floppy scanned in Windows

[CJP]

I recently flashed the bios for my Asus P4T-E motherboard and installed a new processor. Also, I got 100 viruses somehow on my computer when scanning with Norton the other day and they've all seemingly been removed. Anyway, the thing is now when I boot into Windows (not when the bios scans the floppy in the boot sequence but later when Windows is actually loaded and the system tray programs are loading) and when I shutdown the floppy drive is scanned. I don't remember it doing this before. I know some viruses copy themselves to floppies during boot or shutdown. Is this thing normal for Windows XP or could it have something to do with the new bios or a virus?

 

[dullard]

That is a normal anti-virus tactic. If you leave an infected floppy in the drive and turn on your computer, then you could do serious damage. So many anti-virus programs will scan the drive to make sure an infected disk isn't left in there. Note: the most anti-virus programs let you turn off this feature if you are bothered by it.

 

[mechBgon]

Your question's more of a Software question, but if you look through your Norton configuration panels, I think you'll find a checkbox for "Scan floppy at shutdown" or whatnot. If you managed to come down with 100 viruses, then you should definitely check out your Norton settings... it should be set up so they're never able to get a foothold in the first place, unless they're so new that the virus definitions don't cover them (and that's what a daily backscan of the contents of the hard drives is for 🙂). So make sure your Norton isn't set up in Nerf mode...

NO --> "oh sir... sir... may I delete the virus-infected file? Please? Pretty please??"

...and also make sure it's updating automatically (daily or more often, if Norton gives you control over that).

I know if my system caught 100 viruses I would be reformatting and reinstalling, and also asking myself how the heck that happened and taking steps to prevent it in the future. 😱 If you have broadband, get a Netgear RP614 router/firewall (or similar) and it wouldn't hurt to install ZoneAlarm software firewall either.

 

[CJP]

Yeah I checked my Norton settings and it was set to scan at shutdown though nothing about start-up but that's fine if what it's doing is normal. What I think happened with the 100 infected files is that when I last updated ZoneAlarm I walked away from the computer for 15 minutes after clicking a "press ok to reboot." When I came back the computer was still hanging at shutdown due to a conflict with my Belkin Speedpad so it might have been unprotected for that time.

I'm going to reformat eventually too. Thanks guys,

Chris

 

[sunase]

>So make sure your Norton isn't set up in Nerf mode...
>NO --> "oh sir... sir... may I delete the virus-infected file? Please? Pretty please??"

I wouldn't let Norton try to fix anything without asking. It killed an entire raid array I transferred between computers once because it thought the array had some sort of boot sector virus, which was probably just data about the array setup. Even had it been a virus, destroying the array before I get data out of it is a little extreme. ;/

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: sunase
>So make sure your Norton isn't set up in Nerf mode...
>NO --> "oh sir... sir... may I delete the virus-infected file? Please? Pretty please??"

I wouldn't let Norton try to fix anything without asking. It killed an entire raid array I transferred between computers once because it thought the array had some sort of boot sector virus, which was probably just data about the array setup. Even had it been a virus, destroying the array before I get data out of it is a little extreme. ;/

That's a first. At work, I have about 80 systems that are set to kill on sight, no questions asked. It hasn't caused any problems for us. What would you have told it instead of "Delete," if it reported a boot-sector virus?