I made Norton Rescue disks on a Pentium II Windows 98 SE laptop with NAV 2002 ver. 8.07 with current definition files. I tested the disks on the laptop and the Rescue scan took approximately 2 hours. I then ran the Rescue scan on a Pentium II desktop that I believe is infected. I do not know how big the hard drive is or how many files are on the hard drive. The scan has been running for 48 hours!!! It continues to display on the screen files that it is scanning and the floppy drive is continually being accessed. So it appears to be running and not locked up. Is this runtime abnormal??? Any idea what's going on? Tips or suggestions? Thanks, Steve

Dear Steve, That is unlikley for Norton Rescue to run that long, that is abnormal, and you probably have a virus, possibly a worm virus. If you can get into your computer in anyway, run Norton or any Anti-Virus and delete the virus's found, make sure there deleted by searching for them. If there are not deleted you can do so in safe mode (via run safe mode, then delete them). If when you search for the virsues and it locks up, chances are that's caused by a virus. If so, Save what you can and format your computer. Best of luck.

Jeremy, Thanks for your prompt reply. I can boot to DOS from a floppy on the computer. That's why I was running Norton Rescue disk. The initial problem was that Windows 98 would lock up after 15 minutes. So I could not run a virus scan while in Windows. Hence the DOS based Rescue Disk scan. So I am trying to search for viruses from DOS. What good is the Norton Rescue Disk if it can't detect/repair/delete viruses? I thought that was the purpose of booting from the floppy and running the scan from the floppies - to avoid any infections on the hard disk. Or am I missing something? Thanks, Steve

Dear Steve, Hoefully something in here helps: (Process1) Install Norton AntiVirus on an uninfected computer. Restart the computer. Run LiveUpdate and download the Norton AntiVirus program updates and the virus definitions incase the virus definitions are new. Restart the computer after the program updates have been installed. Ensure that Norton AntiVirus is configured to scan all files by doing the following: Click Options > Manual Scan and check Comprehensive file scanning. Click OK to exit the program. Or if you have Norton AntiVirus 2000/2001: Start Norton AntiVirus. Click Options > Manual Scans. In the "File types to scan" section, click All files. Click OK to exit the program. Now go to your computer. If Norton AntiVirus detects a virus, then choose to repair the threat. If Norton AntiVirus detects a Trojan or worm, then delete the infected files. (Process 2) After further review you may have a MBR Virus. Your in luck cause you can remove them from dos. How to Disinfect boot sector viruses: Boot sector repair is best accomplished by the use of antivirus software. Because some boot sector viruses encrypt the MBR, improper removal can result in a drive that is inaccessible. However, if you are certain the virus has only affected the boot sector and is not an encrypting virus, the DOS SYS command can be used to restore the first sector. Additionally, the DOS LABEL command can be used to restore a damaged volume label and FDISK /MBR will replace the MBR. None of these methods is recommended. (process 3) (When All Else Fails) It is possible that your virus or two will freeze up your computer when your triing to weed it out. Backups or not. My suggestion would be to save anything you need in Safe Mode if it allows you, and then reformat the hard drive, my reasoning behind recomending this, is that your virus sounds like a, "Boot Sector Virus", which acctually destroys your hard drive more and more everytime you start up your computer and could potentially crash your hard drive. Symptoms would be, your computer restarts/freezes earlier and earlier each time it is rebooted. So reformat well you can if that's the case. Let me know how it goes Jeremy