virus?

Yes, it sounds like the boot virus. And the "writing boot sector
warning" is protected by your BIOS.
You need the anti-virus utility to scan your HD.
Go for a network PC, and download the VirusScan at :
http://www.mcafee.com/down/vscandown.asp#dos303
Use your clean DOS 6.22 in boot A:, then scan for virus.

mariem...

I believe that you're heading the wrong way.
You have FDISK the drive, you have FORMATTED the drive.  If you had any virus, it would have LONG GONE.
Anyway you could evaluate the proposed answer, if you don't like it, reject it to open the question and I will guide you trough.

Regards

I did get norton antivirus, which found nothing in boot or any programs.  I have reinstalled dos 6.22, but it still keeps looking for command.com in A drive. I have made a system disk, and with it can get to the prompt, then can go to C drive, it will do a .bat file, but any attempt to execute an exe hangs the computer. am downloading mcaffee, but don't think it's a virus now..what's magigraf firure it is?

Make a  "clean "bootup diskette on somebody's else's computer. Put on it the Format and the FDsik commands. Boot from that disk, FDisk your HD, format it, and I think it will solve your problem.

I had used the ms-dos6.22 setup disk in A drive to 'format a:/s' to make my system disk,and copied format and fdisk on it...after running norton's virus for dos and finding nothing, i'm starting to wonder if it is a virus...if it wasn't, what are the possibilities? ...haven't run mcaffee's yet ..

More than likely you are getting the virus message because you have enabled boot sector virus protection in your bios.  Go to Bios and disable this and then try to do your format.

Just a comment.

If you have "Virus Protection Enabled" in your BIOS, and when you install DOS or any other OS, such as WINNT, during setup, you'll be prompt of a virus warning.  This is because installation of the OS requires writing to the boot sector.

If you are sure that your installation disk are "clean", when the "virus" prompts appears, just click yes; to allow it to write to the boot sector.

mariem...

Sorry for being late here, but power in Montreal, is On and OFF.
I'm hanging on a wire here.

Anyway, getting down to business:
The closest in my opinion is Yamseng.  Indeed if you have virus protection enabled in your BIOS, it will not let you safely install anything onto your system and the reason is very simple.

While the OS is getting installed it has to write to the boot sector of the disk, now since you could have this Virus protection option enabled, your BIOS dows not know it what's gonna be written is a harmless file system or a Virus that would destroy your settings.  This is why you might be receiving these errors.  Don't forget that Viruses are simply written programs to execute BAD things instead of good things.

Now I don't think that rmarotta has posted an answer here, rather it was a comment.

Regards

magigraf:
If the BIOS virus protection is enabled, and it warns of a possible virus, and you choose to continue, does it still prevent writes to the boot sector?

rmarotta...
No, it will still write to the boot sector, but could cause unexpected errors.
I don't think you would want to take that chance yourself...
Regards

mariem,
It seems that we may be clouding the original issue here.  Lets try to solve this thing.
The first step will be to enter your computers BIOS setup screen and,if present, disable the virus protection feature.
I beleive that you have dos 6.22 already installed.  If so, then boot with disk 1 of your dos set and press F5 when you see the "Starting MSDOS" message.
At the dos prompt, type "sys c:" (without the quotes).
When that is complete, reboot the computer.
Please let us know what happens.
Ralph

I should have added:
When sys c: complete, (remove the floppy), and then reboot the computer.

rmarotta...

While I do not believe that it's nice to take the other comments and add them to your favour.  You were heading in another direction of cleaning a virus, while YamSend and I have identify the BIOS issue.  Therefore it would be fair to let mariem reject your answer and let YamSend or myself who pointed to the issue take over here.

Regards

magigraf...
If you read the first post, which was rejected, I beleive that Jackie was first to suggest the BIOS protection issue.  After that, ed1's comment.  Therefore, in my answer, I offered my experience and submitted what I think to be a reasonable course to follow.
I would simply like to solve the problem.  Forgive me please, if I have treated anyone unfairly. I have no problem whatsoever if mariem rejects my answer.
Ralph

rmarotta...

While the situation here is not helping me to be on time.
Electricity is SHORT in Canada after the disaster we had.

You are right that Jackie suggested that BIOS protection but again he was heading to the virus detection suggestion.
Which make his answer again inconsistent.

A WRITE PROTECTION would gave a RED window alert of a possible virus, which is totaly different from regular virus that you scan.  Another issue,that you might have to consider also, that there is no SOFTWARE or OS that during the install checks for virus.  Therfore the theory of saying anything than that it is a BIOS fault would be unfounded.

