Odd behavior in 98SE. More odd than usual, anyway

[yukichigai]

A friend of mine who's still running 98SE (yes, I'm working on changing that) is having odd problems with the OS. At the moment she can't make new folders without going into DOS and doing it there, as the "New" submenu has disappeared from both the File tab and the Right-click menu. I have no clue what could have caused it. She's got AVG, Ad Aware and Spybot running at the moment, but I've never heard of a virus that disables the "new" submenu before. Anybody have any ideas what could have caused this and how to fix it?

 

[Fern]

Has she tried an install over existing install. That should fix it and there will be no loss of data etc.

Fern

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: Fern
Has she tried an install over existing install. That should fix it and there will be no loss of data etc.

Fern

Isn't that like spot-welding a crack in a barrel of gasoline while it's still full?

 

[styrafoam]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: Fern
Has she tried an install over existing install. That should fix it and there will be no loss of data etc.

Fern

Isn't that like spot-welding a crack in a barrel of gasoline while it's still full?

No, I did it many times after having installs trashed by a virus or a corrupt registry and everything went fine.

 

[Fern]

Not at all (although I did that on an auto gas tank once, kinda scary ).

I run mostly 98se at work/home. I reinstall over the old install when something in windows doesn't wanna work and I'm sure its not a virus (ex. hangs at verifying DMI pool or whatever). So far has worked pretty well.

If it worries you, back up data and try it. Or use fdisk (or HDD manufacturers free software- d/l from there website. Ex. maxblast if you've got a Maxtor HDD) and nuke the HDD