billj@uop.uop.edu (Snugglupagus) (05/05/91)
recently, we've come across a problem with one of the macs in our lab. we really don't know if it's a virus or not, but it does act something like one. anyway, here are the symptoms: - - the mac has a 40 meg hard disk - - there is only about 16 meg of software installed - - both the finder and mactools report 38 meg used, 2 meg free - - disinfectant can't find anything, and neither can virus detective - - there are no hidden files anywhere on the disk (if there are, neither mactools nor resedit can find them) - - the "virus" hasn't spread to any of our other macs what we really want to know is: is this some sort of new virus, or is our mac just confused? thanks in advance, snugglupagus - -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Steppin' on toes is a common routine | Send email/flames to: Sneakin' up from behind | billj@uop.edu You won't get anywhere |----------------------------------- Dancin' out of time" - Deborah Gibson | Disclaimer: It's all mine! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
CANDERSO@uga.cc.uga.edu (Christopher T. Anderson) (05/06/91)
> recently, we've come across a problem with one of the macs in our lab. > we really don't know if it's a virus or not, but it does act something > like one. anyway, here are the symptoms: > > - - the mac has a 40 meg hard disk > - - there is only about 16 meg of software installed > - - both the finder and mactools report 38 meg used, 2 meg free > - - disinfectant can't find anything, and neither can virus detective > - - there are no hidden files anywhere on the disk (if there are, neither > mactools nor resedit can find them) > - - the "virus" hasn't spread to any of our other macs > > what we really want to know is: is this some sort of new virus, or is > our mac just confused?" This problem is not necessarilt indicative of a virus, but an otherwise corrupted Directory (or possibly Desktop). You could try rebuilding your Desktop, but probably should defrag/optimize the drive. This would rebuild your directory. For this I reccomend Disk Express II, it has always worked wonders for me. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Christopher T. Anderson (Chris) Mail Address: Computer Services Annex Electronic Addresses: University of Georgia Bitnet: CAnderso@uga Athens, GA 30602 Internet: CAnderso@uga.cc.uga.edu Telephone: Work (404) 542-5162 EasyLink: 74730.3306@compuserv.com Home (404) 549-8958 America Online: CTAnderson C A R P E D I E M ! ! ! - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
norman@cs.st-andrews.ac.uk (Norman Paterson) (05/07/91)
billj@uop.uop.edu (Snugglupagus) (vol 4 issue 74): we have noticed a similar effect but only on the 800 kb floppies. It seems that the disc is fragmented and the missing space is recovered by drag copying the old floppy to a newly initialised floppy. I don't know if the hard disc software is more intelligent - I'd hope so! But you might try connecting up a spare hard disc, initialising it, and drag copying the old one onto it, to see if your space reappears. Effectively you are compacting your disc by this method. Norman
keir@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Rick Keir, MACC) (05/08/91)
billj@uop.uop.edu (Snugglupagus) writes... >- - the mac has a 40 meg hard disk >- - there is only about 16 meg of software installed >- - both the finder and mactools report 38 meg used, 2 meg free This is fairly common in the Mac labs here. Run "Disk First Aid" (from Apple, the free thing) and tell it to fix the drive. Your students have probably been having programs crash frequently, so that you have unused space which is neither in a file nor free. (What DOS refers to as "lost" space -- D.F.A. will just say "fixed"). Important: Disk First Aid is NOT the same thing as "First Aid HFS", although half the people I tell about these programs seem to want to use whichever one I *didn't* mean. Both programs are good but they do different things. Use Apple's to recover lost space from your hard disk
geoffb@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Geoff Bronner) (05/08/91)
billj@uop.uop.edu (Snugglupagus) writes: >recently, we've come across a problem with one of the macs in our lab. >we really don't know if it's a virus or not, but it does act something >like one. anyway, here are the symptoms: >- - the mac has a 40 meg hard disk >- - there is only about 16 meg of software installed >- - both the finder and mactools report 38 meg used, 2 meg free >what we really want to know is: is this some sort of new virus, or is >our mac just confused? I think it is confused. I have seen a similar problem with MacIIcx's with 80MB drives. They thought they had 56MB instead of the actual amount (around 30). This occured on several machines in a public cluster of 17 identical cx's. Solution: about 50% of the time I was able to fix the problem by simply re-building the desktop file. In the other cases, tranferring the entire disk to another hard disk or tape and then putting it back also worked. This implies that fragmentation may have been the cause and I have seen similar cases where using Disk Express or a similar utility also helped. - -Geoff Bronner '91 Student Consultant, Dartmouth College Computing Services - -- geoffb@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."
pandy@vipunen.hut.fi (Pandy Holmberg) (05/08/91)
billj@uop.uop.edu (Snugglupagus) writes:
- -> recently, we've come across a problem with one of the macs in our lab.
- -> we really don't know if it's a virus or not, but it does act something
- -> like one. anyway, here are the symptoms:
- -> - - there is only about 16 meg of software installed
- -> - - both the finder and mactools report 38 meg used, 2 meg free
- -> what we really want to know is: is this some sort of new virus, or is
- -> our mac just confused?
I wouldn't blame it on the machine....
I think that perhaps the directory information on your disk
has been damaged and thus the computer can't use all the
space that really is free.
Therefore I suggest:
Copy the 16 megs of software to floppies and format your hard disk.
In the future:
It's good to format your HD every once in a while. Not only
does it give you more space, but the HD becomes much faster.
- --
Tsaukki says
Pandy
- -- ,
"La nostalgie n'est plus ce qu'elle etait."
- S. Signoret
===============================================================================
Andreas "Pandy" Holmberg Email: pandy@hut.fi
Helsinki University of Technology Finger: pandy@spiff.hut.fi
===============================================================================maimer@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (05/09/91)
CANDERSO@uga.cc.uga.edu (Christopher T. Anderson) writes: >> recently, we've come across a problem with one of the macs in our lab. >> we really don't know if it's a virus or not, but it does act something >> like one. anyway, here are the symptoms: >> >> - - the mac has a 40 meg hard disk >> - - there is only about 16 meg of software installed >> - - both the finder and mactools report 38 meg used, 2 meg free >> - - disinfectant can't find anything, and neither can virus detective >> - - there are no hidden files anywhere on the disk (if there are, neither >> mactools nor resedit can find them) >> - - the "virus" hasn't spread to any of our other macs >> >> what we really want to know is: is this some sort of new virus, or is >> our mac just confused?" > > This problem is not necessarilt indicative of a virus, but an > otherwise corrupted Directory (or possibly Desktop). You could try > rebuilding your Desktop, but probably should defrag/optimize the > drive. This would rebuild your directory. For this I reccomend Disk > Express II, it has always worked wonders for me. It could also be damaged extents tree or some arcane part of the disk like that. If rebuilding the desktop doesn't help, consider running Norton's Disk Doctor (part of Norton Utilities for the Mac). This has found problems with several of our drives which kept them from optimizing (the damaged area said part of the disk was in use when it wasn't really and so the optimizer couldn't find the file to pick up, got confused and said the h*ll with it and woiuld quit). |\ \\\\__ Tony Maimer __ | \_/ o \ / | > _ (( <_ / | | / \__+___/ maimer@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu /o /_/| |/ |/ < )) _ < \ \ \| \ | +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++