All this is of course according to mariem question.
Regards to all

whew...couple of things...1)even after successfully installing 6.22, the computer still hangs after showing 'starting ms-dos'
if i boot with 6.22's #1disk and F3 out, i have the a:> at which point I can access C drive...I can then copy (tried copyin entire  disk1 of ms-dos setup disk, no problem) but...if i tried executing navc c: (norton's dos virus) or mcafee's 'scan.exe' it will hang instantly...2)I've chose both OK and exit at the warning writing boot sector, neither made a bit of differene. Interesting note...copyin the virus files from both norton and mcaffee to C drive both hung when I got to the .exe file but would copy the other files no problem...will try all these suggestions above and let you know what happens.  This was an office machine which had worked when bought and taken home, but by the time it was set up, nothing worked...(timebomb?) will keep you informed, although finding someone with a dos 6.22 OS to make a clean boot disk might be a problem in this day n age. :-)

If your dos 6.22 installation is okay, then it might be a hardware problem.  
maybe you'll like to swap all the RAM with another similiar but working PC.

mariem,
If you have a boot sector virus, you must remove it before you can do anything with that hard drive.
From the clean computer where you got McAfee anti-virus program, create emergency disk.  Also scan your Dos 6.22 disks to be certain that they are clean.
Cold boot your computer with the emergency disk and scan for virus.
Please post the results.
Ralph

having lots of trouble finding anyone with dos 6.22 ... would it be possible to get one, add mcaffee's emergency disk to it, zip it up n send it? (dos will not install, copies some files, then gives cannot read C drive...but once I've aborted the install, it will 'type' bat files from C drive, showing that it can read from there...also disabled virus protection to bios, made no difference cept didn't get warning....can't 'sys c:' as dos doesn't get completely installed before I get the 'can't read drive C' message... gettin rather discouraged.

mariem,
You obviously have internet access from another computer.  Is it possible to obtain and create emergency disk from that machine?
If so, then follow my last directions to clean your dos disks & hard drive before attempting to ANYthing with the infected  computer.
If not, then let me know.
Ralph

my problem at this point is i don't have pkunzip to unzip it on the home machine, and it's too large to fit a disk unzipped...but mainly, the machine will hang as soon as I execute 'scan.exe' even from A drive..also, finding another set of ms-dos 6.22 setup disks to make a system disk and copy Fdisk and format.com to is a problem...will continue to search for someone with a set, putting this on a back burner before i get tooooooo frustrated :-))

You can download WinZip at
http://www.winzip.com

These things I know, but my problem is this: I can't a)install even dos6.22 to get up and running and b)no matter what software I have, machine hangs at the 'starting ms-dos' message, unless I have a system disk in A: drive...so even with a system disk in A drive, it will not let me copy an exe file to C drive (hangs). Did get scan to work (mcaffee) once, but noticed it didn't read hi memory, but found no virus..b) interesting note...I can copy various files to C drive, but as soon as I come to a virus.exe file, it hangs. (tried both norton and mcafee) I am going to let go of this until I can find a safe dos6.22 set and make a forcertain not infected boot disk.

mariem, <IF> there is a boot sector virus present on that machine, let me make this clear: You are just wasting your time trying to load/install/copy/etc - anything on that drive!
You simply must remove that 'bug' first.
There is the possibility that you have a hardware problem, but at least get the virus issue put to rest first.
Left alone, it will likely cause trouble with anything you try to do on that drive.
I'm still not sure if you understand that it's NOT necessary to have a system on the hard drive.  The scan disk will have a dos system and boot by itself, first it checks the memory, and then it will scan the drive for virus.
Please let me know if I can help.
Ralph

I have not read all the comments but I have had a stealth virus on my computer and I was told this.  You can not remove the virus with an infected disk meaning if your going to make a DOS boot disk please go to someone else's computer and go to dos insert a disk and type format A: /s assuming that A: is the disk drive.  then you should also download a copy of fprot of there system then boot off your floppy disk you just made and it will put you in dos.  You switch and put the f-prot disk in then type f-prot /hard /disinf  if you have a virus it will find it and then ask you if you wish to disinfect it say yes and it will tell you if it was successful then you can reboot..

Point 1, below, seems to be missing above, if you are
doing the FDISK/FORMAT thing to clean your original system.

1) Turn MACHINE OFF for 10-30 seconds, then turn it back on with a clean, writeprotected bootable floppy in drive A:   (making sure the BIOS specifies BOOT ORDER as A: followed by C:).   This eliminates any virus resident in memory and forces automatic boot from the floppy.   BTW make sure that any AUTOEXEC or CONFIG type files on the floppy DO NOT CONTAIN ANY PROGRAM COMMANDS THAT REFER TO ANYTHING ON THE HARD DRIVE.

2) Run FDISK to partition the hard disk, and FORMAT on each logical drive, from the floppy.   If you are real paranoid, turn the machine off for 10-30 seconds between the FDISK and the FORMAT.  Specify the partition you want to boot from

3) Then Sys the hard disk partition you want to make bootable.

Virus should be gone.   If problem still occurs then:

1) Clean floppies aren't.
2) It's not a virus - perhaps an intermittent hardware error?

Remember - the virus checker programs are usually a little bit behind the viruses.