Error MBR3, MBR4

PROBLEM
Error occurred while scanning MBR sector of the 3. physical disk. Error reading sector.
Error occurred while scanning MBR sector of the 4. physical disk. Error reading sector.

FORUM REFERENCES
These threads mention the problem to varying degrees:

MBR error
MBR Error Solution
Win 98SE NOD32 2.5 error message
Strange problem...
error message re memory?
Error during scan
New user in a hurry
Memory not being scanned- Help?
Scan error:Operating Memory using WIN98SE
Problem running scan on USB Disk
Question?
MBR 2 sector error

MBR3
Which USB device(s) might be causing the MBR3 error?

USB 2.0
Drive G: USB Flash Drive (always plugged in)
Drive H, I, J, K: USB Card Reader (each slot is a different drive, and the drives are only "available" when a card is inserted)
Drive N: USB Hard Drive (not currently connected to the system, used only for backups, currently not shown in Explorer.)

If it was any of the 4 card reader drives, wouldn't there be MORE errors, one for each drive?

USB 1.0
Mustek 1200UB Scanner

It can't be the printer because it's parallel, not USB. Camera is serial, not USB. No other USB devices. No firewire devices.

MBR4
Would MBR 4 definitely be the page file?

SYSTEM FACTS
Platform: Windows XP Pro SP2.
- DEP is enabled (OptOut), so exceptions can be made for programs with compatibility issues. No exceptions so far.
Firewalls:
- ZoneAlarm Pro 5.5.094.000 (It has a corrupt database, some ZAP features do not work properly, and it needs to be reinstalled...but not until I write down all the million custom settings first.)
- The 2Wire aDSL modem-NAT/DHCP router-gateway has its own hardware firewall. This protects the entire network.
- PeerGuardian 2.0 is being used as a firewall supplement. No file-sharing programs.
Users: Multiple users. I am logged in as administrator and the only one logged in at present.
Boot Sector Managers: None that I know of. What are some examples of boot manager programs, so I can tell for sure? Ad-Aware Pro's Ad-Watch? Spybot? MS Antispyware?
Printers: The local printer is parallel port (LPT1), not USB or firewire, so that should not contribute to the errors. The network printer is the same brand and model, Lexmark Z42.
Network: It is a home network, peer-to-peer, not client/server. All 4-5 PCs are wired through a hub. The router/gateway is also wired to the hub. NOD32 is installed on only this PC. Other PCs have different AV programs and operating systems. All are protected by the hardware firewall.

 

Can you list the physical drives that show up in Device Manager?

To view right-click My Computer and select Properties. On the Hardware page of the System properties box, click the Device Manager button. Expand the "Disk drives" to see what drives are present.

 

Here are all drives in Device Manager.

DISK DRIVES
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device (Drive H, USB Card Reader Slot #1)
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device (Drive I, USB Card Reader Slot #2)
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device (Drive J, USB Card Reader Slot #3)
Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device (Drive K, USB Card Reader Slot #4)
Maxtor 6Y060L0 (Drive D, [HDD1] 60GB PATA HDD FAT32) Primary IDE Slave
Maxtor 6Y120L0 (Drive C,E,F [HDD0] 120GB [3x40GB] PATA HDD NTFS) Primary IDE Master
USB Flash Memory USB Device (Drive G)

Note: When USB Drive N is connected, it shows up here as Maxtor 4K040H2.


DRIVE LETTERS
A: Floppy 1.44MB
B: Floppy 1.44MB
C: HDD0 Partition #1 40GB NTFS (Windows system)
D: HDD1 60GB FAT32 (extra storage)
E: HDD0 Partition #2 40GB NTFS (clone backup of C)
F: HDD0 Partition #3 40GB NTFS (personal data)
G: USB2 Flash Drive 512MB (almost always connected)
H: USB2 Card Reader Slot #1 (always connected)
I: USB2 Card Reader Slot #2 (always connected)
J: USB2 Card Reader Slot #3 (always connected)
K: USB2 Card Reader Slot #4 (always connected)
L: CDRW+DVDROM (fixed) Secondary IDE Master
M: CDROM (fixed) Secondary IDE Slave
N: USB2 Hard Drive (backup of F, only connected during backup procedures, not connected at present)

If you require additional information, please let me know.

 

There really isn't an issue here, you are receivng the MBR error messages because:

1. you perform a system scan under the account of a limited user
2. you have a special boot manager or suchlike program that alters boot sectors installed
3. you use a card reader while no card is actually inserted.

In your case it is more than likely number 3 that you are seeing.

Cheers

 

Yes, it certainly can't be number 1, and number 2 is unlikely. Please name some programs that might modify the boot record. No one answered that yet. I would like to know this for future troubleshooting purposes.

For number 3, I'm surprised I did not receive more errors if that's the case. Each slot in the USB card reader is a different drive, and then there's the USB Flash Drive.

 

This problem has been around for a long time now. I'm a little upset that it has not been corrected by ESET by now. The problem is NOD 32 tries to scan things that are not hard drives.... Things such as a zip drive, for instance. If it can not do that, it will spit out this error. I get it on my internal zip drive everytime I open for scanning . It may not be a problem, but it is certainly annoying and worth fixing. I even have my settings set up to scan only hard drives, or "local" if you will and it still does it.

 

How can you exclude an entire drive?

I went into AMON setup to try to exclude the USB Card Reader Drives (H, I, J, K) but could only set them up to be excluded as FOLDERS. They don't have boot sectors.

Whenever I click on BOOT SECTOR, the only choices are the floppy drives, A and B. Suppose I want to exclude the boot sector on one of my hard drives, or the USB Flash Drive, you can't do it. Suppose I want to exclude an entire partition on one of my hard drives -- you can't do it unless you set it up as a FOLDER. Because the USB flash drive may contain files & folders from my computer or another computer, I really cannot exclude that. If someone happens to get hold of my flash drive and adds files to it, I need to have some type of protection. No, that cannot be excluded.

It is possible to exclude every card reader slot as FOLDERS, except for Drive I, the SmartMedia slot. That one I use. SmartMedia cards from my camera, my boyfriend's camera, and any files we decide to write to an SM card still need to be scanned --- just in case. So I really cannot exclude that unless it's just temporarily. Even with those exclusions set, I still get MBR3 and MBR4 errors.

I hope the NOD32 v3.0 has more exclusion options for drives & boot sectors.