleave, your disk access will be too slow. If after performing the low-level formatand performing some tests (such as the System Information (SI) command), you feel that your disk access is too slow, try a higher interleave number. The low-level format may take several hours to perform. Once it is finished, you need to run the DOS FDISK command before formatting the disk. This error occurs if you enter a DOS command with an invalid number of parameters. Check your DOS command syntax and reenter the command. This error occurs if you attempt to use a DOS external command from a version of DOS other than the one under which the machine is booted. For example, you attempt to use the PRINT command (PRINT.COM) for DOS 3.3 when the machine was booted using DOS 4.0. You should make sure that all of yourDOS commands on disk are from the same version of DOS. To find out which version of DOS you are using, enter the command VER at the DOS prompt. This error occurs when an attempt is made to write a file to a disk that isfull or does not have enough free space to hold the file. To correct the problem erase unneeded files and retry. This error occurs when you use a drive specification that does not exist. For example, if you use the drive name D: in a DOS command when there is noD: drive, this error will occur. This error occurs when DOS attempts to boot the computer from your hard disk and finds something wrong with the computer's partition information. This information should be on your disk at track 0. If this area is bad, Norton Disk Doctor may be able to diagnose and recover the information. This error occurs when you attempt to remove a directory that contains files or does not exist. If you want to remove the directory, you must erase all files and directories in the directory to be removed. Occasionally, a directory refuses to be removed even when you have erased all files. You may be able to use the NU Edit feature to locate the directory and to replace the first character of its name with the hex number F5 (do this by entering hex format mode while editing). Write the change to disk, and the result should be an erased directory. This error occurs when a program you are running overwrites the area in thecomputer's memory that stores important DOS information or, there is not enough memory available to load portions of DOS. This command may "freeze" your computer and cause you to reboot. A possible solution to this problem is to lower the number of buffers and/or device drivers specified in your CONFIG.SYS file, or remove some memory resident (stay resident, pop-up) programs. This error occurs when DOS attempts to boot the computer from a disk that DOS thinks is a bootable disk, yet some or all of the system information ismissing. To correct the problem you can reformat the disk with DOS (copy all files off first) or use the Norton Disk Doctor's option to "Make a Bootable Disk." With Norton, none of the files on disk are removed, so you don't have to backup the disk first. This error occurs when you attempt to use the DOS SYS command to place a copy of the system files on a disk, and the disk has not been prepared during the format procedure to receive those files. To make the disk bootable with DOS, you should copy all files from the disk, then reformat the disk with the /S FORMAT option. The Norton Disk Doctor's "Make a Bootable Disk" is able to create a bootable disk without destroying files even on a disk that was not formatted to be a system disk. This error occurs when you attempt to boot from a disk that does not contain the full DOS system, or has damaged system disks. If you are using a hard disk system, make sure you do not have a disk in the A: drive, as the computer will attempt to boot from that disk. If your disk should be bootable but isn't, you can attempt to fix it with Norton Disk Doctor, using the "Make a Bootable Disk" option. This error occurs when DOS attempts to read or write information to a device, and cannot. This problem may be caused by the disk drive door or knob not being closed all the way, the disk not being formatted, the printer not turned on or on line, or another device not ready to receive information. Correct the problem and try again. If a drive becomes overheated, it may produce this error. Check to see that the computer is getting proper ventilation (You might need to vacuum the vents around the edges of the computer.) Also, if your computer has an exhaust fan, make sure it is working properly. Turn off the computer and let the disk cool down. If the problem continues, see a technician for further diagnosis. This Information Please Database contains information about how to deal with DOS messages concerning the operation of your disks - both floppy disks and hard disks. It also contains information about what to do when you are experiencing problems with your disk -- such as you disk will no longer boot, or all your files have suddenly vanished. This is not an exhaustive list of everything that could happen, but it does provide information about the most commonly faced problems encountered with using disk drives. This error occurs during a CHKDSK command when DOS has problems reading theFAT or the disk media descriptor. I have seen this happen particularly on ahard disk larger than 32 MB, that is partitioned into several "drives." It can usually be fixed by running the Norton Disk Doctor's Diagnosis procedure. - Is your printer turned on? Is it On Line? Correct the problem and select Retry. - Is a cable properly attached to the device? Correct the problem and Retry. - Is DOS trying to communicate with some other device that is not turned onor properly attached? Choose Abort and correct the problem. - If DOS is attempting to communicate through a COM port, is it set up correctly? You can use the DOS MODE command or the Norton Control Center (NCC) to set up a communications (serial) port. Abort the current procedureand fix the problem. This error occurs when DOS is unable to read information from a disk. The disk may be improperly seated in the drive, or the drive door may not be closed