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From: dlyons@Apple.COM (David A. Lyons)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: viruses
Message-ID: <43015@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 15 Jul 90 23:36:40 GMT
References: <90192.131403ART100@psuvm.psu.edu> <42933@apple.Apple.COM> <90195.000140ART100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 33

In article <90195.000140ART100@psuvm.psu.edu> ART100@psuvm.psu.edu (Andy Tefft) writes:
>In article <42933@apple.Apple.COM>, dlyons@Apple.COM (David A. Lyons) says:
>>I suggest you look harder for an alternative explanation.  For example,
>>if your Prefix is set to a volume that is no longer online, a program
>>you launch could easily be looking for a file in the current directory,
>
>That's a possible explanation at times but not in the cases I'm
>worried about. The one I mentioned was the .system file run directly
>off a boot. In the other case it's not impossible that was
>what was going on, just highly unlikely - the prefix is almost always
>set "properly" before I run any sys file.

Okay, maybe you've got a real virus--get a known-clean copy of the program
in question, and the version of ProDOS 8 you're using, and compare them.

Here's one more possibility that could cause a drive scan on boot (this has
happened to me):  If your disk is "marginal" (that is, sometimes a block is
readable, and sometimes it isn't), ProDOS 8 would be looking for your disk,
be unable to read block 2, and go looking for a disk by that name in other
drives.  On 5.25 drives, sometimes you don't get the usual head-recalibrate
sound you associate with I/O errors (I don't know why you don't always get
that).  If the SYS file you had just launched did some operation and P8 could
not read block 2, the app might tolerate the I/O error it got back.

Just a thought.
-- 
David A. Lyons, Apple Computer, Inc.      |   DAL Systems
Apple II Developer Technical Support      |   P.O. Box 875
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My opinions are my own, not Apple's.