on the phone.

of files which you suspect may be infected. Please do not try to call him

Please mail him a detailed report and, if it is at all possible, include copies

Disinfectant for assistance. His addresses are at the end of this document.

have a new virus, then you should feel free to contact the author of

If you have followed all of this advice and if you still think that you may



users group and ask for help.

gurus within the department for help. Go to a meeting of your local Mac

you work for a corporation with a computer department, ask the local

faculty member, ask for assistance at your campus computing center. If

friend or local expert. If you are a university student, staff member, or

If your problems continue, try to obtain the assistance of a knowledgeable



several files.

modification date. Look for consistent patterns of change which affect

you may see a legitimate increase in size and/or change in the last

a virus. Also, some applications modify themselves, and in these cases

modification date of your System file—this is normal and does not indicate

however, be concerned about changes in size or changes in the last

that there may indeed be a virus spreading on your system. Do not,

last modification dates are consistently changing, this is one indication

command. If your applications are consistently growing in size, or if their

application file sizes and last modification dates with the Finder's Get Info

a new virus, there are a few additional things you can try. Monitor

If all else fails and you still suspect that your system may be infected by



consult note number 134, “Hard Disk Medic & Booting Camp.”

Mac sold. If you have access to Apple’s Macintosh Technical Notes,

available, including Apple’s Disk First Aid, which is included with every

floppies or tapes. There are several good disk recovery utilities

reinitialize and reformat the disk and reload your files from backup

you may attempt to use a disk recovery utility, or you may be forced to

the disk at all, or the system may simply behave strangely. In this case

disk become inaccessible, or the system may not even be able to mount

sometimes be so serious that all or some of the files and folders on the

contain file directories and other important system information. This can

In some cases, software errors can damage the areas on your disk which



file by a known good version.

a time to locate the file that is causing the problem. Replace the problem

can now remove these last few files from your new System folder one at

down the cause of the problem to the last few files which you copied. You

process. Eventually the problem will reappear and you will have narrowed

problem has not come back, copy a few more files over and repeat the

operation and use it for a while to see if the problem has come back. If the

System folder a few at a time. Restart your Mac after each copying

Next, copy files from your old System folder into your new



System file to your new System file.

Use the Font/DA Mover to copy all of your fonts and DAs from your old

that the cause of the problem was something in your old System folder.

from this hard drive. If your problem disappears, then you have verified

disks to install a completely new System folder on the hard drive. Restart

drive System folder “Old System Folder.” Then use your Apple installer

file outside of the System folder on your hard drive. Rename your hard

containing clean copies of the System and Finder files). Drag the Finder

scratch. Restart your Macintosh from a startup floppy (a floppy

The best way to cure this problem is to rebuild your System folder from

Another common problem is damaged system files in the System folder.



locked original master floppy.

behaving unusually, try replacing it with a known good copy from your

Another common problem is damaged applications. If an application begins



into a floppy drive.

disk, hold down the Command and Option keys while inserting the floppy

the OK button when the alert appears. To rebuild a desktop file on a floppy

an alert appears asking if you really want to rebuild the desktop. Click on

Option keys while restarting your system. Keep the keys held down until

Desktop file. On hard drives you do this by holding down the Command and

your icons are not being displayed properly, you should rebuild the

icons. This problem is almost always due to a damaged “Desktop” file. If

virus, even though the Scores virus does change the appearance of a few

display of icons in Finder windows. This symptom is almost never due to a

One very common symptom on the Macintosh is problems with the proper



see if the problem disappears.

software lately?” If the answer is yes, try removing the software and

Thus, the first question you should ask is, “Have I installed any new



disks, or any other kind of problem imaginable.

other piece of software can cause crashes, hangs, damaged files, trashed

error in an application, startup document (INIT), control panel (cdev), or

The most common cause of problems is simple errors in software. An



virus. There are several things you can do to try to isolate the problem.

yield to the temptation to immediately blame the malfunction on a new

If your Macintosh begins to malfunction or behave unusually, please do not



cases were actually new viruses.

anti-viral experts, but after careful investigation only a handful of these

of people have reported strange behavior on their Macintoshes to

almost all of them have absolutely nothing to do with viruses. Thousands

There are many, many things which can go wrong on a Macintosh and



locate any known viruses.

may be infected by a new virus, but Disinfectant reports that it cannot

This section discusses what you should do if you think that your system










åProblem Clinic



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