Boot sector virus or faulty diagnostic?

[Gouverneur]

I hope this is the correct forum for this question.

I am running Windows 98 and DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11 on a 1Ghz AMD Athlon processor. My Motherboard has boot virus detection built into the CMOS. Motherboard is ASUS A7V133 Socket A with VIA Apollo KT133A Chipset.

A few days ago I started PowerQuest Drive Image which must run in DOS Mode. Windows 98 was shut down automatically and system restarted in DOS Mode. During bootup, there was a message about a Boot Sector virus. I used a set of Diskettes to restart the system and run Drive Image.
When I shut the system down and restarted Windows 98 via Boot Magic utility, there was no indication of a virus. I tried to duplicate the scenario which cause the message. I started Drive Image. Windows 98 shut down and Drive Image started with not virus message.

I do not use any virus protection or firewall software. I avoid diskettes and CDs from unknown sources. I do not open suspicious email, and ignore any attached files form unknown sources.

So far, I have had no trouble.

Am I likely to have a boot virus now dormant for some reason?

Did the message occur due to some transient fluke? What damage does a boot sector virus do?

Does anybody know algorithm is used to detect a boot virus? Is it a comparison of the boot sector with a previously stored copy? Is it a check sum? Is it based on knowledge of a virus signature.

Boot Magic must modify the boot sector to do its job. Could Boot Magic alteration of the boot sector cause erroneous detection of a virus?

I am querying PowerQuest, expecting to get little or no help in 2-3 days. They are good about trouble shooting their own software and providing tech support in general, but I suspect that they will have little help on this subject, unless it happens often to users of their products. Eschew obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea!

 

[tsuji]

Hello, Gouverneur.

Am not very sure. Try diable virus detection setting in the BIOS. It is known that it may produce false alarm.

Also, eventually, should install at least F-Prot free dos-based virus detection.

regards - tsuji

 

[tlcscousin]

When the BIOS anti-virus is enabled, any time a program tries to access and change the boot sector you will get a warning.
It is better to have a seperate anti-virus program running, and disable the BIOS one.

 

[Mulga]

Shovel is right with this, I have seen this message a few times when using boot manager type programs. The BIOS virus warning programs are little better than a nuisance and should be disabled. You should however be running some sort of anti virus software and ensure it is always up to date

 

[ramani]

HI

When a boot partion software is used to control the software.. EZ.. DM whatever..., the system first boots with the default and then the software takes control of driving the harddisks. The motherboard when enabled with boot sector modification to be noted as a possible virus cause... warns this message.

So if the motherboard bios is set for virus protection enabled, the error message will be flashed. The correct choice when using these third party disk partioning or boot maping utilities, you have to diable the BIOS boot virus protection.

Hope this helps ramani :-9
(Subramanian.G),FoxAcc, ramani_g@yahoo.com

 

[Gouverneur]

Thanx for the help. Your advice seems correct. I have not had a recurrence and my systme is running okay. Dinosaur from prehistoric mainframe era
Eschew obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea!

 

[smitee]

Get some virus protection..tis foolish not too..!