What to do when the virus alarm goes off:
First, read the text in the alert box. Note the difference between:
and
The first box above is simply telling you that the virus checker did not check a particular file. It does not necessarily mean that there is any problem - such messages can generally be ignored. The second box tells you that the virus checker did find a virus. It will usually clean out the virus if it can, and also tell you it has done so. In this case, the floppy was write-protected (it's the one I keep to check whether a virus checker is working, so I don't want it cleaned), so it tells that it was not able to clean it.
The above screens were from VirusScan version 2.1.8, which is being replaced by 3.0.1 . The good news is that version 3.0.1 doesn't sound a siren to tell you it isn't going to check its own definition file. The bad news is that it does not make it as obvious if you do have a virus infection. When I put my infected floppy into the machine, it generated a box that looked like:
But the critical information was removed from the screen in seconds, when the above box was replaced by:
The fact that the floppy is infected is logged, and you can read the log by clicking the book (3rd) icon in the box. But unless you are watching, it is not obvious that the floppy is infected. I do think you need to know it if you have infected disks; I will see whether I can change the defaults to make the notice stay visible.
If I found a virus on a floppy of mine, I would bring in other floppies I had and see whether they also were infected. I would try to get all my infected disks cleaned at the same session, because if you put one infected disk into a machine, that disk can reinfect the machine, which can then reinfect any disk you had previously cleaned when you insert it. If I were working with multiple machines, I would test whether a given machine was infected by cleaning a floppy on a machine in our lab, working on another machine with it, then checking the floppy again in our lab to see whether it was infected again.
If the same floppy is being repeatedly found infected after being cleaned each time, it is being repeatedly infected by some other machine(s) you are using. If this is happening and you have a computer at home, it is quite likely that your home computer is infected. Some viruses can spread between Windows machines and Macs, and others can only infect a given type of computer.
If you are putting floppies that you put into any public machine(s) into a home machine, you really should have a virus checker on your home machine.
If you need help eradicating a virus on your home computer, email Harry.
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