============== == AVDisk 7.1 == ============== http://members.xoom.com/avdisk AVDisk is a batch program which automates the task of getting your anti-virus software on to floppy disks which you can use to start, scan and disinfect your computer. AVDisk currently supports the following anti-virus programs: * Frisk Software International's F-Prot (www.complex.is) * Kaspersky Labs AVPLite (www.avp.ru) * Kaspersky Labs AVPDOS32 build 132+ (www.avp.ru) Because of the way this program operates you require to follow a few simple steps before you can use it. These steps are as follows: 1. Go to http://www.pkware.com and download PKZip for DOS version 2.50 or higher. Save it in the AVDisk7 folder, then run it to create the files AVDisk requires to operate. 2. Run the AVDisk Install program. AVDisk will be launched when installation is completed succesfully. To run AVDisk in the future, open the folder containing your anti-virus software and run the AVDisk program from there. You will need to have enough floppy disks available to hold your chosen anti-virus software, you can optionaly format them using the AVDisk program if you wish. ========= == Notes == ========= 1. The Install program will refuse to work if either its file size is modified, or an "Install.Com" file is found in the folder you are installing AVDisk from (the AVDisk installer is an "Exe" file). These two checks are performed to reduce the risk of further spreading companion and non-stealthing viruses. 2. AVDisk requires some system files from your operating system to work. The program should automatically find these files itself, but if it can't you may need to specify the full path to your operating system as a command line parameter, for example: AVDisk C:\Windows 3. You should update your anti-virus software and startup disks regularly (a minimum of once every month) or your system will not be capable of detecting the latest viruses. This involves updating your anti-virus software itself as new versions are released and also its virus definition files which provide the information required to detect most viruses. Definition files are released much more frequently then new software versions. 4. You should always create your startup disks on a clean computer otherwise using your startup disks may further spread a virus infection. If you suspect your computer is infected then download all the nessecary software on to a clean computer and create the startup disks from there. 5. It is important to note which operating system you use to create the startup disks because different operating systems support different file systems. For example a FAT32 partition created by a Windows 98 system can not always be read using startup disks created on a Windows 95 system, because some versions of Windows 95 do not support FAT32. For this reason it is best to use your startup disks only in computers running equal or previous versions of the operating system the disks were created on. 6. PGP signatures for all AVDisk files are contained in PGPSig.Zip which you can use to verify you are using an unmodified version of AVDisk. Signing key ID : 0xC27F76A3 (DigitAl56K) Fingerprint : E451 B7F9 CA52 6DDA C697 FEE2 7A9A 91BF C27F 76A3 Key signed by : 0xA41413B4 (Deniz Oezmen) PGP Freeware International can be downloaded from http://www.pgpi.org 7. Test your disks to make sure they work and that you know how to use them before you need them. =========== == Support == =========== AVDisk is not supported by any anti-virus product vendor or developer and is used entirely at your own risk. In the intrests of maintaining a standardised version of this program please do not modify it yourself (except for personal use as required). If you need to access the AVDisk program files you must enter the appropriate password to decrypt them, "AVDisk7", which is to ensure files from older versions of AVDisk can not be used with this version. Bug reports, comments and suggestions are always welcome. If you do become infected with a virus and you would like help or information a good place to go is the alt.comp.virus newsgroup, where you can find advice from a number of proffesionals and other experienced users. However, please remember when posting to this group not to post binaries or virus samples, and to be as specific as possible when asking for help. =========== == Credits == =========== AVDisk is copyright DigitAl56K 1999 (DigitAl56K@LibertySurf.co.uk) SearchRD is copyright Deniz Oezmen 1999 (Quantensprung@Gmx.net) Install is copyright Frederic Bonroy 2000 (FBonroy@Mail.dotcom.fr) The official "who did what" list: DigitAl56K - Wrote the batch scripts, documentation and website. Also missed many e-mails and newsgroup posts, caused long delays etc. :P Deniz Oezmen - Created SearchRD so AVDisk could autodetect the RAM drive and put his PC on the line many times beta testing ;) Frederic Bonroy - Created the AVDisk installation program which makes setting up the program a LOT easier :) Steven Craik - Brought AVPDOS32 support to AVDisk in version 6 with loads of beta testing and many e-mails - from a Commodore 128! ==================== == Revision History == ==================== v7 - AVDisk has been patched in v7.1 to include a 32-bit version of the Install program. This solves a stack overflow which may be encountered on systems with heavily nested directory structures. AVDisk now has a user friendly installation program thanks to Frederic Bonroy! Installing AVDisk just got a whole lot easier :) Added a note that PKZip version 2.50 or higher is required. Some people reported problems using older versions of PKZip because the Extreme Maximum Compression mode which AVDisk uses to minimize the number of floppies nessecary for spanning was only added in version 2.50. Fixed error handling if spanning operations fail. Added confirmation to various parts of the program in place of "Press any key" prompts. Formatting is now automatic without prompting for user input. You can now choose to update your disks instead of making them from scratch each time! - To update a set of startup disks they must have been created using the current version of AVDisk. This is to ensure that the AVDisk program on the floppies is also kept up to date. During an update only the anti-virus program is updated. - You can also change the anti-virus on the disk using the update option. For example if you have a set of F-Prot startup disks you can update them with AVPLite and they will then contain the AVPLite program instead. v6 - AVDisk has been patched in v6.1 to correct a limitation imposed by DOS 6.22 which could cause both RAM drive auto-detection and manual selection to fail. Apologies to those users who have been affected by this problem. AVDisk can now detect the AV software available and allow you to select which one you want to use on your startup disks, making AVPDisk redundant. Basic help files are included for each software package and AVDisk can now be easily modified to support other AV software. AVDisk now supports AVPDOS32 thanks to Steven Craik. The Temp directory is used during operation to keep things nice and neat. Due to various requests the RAM drive capacity has been increased from 2MB to 4MB. This adds a degree of future proofing to the progam as virus definitions are constantly approaching the previous 2MB limit. Users who do not have enough RAM to support this configuration should use an ASCII editor (such as NOTEPAD for Windows or EDIT for DOS) to modify the Config.Sys file after creating the startup disks, changing the RAM drive size from 4096 to 2048. Users of MS-DOS may notice that AVDisk now exits in the root directory. This is to ensure a known exit path for the program. This document is now much similar to the website, and a "Credits" section has been added. v5 - Updated to be similar in operation to AVPDisk for AVPLite. Things are a little more organised in this version thanks to the introduction of zip files. v4 - Updated to work with F-Prot 3.06 which includes a new definition file and files are now stored differently on the floppies so that free space is better balanced. Also included is a new revision of SearchRD by Deniz to fix a bug which reported the RAM drive volume incorrectly under certain circumstances. v3 - Automatic RAM drive detection is back thanks to the excellent SearchRD created by Deniz Oezmen. AVDisk will now only prompt you for the RAM drive volume letter in the unlikely event that it can not be auto-detected. v2 - Users must now type the letter of the RAM drive during startup. This is a simple process which should not cause any problems but that will make sure startup disks will work on all systems. The AVDisk program now uses only commands supplied with all versions of Microsoft operating systems supporting MSDOS for better compatibility. This readme file now has version information so you know what you have got and I have also updated the Notes and Support sections. To prevent altered versions of this software being distributed I have also included PGP signatures for all files in this release which you can use to verify that the files have not been altered since I made them if you want. You can download PGP freeware from www.pgpi.org v1 - Original launch version.