home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Cream of the Crop 20
/
Cream of the Crop 20 (Terry Blount) (1996).iso
/
virus
/
i_m302a.zip
/
QUESTION.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-07-17
|
33KB
|
641 lines
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ Welcome to QUESTION.TXT! Hopefully you'll find the answer to your question ║
║ in this collection. ║
║ ║
║ o If you have a general question about data integrity, security, viruses, ║
║ system sectors or similar things, the help index in Integrity Master may ║
║ provide the answer (Hit F1 and then "I"). If that fails, read the manual ║
║ (file I-M.DOC), especially part two on "Data Integrity and Viruses". ║
║ ║
║ o If you're having trouble using the menus in Integrity Master try the ║
║ tutorial offered in SetupIM. ║
║ ║
║ o If all else fails, please contact us or the Advanced Support Group for ║
║ assistance. See details in file SUPPORT.DOC (IMVIEW SUPPORT.DOC ║
║ to read this file). ║
║ ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Q: Integrity Master said a file has an invalid time/date stamp or a file
date is set into the future. What should I do?
A: Some viruses mark files as infected by setting the date ahead 100 years
or by setting the fields in time to stamp to 60 or 62. This can also
be caused by buggy software and is occasionally done deliberately. If
you see this on only an isolated file, you probably have nothing to
worry about. If you see this on a group of files associated with the
same program, you should contact the company that produced that program
to check if that is normal behavior or a bug. If you have many files
with this, read the next question:
Q: IM reports invalid time and date stamps on many of my files. Do I have
a virus?
A: Maybe! If it's only executable files with the illegal values, you'll
need to check further to make sure there's no unknown virus on the
loose. If you have such a virus, IM should be detecting unexplained
changes to executable programs. Try following the procedures
outlined in the manual (or the I-M.DOC file) for determining if file
changes are due to viruses. (Basically, what you do is to run a full
check, execute a suspect program, cold boot, and run another full
check.) There are some common causes for files to have illegal time
and date stamps (such as 62 seconds):
1) There is reportedly a backup program ("Intelligent Backup") which
marks files by setting the seconds field to an illegal value.
2) Some anti-virus products attempt to "immunize" your files by setting
the seconds of time stamp of your programs to 62. This works only
against a handful of viruses but some programs do this anyway.
3) Central Point's (PC Tools) Datamon will reportedly mark encrypted files
by setting the seconds field to 62.
Q: Integrity Master found some duplicate files (files starting with the
same name but ending in .COM, .EXE or .BAT). Do I have a virus?
A: You could have a companion virus. This is a virus which plants extra
files to match your legitimate programs (See the manual for details
on how this works.) If you see only isolated instances of such
files, it is usually nothing to worry about. If you have any concern
this may be virus, run IM regularly in full check mode and if you see
additional such files reported, you probably have a virus. Such a
virus can be removed by simply deleting the extra files.
Q: I asked IM to scan a floppy but it froze.
A: You probably have a diskette with an invalid boot sector (some viruses
cause this). It's actually DOS that crashes when IM asks DOS to read
the diskette. You can use the "Scan floppy Boot sectors" option
on the "Check" "Disk for known viruses" submenu (or the /VB command line
option) to have IM scan this boot sector for viruses. In this case, IM
will bypass DOS and directly read the boot sector.
Q: I start SetupIM and suddenly nothing happens or I see the display
scroll and then get disorganized. The program seems to be stuck.
A: Insert formatted media (e.g., diskettes) in all removable drives, run
SetupIM, and try waiting about 10 seconds and hitting the ENTER key
several times. You may be using a program which is trying to write a
message to the screen while SetupIM is checking out your disk drives.
You can safely ignore any garbage which appears on your screen. SetupIM
will write a full report to file IMPROC.TXT. Be sure to check this
file. The most common cause for this type of problem is using
DRIVER.SYS to assign a duplicate drive letter to a floppy drive:
You may have a statement like this in the \CONFIG.SYS file:
DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /D:0 /F:0
The numbers could be 0 as above or have some other value. DRIVER.SYS
may try to write a message to the screen to ask you to insert a new
disk and hit a key when SetupIM checks this drive. Deleting this line
should solve the problem. Once you finish running SetupIM you may
restore the line. IM will have know enough not to access the
duplicate logical drive.
Q: Sometimes IM comes up with different colors on the screen than before.
What's going on?
A: IM checks the DOS video mode indicator on your PC to see if you are
in color or monochrome mode, as well as directly checking your video
adapter. This allows you to use the DOS "MODE BW80" to indicate
that a two-color display is present on a color adapter card. Some
programs change this value to an incorrect value. If this happens
to you, use the DOS mode command to set the video mode back to the
correct state. For example, enter "MODE CO80" to restore normal
color mode. You can also use the command line override (or SetupIM)
so IM comes up using whatever colors you prefer. "IM /C" would
force IM to use color mode.
Q: I just tried to do a check or initialize on my hard disk. Integrity Master
replied that this disk was not working. It IS working! What's wrong?
~~
A: File "DISKhelp.TXT" describes how to correct this problem. Read file
DISKhelp.TXT using your favorite program, copy it to your printer ("COPY
DISKHELP.TXT PRN") or enter the command:
IMVIEW DISKHELP.TXT
to display this file.
Q: I just entered the command IMVIEW (or IMPRINT) and nothing happened. My
PC just said "Bad command or file name".
A: IMVIEW.COM and IMPRINT.BAT must be either in the current directory or
in one of the directories in your DOS path. To put these in the path,
enter the command PATH at the DOS prompt and you'll see a list of
directories on your disk. You can copy IMVIEW.COM or IMPRINT.BAT into any
of these directories.
Q: I don't have my original DOS install diskettes to do a clean boot from. How
do I install Integrity Master?
A: It's only important to have a certified clean copy if a virus may already
in control of your PC. In most cases you can safely install using your
DOS files in place on your hard disk.
Q: I use DOS 4.0. I get a message saying that SHARE needs to be loaded for
large media, when I boot from diskette. Do I need to copy SHARE.EXE to
my Integrity Master boot floppy?
A: Integrity Master does not need SHARE. You may wish to copy it so other
programs can use it. If so, just copy it to your diskette. DOS will
automatically load it when you boot.
Q: I just checked several disks but I can't find the report file. What
happened?
A: If you ha