-=> Quoting The Visionary to Kurt Wismer <=-
-=> FidoMail to 1:163/215, please.-=<
kw> no, you never have to format your hard drive to recover from a
kw> virus infection... 
tv> Absolutely incorrect. There are some times where removing a virus
tv> from your hard drive will leave the boot sector and the FAT
tv> table encrypted, and the only way to recover from it is to
tv> format the drive. 
Sorry, but that's wrong.  FORMAT is, and should be, a last resort -
and then not to "recover" from a virus infection but to "give up".
What virus encrypts the FAT?  There may be one, but I don't recognize
it.  There _is_ however, a virus that will encrypt the partition
table - is that what you're thinking of?  MONKEY is an example.
There are AV programs which _specifically_ get rid of MONKEY - and no
need to FORMAT the drive.
tv> The MOST IMPORTANT THING to do when you're infected is to BACK UP
tv> EVERYTHING to tape or to a ZiP drive or some other device. DO
tv> NOT immediately remove the virus. You should find out what it
tv> is, and what it does before you remove it. 
I can think of no greater waste of time than "backing up" hundreds of
megabytes of possibly infected files.  Why on earth would you do
that?
TV> There are many misnomers regarding viruses, that I'll have to
TV> start posting here soon.
I'll wait with baited breath. :-)
TTFN. Rick.
Ottawa, ON 23 Dec 20:11 
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