From: ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA (Paul Derbyshire)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Quake.exe: not COFF
Date: 27 Nov 1997 06:21:37 GMT
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
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References: <3479EF12 DOT 97BFC9E1 AT gte DOT net> <347A3ECF DOT 1BC1 AT tssc DOT co DOT nz> <65ftq9$c8e$1 AT dagobah DOT blueriver DOT net>
Reply-To: ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA (Paul Derbyshire)
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"Packard" (packard AT blueriver DOT net) writes:
> Indeed, turning off a Win95 machine, without shutting down completely can
> leave file fragments (run scandisk through DOS mode) and they may/may not
> turn into viruses.

I've been using Intel machines for eight years and Win 95 for three, and
have seen and nuked many many lost clusters in my time, and I've never had
a lost cluster spontaneously become a virus! Lost clusters are just
wasting disk space until you nuke them. There is no way for a virus to be
spontaneously created on any kind of computer (except maybe a Tierra like
evolution simulator, given a lot of time, but I digress) from anything
except the spreading of an existing virus from another file.

As far as a bad shutdown of W95 is concerned, 9 times out of 10 it does
nothing; other times I have had lost clusters appear (something to do with
deleted files), and in theory a file that was open for writing at the time
can be corrupted because the write-back cache never got written back. EXEs
(other than self-modifying ones perhaps, and then only if they were
running at the time) shouldn't be affected.
--
    .*.  Where feelings are concerned, answers are rarely simple [GeneDeWeese]
 -()  <  When I go to the theater, I always go straight to the "bag and mix"
    `*'  bulk candy section...because variety is the spice of life... [me]
Paul Derbyshire ao950 AT freenet DOT carleton DOT ca, http://chat.carleton.ca/~pderbysh