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Conference noted::ibmpc-95

Title:IBM PCs, clones, DOS, etc.
Notice:Intro in 1-11, Windows stuff in NOTED::MSWINDOWS please
Moderator:TARKIN::LINND
Created:Mon Jan 02 1995
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:3023
Total number of notes:28404

3015.0. "PC Medic: non-compatible drive" by MILKWY::DBROWN () Sat May 24 1997 01:16

    I loaded McAfee's "PC-Medic" on my new P100 windows 95 PC. It
    recommended that I disable the MSDOS compatible mode on my harddisk to
    improve performance. Since this software's primary purpose in life is
    to make my operating system *more* stable, I trusted it and said OK. PC
    Medic told me that it would have to reboot my PC to make the change,
    and it initiated the process, but the PC hung. It gets to the point
    where it needs to read the harddisk, and then it hangs. I didn't
    immediately see how to fix this in the setup menu, and it doesn't get
    me anywhere else.
    
    McAfee's phone support is useful if you want to hear a machine drone on
    and on playing musak and telling you how important your call is to it.
    
    Any suggestions?
    
    Thanks,
    Dave
    
    
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3015.1QUARK::LIONELFree advice is worth every centMon May 26 1997 23:184
    Dump PC-Medic and any McAfee product.  Symantec's CrashGuard works
    better.
    
    					Steve
3015.2My guess is PC-Medic tweaked your memory parameters...NETCAD::BATTERSBYTue May 27 1997 13:1715
    Sounds like PC-Medic made some changes to your memory config
    via your config.sys file. It may/may not  have left you a copy
    of your (pre-PC-Medic install), versions of your autoexec.bat
    and config.sys. Check for the creation date on these two files 
    to be the same as your install date/time. Then look for other
    versions of these two files with some other extension other
    than their previous .bat and .sys extensions. Then delete the
    newest versions of these two files and restore the other latest
    versions of these two files back to their correct file extensions.
    If PC-Medic simply over-wrote these two files without saving a
    version of these with a different extension, then you will have
    to resort to a previous backup, or use a bootable floppy to bring
    your system up.
    
    Bob
3015.3It's looking rather bleak...MILKWY::DBROWNWed May 28 1997 23:5917
    Well, I got thru to McAfee's support line, but they couldn't help me.
    They claim that there must be some error in the BIOS settings and
    recommended that I talk to the folks who sold it to me. 
    
    I tried using a Windows 95 bootdisk, but I get a disk access error
    every time I try to access C:.  On the advice of the seller, I also
    tried FDISK /MBR C:, which reported no errors, but didn't fix the
    problem. They concluded that PC Medic must have trashed my master boot
    record and that I have no recourse but to use fdisk to make new
    partitions and then rebuild my system from scratch - not a fun prospect
    before even considering the loss of all my data. Makes me wish I'd done
    a recent backup... 
    
    Anything else I can try???
    
    Thanks,
    Dave
3015.4TARKIN::LINBill LinThu May 29 1997 07:365
    re: .3 by MILKWY::DBROWN
    
    Double check your CMOS settings for the disk type.
    
    /Bill