Re: Correction to ZIP: Mass Removal of Archive Bit on All Directories

["Robert H. Kubie" rhkubie@xxxxxxxx]

I offer what may or may not be a pertinent footnote to this discussion. It
also may be something everybody but me already knows. But in case not . . .
My computer recently got a virus. Norton's anti virus scan could neither
delete nor isolate it. I made sure I had downloaded all the most recent
virus definitions. Norton's still did not help.
I was about to do what you all have been discussing on this thread: do a
complete re-format of my hard drive and reinstall all my software and my
backed up data. Perfectly do-able but what a bloody waste of time.
At which point someone suggested to me that I re-boot in safe mode and THEN
run Norton's. I did, and this time, mirabile dictu, Norton's immediately
found and removed the virus!
I had no idea that Norton's anti-virus software might be so much more
effective when run on a computer in safe mode, but running it that way made
all the difference. Saved me days of hassle.

--Bob Kubie




At 11:00 PM 3/4/2004, J. R. Fox wrote:
> Patricia M Godfrey wrote:
>
> > I gather that with OS/2, one can back up one's
> > system files. Lucky OS/2 users.
>
> Patricia,
>
> I'm not sure about that, either way. But our version of XCOPY is more
> capable.
>
> > But the whole point about Windows is that
> > backing it--and Win32-native apps--up is pretty much an exercise in
> > futility.
>
> Yes and No. As you may have read in some of my posts, Partition Image
> Backup *was* (and maybe still is) the way to go for this. It certainly
> worked for me -- using Drive Image, formerly by PowerQuest, now owned
> by Symantec -- all the way through my use of NT-4. The landscape seems to
> have changed, somewhere into W2K. (For you, running 98SE, this is most
> likely _not_ an issue.) There are other imaging products out there. The
> imager is supposed to copy not a particular kind of data, but precisely the
> 1's and 0's, at the bit and sector level. Do that properly, and on Restore,
> you *should* have an exact and functional duplication. What will do that
> job correctly _now_, in the days of W2K and XP ? -- I'm not sure. (I have
> not tried any DI version after 5.0.)
>
> > but sooner or later you're going to HAVE to reinstall the
> > whole ruddy thing. It morphs.
>
> If one had a periodic, restorable, baseline replica of the OS and app.s, one
> would lose *far* less, in the way of time and effort, to get back to the
> status
> quo ante. The last viable image might not be up to date, but it would be far
>
> more appealing than starting over from scratch, and it would work. This
> _was_
> the case for me, for a long time, though for whatever reason(s), what served
> me
> before no longer does.
>
> > Yes, I know there are various utils that will "backup" Windows and
> > applications. But they all use some kind of nonnative format and require
> > that you reinstall, at least to some point, to get them back.
>
> No. While the imaging worked for me, no re-install or partial re-install of
> the OS
> was necessary. Only making up for whatever had happened -- including any
> app.
> installs or upgrades -- since the time that image was made.
>
> > Until I can reinstall Windows and its apps with a
> > simple command, they way I can XCOPIED DOS apps and data, it's just not
> > worth it to me.
>
> I'm simply amazed at the various people who have told me it's no big deal to
> re-do
> the whole Win boot partition from scratch ! It takes me *weeks*, to get back
> to the
> level of app. installation and customization that existed before everything
> went down
> the drain ! One of the most colossal pains in computerdom !
>
> > Especially as Windows really NEEDs that periodic
> > reinstall to clean out the detritus it accumulates.
>
> Yeah, eventually, I guess. (If the imaging thing isn't happening for you.)
> The OS/2
> Registry is laughably simple in comparison, not hard to maintain with the
> proper
> tools (which don't require that you be a hacker), and the modular, object
> oriented
> design means that once it is properly set up, you may mess up *something* (in
> a way
> that's usually very recoverable), but it's awful damn hard to kill the entire
> beast. Most
> of the users I know have had one version or another running *for years*,
> often 24 / 7,
> and have *never* needed to reinstall the OS.
>
>
> Jordan

Robert H. Kubie
Attorney at Law
6315 Waterman Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63130-4708
Voice: 314-725-9990
Fax: 314-725-8579
Email: rhkubie@xxxxxxxx
Mobile: 314-757-9990