NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/comp/os/os2/misc/26093

Text File | 1992-07-30 | 1.7 KB | 36 lines

Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!vmsa.is.csupomona.edu!cvadrtbc
From: [e-mail] (Srikanth Viswanathan)
Subject: Did OS/2 save me from the Joshi virus??
Organization: California Polytechnic University, Pomona
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41
Sender: [e-mail] (The Daily Lose)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 06:09:00 GMT
X-Posted-From: vmsa.is.csupomona.edu
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I got the shock of my life today when I tried to access my floppy drives
from OS/2 after dual booting from DOS,  I got a SYS0045 error meaning that
the Sector was not found, but the odd thing is that the drive wasn't even
accessed (no light).  Thinking it was an OS/2 problem, I tried BOOT /DOS
and drive A started acting funny.  I loaded up MSD.EXE and found out that
the drives were being recognized as 360k drives!  I checked my CMOS and
it was correctly configured.  Finally, I tried running a virus checker.
Bingo!  I had the Joshi virus on the partition table, apparently, I had
gotten the virus from my college computer where I had ftped some stuff.
After cleaning out the partition table, everything's back to normal.

Fortunately, I was in OS/2, otherwise, the partition table might
have been destroyed.  BTW, in case you are wondering, I got the
virus when I was in DOS (dual boot).  I have a whole new respect
for OS/2 after this experience.

Now, the question, why did I get a SYS0045 error?  Is it because
Joshi tried to "redefine" the floppy drive settings and OS/2 didn't
like that?  It apparently succeeded under DOS as evidenced by the
MSD report.

Srikanth