>>>Still, fdisk /mbr may still work as it did before. After rebooting again, rescan and see if it's still there. Then check whether everything else works.
>>
>>I tried your FDisk suggestion This message appears - BootSector Write! Virus: Continue (Y/N)
>>The message blinks
>
>Nice. So something in your machine is now aware of a request to write to boot sector. Where was it when you got the virus? Or is this the virus itself, trying to fool you?
>
>Now if you are sure that you have typed the fdisk command all by yourself(*), you may continue.
>
>----
>The airport security question of the same sort (did you pack your bags yourself ) would probably get me in trouble if I answered it faithfully - my wife packs my stuff. She somehow knows better than I do what do I need on a trip. I'm actually OK that I have to worry only about the hardware (laptop, camera, music, periphernalia)... but now, knowing that they'll ask me that stupid question ("no, I have packed the bags somebody elseself"), I make a point of going through the bag once before leaving and adding any stupid small item, so I can truthfully say "yes".

This is someone else's computer - I'm just helping him with this.