all data files corrupted

[rosskie]

I have Windows XP, a Dell Dimension 2510 and Office Professional 2003.

All of my older (before October) MS Word and Excel files have been
corrupted, as have all my pdf’s, gif’s, html’s, scc’s, zip’s, and dot’s .
They display gibberish, almost like encryption. Anything in October is O.K.
Plus, all of my files before October now read last modified October 23 at
7:35 or 7:36 PM. Word asks for a converter, but after loaded it, it still
reads gibberish.

McAfee says I have no viruses. I keep a very tight firewall, and am very
careful about downloads, spyware, pop-ups or opening e-mails with
attachments. I have automatic updates from McAfee, and keep current on Dell
and Microsoft updates.

The only recent programs I have loaded have been updated Quicken (from a
purchased disk), a couple of weeks ago, and a downloaded 30-day free version
of Dreamweaver, on October 23, in the early morning.

So, the question is:
Have you ever seen this before?
Is it Dell, Microsoft, Quicken, McAfee, Dreamweaver or a virus that is
causing the problem? Or it is something I’ve done?
How can I fix it?
I do have one clue: There was an iaStor.sys event at the same time. Dell
reports to have had problems with this Index Matrix storage manager program,
but none have reported anything like my problem.

--
Ken

 

[Kerry Brown]

"rosskie" <rosskie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news9C001CC-FB99-4B93-BC4A-4E94A7D960FA@microsoft.com...
> So, the question is:
> Have you ever seen this before?
> Is it Dell, Microsoft, Quicken, McAfee, Dreamweaver or a virus that is
> causing the problem? Or it is something I’ve done?
> How can I fix it?
> I do have one clue: There was an iaStor.sys event at the same time. Dell
> reports to have had problems with this Index Matrix storage manager
> program,
> but none have reported anything like my problem.
>


I have seen older versions of the Intel Matrix Storage manager cause file
system corruption. On many motherboards it's not needed as you can use the
built in XP drivers with little or no performance penalty. It's probably too
late to do anything about the corrupted files other than restore from a
backup. My recommendation at this point would be to make sure you have a
couple of current good backups then test the hard drive with the drive
manufacturer's diagnostic program. Provided it passes I would then either
uninstall the Intel Matrix driver or at least make sure you have the newest
version for your chipset.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca