Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!ncar!boulder!tramp!walkerb
From: walkerb@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Brian Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Writing to write protected disks?
Keywords: Virus,Atari,ST,write,protected
Message-ID: <3773@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 29 Sep 88 22:17:27 GMT
References: <614@ethz.UUCP> <1633@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <420@nikhefk.UUCP> <1659@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: walkerb@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Brian Walker)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 12

In article <1659@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> angles@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Ian Angles) writes:
[...]
>	In truth it is possible to bypass almost all the hardware interrupts
>on the ST by disabling them or catching them before the OS catches them.

I beg to differ.  Write protection is usually a hardwired protection on the 
disk drive.  The OS and programs can, however, neglect to pay attention to 
this fact and try anyways.

As an example, early versions of Twister (a skewed track formatter) have
been known to "format" write-protected disks.  That is, they went through 
the motions but the information on the disk remained intact.