Viruses << >>

Boot / Partition Viruses

The Partition Table / Boot Sector virus gets themselves housed at the original Boot/Partition areas and shifts the original code to some other location. It gets itself attached in such a way that it moves into RAM before the actual code in Boot / Partition area, gets itself activated and then calls the actual code from the new location. Most of them remain there in the memory, thereby taking control of the machine. From here these viruses get themselves attached to the boot sector of the floppies or other executable files as the case may be. Getting activation control on every boot they are equipped with the opportunity to program their destruction.

Exploding The Myth : A boot sector virus is activated only if the machine is booted with the infected disk. Hence suppose a floppy is infected with a boot sector virus then the machine will not get infected unless an attempt to boot from the diskette is made. Merely using that floppy will not lead to infection.