Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!mimsy!aplcen!jhunix!ins_ammm
From: ins_ammm@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Mamdouh Maher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: UPTIME VIRUS
Keywords: MacWorld/Virus/Uptime
Message-ID: <6904@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Date: 31 Aug 88 04:30:26 GMT
References: <767@hub.ucsb.edu> <728@atux01.UUCP>
Reply-To: ins_ammm@jhunix.UUCP (Mamdouh Maher)
Organization: MiSR
Lines: 26

In article <767@hub.ucsb.edu>, angst%csilvax@hub.ucsb.edu (vaguely human) writes:
 > A friend of mine received a disk in the mail from a company called "UPTIME."
 >[...]
 > Well, he was fool enough to load the disk and try some of the programs.
 >[...]
 > program and it said something like "rearranging system folder; this may
 > take a while."  Sensing destruction, my friend tried to restart his Mac II,
 > but the disk would not come out.  Of course it would not boot off of this
 > nasty disk, so after a few failed attempts, he used a paper clip to eject
 > the sickly disk.
 > He booted from a System floppy, and then reinstalled his system folder, 
 > thinking all was well.  Well, a short time later, his Mac just turned off
 > while he was typing, just as if he had selected "Shut down" from the "I
 > can't remember which" menu.  He looked in his system folder, and, surprise,
 > all of the icons had an "A" written across them.
 > Has anyone else seen this virus?  Has anyone found a cure?
 > And no, it's not for me, it's for my friend.  No, really...

  I do not think that this is a virus. I think that your griend destroyed
his own system disk by restarting his Mac II in the middle of a writing
operation. UpTime may not be the best value for the money, but it is
reputable enough not to try any virus trick. The rearranging of the
system folder may have been a system task, rather than a task initiat d
by your program.

                                                     Mamdouh Maher