Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!pacbell.com!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!widener!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: geoffb@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Geoff Bronner) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: help with mac "virus"? (Mac) Message-ID: <0008.9105081310.AA02449@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 7 May 91 20:21:44 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 31 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu billj@uop.uop.edu (Snugglupagus) writes: >recently, we've come across a problem with one of the macs in our lab. >we really don't know if it's a virus or not, but it does act something >like one. anyway, here are the symptoms: >- - the mac has a 40 meg hard disk >- - there is only about 16 meg of software installed >- - both the finder and mactools report 38 meg used, 2 meg free >what we really want to know is: is this some sort of new virus, or is >our mac just confused? I think it is confused. I have seen a similar problem with MacIIcx's with 80MB drives. They thought they had 56MB instead of the actual amount (around 30). This occured on several machines in a public cluster of 17 identical cx's. Solution: about 50% of the time I was able to fix the problem by simply re-building the desktop file. In the other cases, tranferring the entire disk to another hard disk or tape and then putting it back also worked. This implies that fragmentation may have been the cause and I have seen similar cases where using Disk Express or a similar utility also helped. - -Geoff Bronner '91 Student Consultant, Dartmouth College Computing Services - -- geoffb@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."