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

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