Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: vancleef@nas.nasa.gov (Robert E. Van Cleef) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: CMOS devuce settings Message-ID: <0006.9101031858.AA06371@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 2 Jan 91 21:17:20 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 23 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu I had what I thought was a viral infection on my PC Clone system although VIRASCAN did not detect any problems. What I was seeing was recently updated files had problems. Finally the system started reporting BAD SECTORs in these files. This was only on my 3.5" 1.4 MB floppy disk. What had happened is... My system had been hit with a power surge that wiped out the CMOS table entries. When I reconfigured the system, I set up drive B: as a 5.25" 1.2 MB system instead of a 3.5" 1.4 MB system. This allowed me to be able to read the contents of the disk! However, anytime I wrote to the disk it screwed it up. Even using NORTON utilities worked half way. Norton's disk check would report bad blocks and mark them as such.... I am/was surprised that things actually worked as well as they did, as I would have expected the improperly configured disk not to work at all. - -- Bob Van Cleef vancleef@nas.nasa.gov NASA Ames Research Center (415) 604-4366 - --- Perception is reality...