Hi guys and girls,

i'm in need of a software tool to inspect and correct boot sectors etc as i have two laptops that need some work but i don't want to format them
they don't boot properly, one could have a virus problem,

can anyone help?

Hi ScORTED and welcome back.
I've marked your thread as open to encourage a speedier response from those in the know.
Thanks for your patience

thank you very much... i'm sure theres something out there, i've been looking at puppy linux but doubt it would have available software for repairing windows boot sectors

It depends what your problem is within windows there are a lot of option which you can get at by booting from the windows cd and choosing recovery consul then you can try
fixboot c:
fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0

these will fix the MBR and boot sector which in most cases should sort out the problems