Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: CHESS@YKTVMV.BITNET (David.M.Chess) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: re: Joshi & Stoned 2 (PC) Message-ID: <0013.9101111559.AA00331@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 11 Jan 91 14:32:33 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 20 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu I'd guess that you just have the usual Stoned virus (at least one version of one popular scanner was reporting "Stoned 2" on normal Stoned infections); as far as I know, the Stoned-2 hasn't reached the U.S. population yet. Anyway, assuming you have the usual Stoned virus and the usual Joshi virus, neither of them "intentionally" do any damage to files (that is, there's no piece of code in either one to which one can point and say "this was clearly intended to trash the disk / files"). On the other hand, both are doing odd and unexpected things to your disk, and there are definitely circumstances in which (for instance) the Stoned by itself can overlay part of your FAT with a copy of the original master boot record (producing, to say the least, unexpected results). I wouldn't be at all surprised if on some machines a combined Stoned+Joshi infection would damage something on the disk! I would except, though (assuming, again, that you have the "vanilla" viruses), that only a few sectors have actually been trashed, and that virtually all your data is still there *somewhere*... DC