padgett%tccslr.dnet@uvs1.orl.mmc.com (Padgett Peterson) (10/11/90)
Have now had a chance to do a bitwise compare of the boot record submitted by Mr. Stoltz and it matches that of a disk formatted using Peter Norton's Advanced Utilities 4.5 Safe Format (dump below). This is often found in mass-duplicated disks. Since it is an exact match, I do not believe that the problem is here, however the disk may still contain malicious software elsewhere. Just as a technical note, after retrieval of the original ALERT, it was massaged by WordStar 5.0 and passed through DOS DEBUG to create a binary file to create the listing below. This permitted a DOS COMP (compare) of the record with a dump of a disk formmatted using Safe Format. Incidently, the PNCI stands for Peter Norton Computing Inc. Padgett Diskette boot record - -d100 2ff 572F:0100 EB 28 90 49 42 4D 20 50-4E 43 49 00 02 02 01 00 .(.IBM PNCI..... 572F:0110 02 70 00 D0 02 FD 02 00-09 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 .p.............. 572F:0120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 FA 33 C0 8E D0 BC ...........3.... 572F:0130 F0 7B FB B8 C0 07 8E D8-BE 5B 00 90 FC AC 0A C0 .{.......[...... 572F:0140 74 0B 56 B4 0E BB 07 00-CD 10 5E EB F0 32 E4 CD t.V.......^..2.. 572F:0150 16 B4 0F CD 10 32 E4 CD-10 CD 19 0D 0A 0D 0A 0D .....2.......... 572F:0160 0A 0D 0A 0D 0A 0D 0A 0D-0A 0D 0A 20 20 20 20 54 ........... T 572F:0170 68 69 73 20 64 69 73 6B-20 69 73 20 6E 6F 74 20 his disk is not 572F:0180 62 6F 6F 74 61 62 6C 65-0D 0A 0D 0A 20 49 66 20 bootable.... If 572F:0190 79 6F 75 20 77 69 73 68-20 74 6F 20 6D 61 6B 65 you wish to make 572F:01A0 20 69 74 20 62 6F 6F 74-61 62 6C 65 2C 0D 0A 72 it bootable,..r 572F:01B0 75 6E 20 74 68 65 20 44-4F 53 20 70 72 6F 67 72 un the DOS progr 572F:01C0 61 6D 20 53 59 53 20 61-66 74 65 72 20 74 68 65 am SYS after the 572F:01D0 0D 0A 20 20 20 20 20 73-79 73 74 65 6D 20 68 61 .. system ha 572F:01E0 73 20 62 65 65 6E 20 6C-6F 61 64 65 64 0D 0A 0D s been loaded... 572F:01F0 0A 50 6C 65 61 73 65 20-69 6E 73 65 72 74 20 61 .Please insert a 572F:0200 20 44 4F 53 20 64 69 73-6B 65 74 74 65 20 69 6E DOS diskette in 572F:0210 74 6F 0D 0A 20 74 68 65-20 64 72 69 76 65 20 61 to.. the drive a 572F:0220 6E 64 20 73 74 72 69 6B-65 20 61 6E 79 20 6B 65 nd strike any ke 572F:0230 79 2E 2E 2E 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 y............... 572F:0240 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:0250 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:0260 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:0270 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:0280 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:0290 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:02A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:02B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:02C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:02D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:02E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 572F:02F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA ..............U. - -q