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Mon, 5 Apr 1999 13:02:53 -0800 |
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On 4 Feb 99, at 12:32, Doug & Sharon White wrote:
> Also.........does a format of a drive (low level or normal)
> reformat the boot sector totally? What I am asking is, can I get rid
> of a virus by reformating a drive?
It depends. Formatting the drive will removee any infected files, of
course, but there are two other things to consider:
1. If your runtime OS is infected, it may promptly reinfect the drive
after formatting it. You have to "boot clean" -- preferably from a
write-protected boot disk created for this purpose -- in order for
reformatting to accomplish anything against a virus.
2. Some of the worst (in my experience...) viruses around infest the
"Master Boot Record" of the drive, and will not be toiuched by a
format. You can rewrite this area using FDISK /MBR, but with some
viruses this may permanently damage the drive.
Trying to fix viruses "by hand" is a risky alternative to shelling
out $50 for a decent antivirus program. I recommend spending the money.
David G
PCBUILD maintains many useful files for download
on our web site - visit our download page at:
http://nospin.com/pc/files.html
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