[comp.virus] Virus or just hardware/software problem?

mmccann@hubcap.clemson.edu (Mike McCann) (11/16/89)

I encountered a problem with a Mac Plus (Everex 20Mb HD, 6.0.3, 2.5Mb
RAM, QuickMail, Netway1000, SAM).  The system and finder were not
visible but the machine was still bootable (some software failed to
run or crashed).  When I used ResEdit from a locked disk I found two
DeskTops but no system or finder anywhere.  The person in charge of
Macintoshs for that area said he reinstalled all the software but the
problem reoccurs.  I immediately thought of a virus and scanned all
the disks and the Mac Plus with Disinfectant1.2 but found nothing (I
did find two file with damaged resource forks on the Mac Plus but
these were documents).

If anyone can offer any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.
(PS- I personally used Everex's HD formatter to erase the drive and
then installed new, known-clean system software on the Mac Plus with
his software (he didn't have known-clean copies of the software) and
I'm now waiting to see if strange things happen again).

Thanks
- --
Mike McCann       (803) 656-3714   Internet = mmccann@hubcap.clemson.edu
Poole Computer Center (Box P-21)       UUCP = gatech!hubcap!mmccann
Clemson University                   Bitnet = mmccann@clemson.bitnet
Clemson, S.C. 29634-2803         DISCLAIMER = I speak only for myself.

dmg@lid.mitre.org (David Gursky) (11/18/89)

I've seen this problem before, and it is not a symptom of any of the
known Mac viruses.  While I never found what the specific problem was,
my speculation was that it was some defect in the media.  I suggest
you backup the data files on your disk, reformat it, and reinstall the
software.