On 5 Apr 99, at 23:03, Vic Hlushak wrote:

> I have been doing this for 20 years and I have never seen or even heard from
> a reputable source that Fdisk /MBR can damage a HDD. All it does is
> overwrite the Master Boot Record.
>
> Vic, A+

  See

http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/~janda/acvx_faq.html#C01

for some warnings about FDISK /MBR, and a recommendation to use an antivirus
package instead.

  Also, from

http://www.mindrape.org/mirrors/faqs/computer-virus/alt-faq/part4

------------------------------------------------------------

Reasons NOT to use FDISK /MBR

See Section 12 in part 2 of this FAQ for further information about FDISK with
the undocumented /MBR switch. However, people with virus problems are
frequently advised, out of ignorance or maliciousness, to use this switch in
circumstances where it can lead to an inability to access your disk drive and
possible loss of data (not to mention hair and sanity).

Essentially, you should avoid using FDISK /MBR unless you have it on good
authority that it's safe and necessary to do so. In most circumstances, it's
safer to clean a partition sector with a good anti-virus program.

You should avoid FDISK /MBR at all costs under the following circumstances:

1. Under an infection of viruses that don't preserve the Partition Table
e.g., Monkey, reported at 7.2% of the infections reported to _Virus Bulletin_
for December '95, the last report for which I have data.

2. Under an infection that encrypts data on the hard drive and keeps the key
in the MBR, e.g, One_half -- reported at 0.8% worldwide.

3. When security software, e.g., PC-DACS is in use.

4. When a driver like Disk Manager or EZDrive is installed.

5. When a controller that stores data in (0,0,1) is in use.

6. When more than one BSI virus is active, in some conditions.

7. When a data diddler is active, e.g. Ripper, accountable for 3.8% of the
infections reported in the study cited above (N.B.: while this case won't be
fixed by AV utilities, at least one will know why there are problems with the
drive)

------------------------------------------------------------

  If you want, we could argue offline whether "inability to access your disk
drive and possible loss of data" is *usefully* different from "permanently
damage".  *I* don't know of a recovery procedure for "inability to access
your disk drive".

Dave Gillett, A+, MCSE, also been doing this stuff for 20+ years...
David G

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