Path: utzoo!yunexus!lethe!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!udel!haven!mimsy!tank!eecae!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: CHESS@YKTVMV.BITNET (David.M..Chess) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: future viruses on a PC; Pull plug before cleaning Message-ID: <0004.8911161543.AA03334@ge.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 13 Nov 89 00:00:00 GMT Article-I.D.: ge.0004.8911161543.AA03334 Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 15 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu > Sorry again turning off power will stop the current execution of the > virus... but... unless you are perfect in your safe computing habits > and your tools are up to snuff and you give your harddisk an > engineering prep as you power up and ALL your software is clean.. you > can still be hit upon power up... The usual idea is that you boot from a known-safe *diskette* when you want to get the system into a clean state for checking. With enough effort, it's possible to get a diskette whose possibility of being infected is as small as you like; if you boot from that, you can check your hard disk without having to assume that it's clean already (when a machine boots from a properly-prepared diskette, as you know, no code from the hard disk is executed). That was, I think, what was being suggested in the item you're replying to... DC