properly. You will probably also get the "Abort, Retry or Fail" message. Abort the procedure and reseat the disk. You might need to take the diskette out of the drive and tap it on the side to loosen it up if it happens to be stuck or out of alignment. If other disks work okay in the drive, but this one cannot be read, try the Norton Disk Doctor's "Revive a Defective Diskette" option. This error occurs if you enter a DOS command with an invalid number of parameters. Check your DOS command syntax and reenter the command. This error occurs when DOS attempts to read or write something to a disk, but the sector cannot on the disk cannot be accessed. You will probably also get the "Abort, Retry, Ignore or Fail" message. Abort the current command. If it is a floppy diskette, try to read the information in another drive. Copy all files that you can from the disk. Use the Norton Disk Test (DT) command with the /M option to find and mark bad spots on thedisk. Also try the Norton Disk Doctor's "Revive a Damaged Disk" option. If it is a floppy disk, either reformat the disk or discard it. If it is a hard disk, use Norton Disk Test (DT) command to find and mark the bad sectors. If the problem persists on a hard disk, you need to backup all possible files, then perform a low-level format of the disk. See the previous section on low-level formatting. This error occurs when DOS is unable to find the track on disk needed to read or write information to the disk. You will also get an "Abort, Retry, Ignore, or Fail" message. Choose to abort the process. If this message occurred while trying to access a floppy disk, take the disk out, tap it onits side, and reinsert it in the drive, making sure it is correctly in the drive. In the problem continues, attempt to fix the problem with Norton Disk Doctor's "Revive a Defective Diskette." Copy all possible informationfrom the disk and discard the disk or reformat it and reuse it. If the problem occurs when trying to access a hard disk, attempt to copy as much information off of the disk as possible. You might try to use the Norton NUcommand to edit the bad sectors back to health. After you have recovered asmuch information as possible, perform a low-level format on the hard disk. See the section on low-level formatting. Virus programs often attempt to change the COMMAND.COM file or other systemfiles. If you suspect this, compare the date and time on your COMMAND.COM file on your hard disk's root directory to the original (or backup) copy ofCOMMAND.COM. If there is any difference, replace the infected file. To replace not only COMMAND.COM but the other system files as well, boot your computer from your original DOS disk in the A: drive. Use the Norton Disk Doctor's option to "Make a Disk bootable." This will copy a fresh version of the system to the hard disk. If this problem was caused by a virus program, examine your hard disk to find and remove that program. Until you are sure you have corrected the problem, quarantine all files from this computer - do not distribute any files (particularly program files) from itto any other computer. The hard disk, like a floppy disk, uses track 0 to store system information. If that track is bad on a hard disk, the DOS FORMAT command will refuse to create a bootable hard disk. There are several possibilitiesto recover from this problem. After booting from a floppy disk in drive A:,use the Norton Disk Doctor to diagnose the hard disk and attempt to fix theproblem. If that does not work, you may need to perform a low level format of the disk. If the disk contains valuable information, you will want to use a non-destructive program such as HFORMAT. This program uses a non-destructive format procedure. See the section on low-level formatting. This error occurs if you enter a DOS command with an invalid number of parameters. Check your DOS command syntax and reenter the command. A DOS command failed when trying to access the disk. Reboot and run the Norton Disk Test (DT) procedure with the /M option to locate and attempt tofix any bad sectors. This error message can occur when you attempt to write information to a disk that is write protected. On a 5 1/4 inch diskette, write protection isset by placing a piece of tape of the notch in at the side of the diskette.A 3.5 inch diskette is write protected when you move the write protect tab so there is an open hole in the corner of the disk. Before removing write protection, make sure you want to change information on the disk. When you use the DOS DISKCOPY command to copy a disk, you may get either READ errors or WRITE errors or both. Read errors are associated with reading information from the source disk. Write errors are associated withwriting information to the destination disk. If a bad or unreadable spot exists on the source disk, it will cause the read error. Likewise, if thereis a bad or unreadable spot on the destination disk, it will cause a write error. If you get a write error, change to another destination diskette. The read error is of most concern since it occurs on the disk that containsthe original information. If you get a read error, examine the source disk with the Norton Disk Test (DT) command to see if the read error is in an area that contains a file. If it is, try to recover that file by copying the file to another disk with the DOS COPY command (use the /V verify option). You may get an "Abort, Retry, Fail" message. Try several times to copy the file (choose Retry). If the copy is successful, examine the copiedfile to see if it is okay. If that does not work, try the Norton Disk Doctor and the Norton DT command to attempt to recover as much of the file as possible. If it is a text file, you may be able to reconstruct the file.If it is a program file (.EXE or .COM), you must replace the file from its original source. If the read error observed by the DT command is in an area of the disk not used by a file, use the COPY command instead of the DISKCOPY command to copy your disk. Make sure you have a formatted destination disk, then use the command COPY *.* d: to copy the files to the "d:" drive.
