-=> Quoting Anthony Barnes to All <=-
-=> FidoMail to 1:163/215, please.-=<
ab> appreciated. Please, laymans terms where possible as I am
ab> relatively new to computing. 
You need a "rescue disk set".  As a minimum, you need floppy disks
that are _known_ to be clean containing at least the following:
1) a DOS boot disk.  This permits you to boot the OS _without_
performing the boot from the possibly-infected hard drive.  Boot
sector infectors on the hard drive install themselves in memory with
every boot, making disinfection difficult or impossible if you boot
from the hard drive.  You may also need any special disk drivers
(such as Disk  Manager) on this disk as well to permit access to the
hard drive after the boot, and possibly DRVSPACE if you're using
compressed drives (ugh).
2) a recovery disk with critical system information (the parttion
table, mainly) that will allow you to restore that area of the hard
drive should it be scrambled.  A number of commercial products permit
making such a rescue disk.  It's invaluable should the partition
table be grunged.
3) Ideally, an AV scanner to scan the hard drive.  Most AV software
can be used from an infected hard drive, but it's best to be prepared
for the case where it cannot.
4) Backups (or original installation disks) for all your programs,
and certainly backups of your data.  The _best_ way to repair a
virus-damaged or infected file (and sometimes the only way) is to
delete it and re-install.
After you've made the disks, test them, and then WRITE-PROTECT them. 
You _don't_ want to have the possibility of infecting these tools
when you need them most.  Then, configure your CMOS to _not_ boot
from the floppy drive, and if possible, to not test for the existence
of the floppy drives on start-up.  This gives you a level of
infection protection:  an inadvertant boot from an boot-infected
floppy that just happened to be in the drive will infect your hard
drive.  You don't need that.  You'll have to change these CMOS
settings if you want to boot from your rescue disk set, but that's a
minor inconvenience.  _Always_ perform a cold boot (power off to
power on) when you boot from your rescue floppy.
Finally, adopt a rigorous AV posture:  Scan _every_ floppy you get
from any source _before_ copying files from it.  Scan _every_ file
you download _before_ executing it.  Keep your scanner software up to
date.
TTFN. Rick.
Ottawa, ON 12 Dec 7:10 
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