Virus
Tanya Gohl
Version: --Other--
On 21 Sep 1998 19:06:48 GMT, LaVonne Perry [Symantec] wrote:
> >>I think I had a virus on one of my machines. The employee had Word,
> Excel, Outlook and an emulation software open. She doubled clicked
> on Internet Explorer and her whole machine went down. It rebooted
> and said it had an invalid system disk. I then used your rescue disk
> and a boot disk made from another PC. It would not take those. It
> would only take take the disk from Dell, their diagnostics disk.
> Then once I got it up I did a directory on the c drive and all that
> was there was the dot dir, the two dot directory and the whole entire
> drive had been put into one directory<,>
> Hello Tanya,
>
> Thanks for using the Online Support newsgroup for Norton AntiVirus.
>
> I'm very sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
>
> This does not sound like a virus. Instead, I suspect that some kind of
> corruption occurred in the system area on this computer.
>
> Do you know if this system is using any kind of dynamic drive over
I had techs work with me on this and the only thing they could figure
out with all the symbols, happy face etc. was that it was a virus.
We have 35 machines with the exact configuration and we do not have
any of those special drives that you talked about. We have very
clean generic machines. We have a zip drive software on the machines
for backups but that drive was not attached. Any other suggestions?
Kasha...@AOL.com.
LaVonne Perry [Symantec]
>I had techs work with me on this and the only thing they could figure
>out with all the symbols, happy face etc. was that it was a virus.
>We have 35 machines with the exact configuration and we do not have
>any of those special drives that you talked about. We have very
>clean generic machines. We have a zip drive software on the machines
>for backups but that drive was not attached.
Hi Tanya,
In this case, the best course of action will be to send in a sample to
the virus lab. That way we can identify exactly what it may have done
and the best way to deal with it. Attempts at generic virus repairs
may do more harm than good.
To manually submit a potential virus sample, use notepad or some other
editor to fill out the SUBMIT.TXT file located at:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/antivirus_definitions/norton_antivirus/submit.txt
Make sure to include complete information or the sample will be
rejected. Follow the instructions at the bottom of the INSTRUCT.TXT
file for submitting file infecting viruses to our Symantec Antivirus
Research Center. The INSTRUCT.TXT file is located at:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/antivirus_definitions/norton_antivirus/instruct.txt
If there is an actual virus in your sample, SARC will generate a
detection and repair for you. That definition would then be
distributed to all our customers shortly after that.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
LaVonne Perry
Senior Support Analyst
Symantec Corporation
Please continue to post your messages to the public discussion group as
Symantec does not provide support via private e-mail. Thank you.
If you have difficulty getting a response, please read the following article:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/1998527114414
For free technical support newsletters, Knowledge Base support articles, our Online Support Genie, and FAQs, visit our Norton AntiVirus support page:
Tanya Gohl
> On 23 Sep 1998 16:21:32 GMT, Tanya Gohl <xKasha...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> >I had techs work with me on this and the only thing they could figure
> >out with all the symbols, happy face etc. was that it was a virus.
> >We have 35 machines with the exact configuration and we do not have
> >any of those special drives that you talked about. We have very
> >clean generic machines. We have a zip drive software on the machines
> >for backups but that drive was not attached.
>
> Hi Tanya,
>
> In this case, the best course of action will be to send in a sample to
> the virus lab. That way we can identify exactly what it may have done
> and the best way to deal with it. Attempts at generic virus repairs
> may do more harm than good.
>
> To manually submit a potential virus sample, use notepad or some other
> editor to fill out the SUBMIT.TXT file located at:
>
> ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/antivirus_definitions/norton_
Unfortunately our person could not be down this long. After trying
to scan with the updated Norton , Norton Disk doctor etc. we decided
to reload her machine with our image. We couldn't even reformat the
drive because of the name it labeled it.(happy face, strange symbols
etc.) These sysmbols don't exist on the keyboard. Anyway we
reimaged and hopefully the virus isn't resident anymore. Since we
couldn't completely clean off the disk the correct way we hope the
virus is gone. The tech I worked with wanted to make sure it was a
clean disk but of course it wouldn't let us. We did run the updated
Norton(9/09/98) and it found nothing. She just needs to remember to
backup. If you have any other questions and would like to call my
number is 714-579-2454. Thank you for your help. We are hoping this
is isolated. She didn't send anything to anyone else or save
anything to infect any one else but we don't know if this is some
trojan horse or stealth virus that could just pop up. I do have
everyone backing their systems up now in case. Can a virus infect a
zip disk? Thank you again. I hope if this virus is still around and
we find it again I will send it to you. As for now her disk was
totally unrecognizable with all the directories and sub-directories
added to each file by the end of working with it. As I said Disk
doctor couldn't even repair. I have fixed a disk before with Disk
Doctor. Tanya Gohl, Knott's Berry Farm Foods, Systems Administrator,
KASHA...@AOL.com, TG...@HWFOODS.COM
LaVonne Perry [Symantec]
everyone backing their systems up now in case. Can a virus infect a
zip disk? <<
Hello Tanya,
Thanks for writing back. Viruses that infect executable files can infect files
that are on Zip disks. Boot record viruses are another matter. The only way a
boot record virus will spread is by booting from an infected floppy. Data
files, with the exception of .DOC, .DOT and .XL? files, cannot be infected, so
just backing up data is a good idea.
In my experience, when a machine crashes this hard it's usually due to a system
hardware or OS failure. Keep an eye on it, and if it seems to be acting
strangely again, format a floppy on the system (with the system files) and send
it along to the Virus Lab.
Should you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
--
LaVonne Perry
Senior Support Analyst
Symantec Corporation
Please continue to post your messages to the public discussion group as
Symantec does not provide support via private e-mail. Thank you.
If you have difficulty getting a response, please read the following article:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/1998527114414
For free technical support newsletters, Knowledge Base support articles, our
Online Support Genie, and FAQs, visit our Norton AntiVirus support page:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/nav.html
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