[comp.virus] Viruses that inhabit "bad" blocks

MASERIK@ubvmsc.cc.buffalo.edu (MAS-Polecat) (10/06/89)

     I was just reading about the OGRE virus when I noticed a pattern.
Since a lot (is it a lot?) of viruses mark the sectors they are using
as bad, why not just write a utility that will look up the bad sectors
on a disk and erase them.  There are utilities available now that will
analyze EACH sector on a disk to see if it is bad or not.  If it is
marked bad, but seems ok they will put that sector back into the
available sector list.  I think SpinRight (sp?) and perhaps PCTools do
this.  Even if not all of the virus is eradicated, it seems that it
would at least be fatally crippled.  Has anyone tried this?

Erik Bryant
Student Assistant Programmer
University at Buffalo