Bad Boot Record -- Virus

[Patrizio]

Greetings,

I just got an alert from Norton that my boot record may have virus.

In a computer hardware class I took some time ago, the instructor stated that if one had a virus in the boot record the only way it could be truly deleted is to type:

FDISK /MBR (that is: FDISK, a space,/MBR)

He stated that just doing an FDISK & then a FORMAT command will not erase the virus.

Any opinions? Must one, when formatting an infected boot record, perform an FDISK /MBR in addition to the FDISK FORMAT?

Thanks,

Pat

 

[LiLithTecH]

It all depends on the type of boot virus it is.

Most (not all) boot viruses load themselves into memory during the boot process.
With that type of virus, doing a FDisk /mbr would not help as the virus will write to the
boot sector on powerdown.

Are you using any Drive Overlay program?
Norton has a habit of identifying them as a boot virus (they write to Track 0 also).

 

[Patrizio]

Thanks for the reply.

As far as I know, I am not using any Drive Overlay program.... What is a Drive Overlay Program--something like a partition software? The "extra" software I have is Norton SystemWorks, Rambooster, ZoneAlarm.

Would you please clarify "the virus will write to the boot sector on powerdown." Does this mean that even if I do a FDISK FORMAT and an FDisk /mbr that the virus can still "hide" somewhere and write to the boot sector on powerdown? If this is the case, how does one get rid of the virus?

Thanks,

Have a nice day,

Pat