[comp.virus] Boot sector viruses on IDE drives

johnboyd@logdis1.oc.aflc.af.mil (John Boyd;LAHDI) (06/11/91)

It recently occurred to me that we get rid of most boot-sector viruses
by routinely doing a low-level format on a drive.  However, this is
not possible on an IDE drive.  So the question becomes; for an IDE
drive, what DO you do to get rid of a boot sector virus?  And yes, I
am constantly telling the users that I support that they really should
be scanning everything first; even before doing a directory, and all
the other prudent precautionary steps, so hopefully we won't have a
problem, but you know how that works.
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Text contained herein is my personal opinion.  This is not to be
interpreted in any way as a position or statement of the DOD, USAF, or any
other person or entity other than myself.

short@evax9.eng.fsu.edu (06/20/91)

johnboyd@logdis1.oc.aflc.af.mil (John Boyd;LAHDI) writes:

> not possible on an IDE drive.  So the question becomes; for an IDE
> drive, what DO you do to get rid of a boot sector virus?

McAfee Associates ( The ScanV folks) have a program that will remove a
boot sector virus.  Its name is Clean-up, They also have another
called Mdisk.  I'll vouch for it, as It removed the Stoned virus from
my Seagate ST-1144A IDE drive without a hitch.  I don't know of a FTP
location, But it can be obtained from the authors BBS at 408-988-4004.

RNJUDD@SUVM.BITNET (Ronnie Judd) (06/20/91)

johnboyd@logdis1.oc.aflc.ar.mil (John Boyd:LAHDI) writes;
> It recently occured to me that we get rid of most boot-sector viruses
> by routinely doing a low-level format on a drive.  However, this is
> not possible on an IDE drive...

Seems I keep seeing over and over on this list that one *almost never*
has to do a low level format to remove boot sector viruses.  However
on the question of how does one format an IDE drive there are programs
out there that will do such a thing.  I recently upgraded a couple of
Compaq machines and found Disk Manager 4.0 did the trick just fine.
So if you feel that you *absolutely must* low level format to get rid
of the offending virus give it a shot.

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