# Wherein particlewill curses Virus writers and prepares to blank his hard drives. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 23, 2001, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304 "2001-05-23T15:55:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/21 "2001-05-28T16:55:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by A Friend of the Devil \* > \*\*1) If it’s not a factory sealed disk…it doesn’t go in my home computer. /B] Recommend you change that rule to scanning ALL disks. While major manufacturer disks are “probably” alright, those factory sealed shareware disks for $9.99 at Office Supply Store are not virus free. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/22 "2001-05-28T17:50:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AcidKid \* > \*\*May not have been a virus. > > I suggest a trip to [http://www.grc.com](http://www.grc.com). > > There are three things there that should interest you. > > 1. Checking your ports and then instructions on closing them from attack. > 2. Monitoring data in and out of your computer. This is especially important for DSL or cable modem users. Zone Alarm, I think is the name, is a FREE and very good firewall for Windows. You can also get it at [http://www.cnet.com](http://www.cnet.com). This software told me I had a virus that the anti-virus software missed. Zone Alarm tells you when a program on your computer is accessing The Internet; a new one popped up trying to send data to someone. It will also tell you how often someone is trying to access your computer. Happens so often that I turned the pop-up window off. > 3. Third party software detector. This is for those big money pirates like Double Click who install software on your computer through their customers’ web sites. It doesn’t send passwords but stuff like surfing habits. > > \*\* Well Acidkid, I was running Zonealarm (I love Zonealarm), Ad-aware and Ontrack realtime virus scanner, as well as the latest Webwasher to remove webbugs and bad cookies. The info I got about the Trivial virus was from Ontrack’s “Virupeadia.” I had a freeking virtual fortress of solitude built up here, but I had one weak link. My wife’s idiot relatives and their virus infested glurge e-mails. Which my wife opens. As well as the attachements. Education has been done in that regard now… the only thing I don’t understand is why my 13 gig hard drive ended up as an 7.99 gig. I may just leave it this way though, because I do NOT wanna go though the hassle of blanking it again. Oh and Chas E., I **built** this machine. It started out as an old 486. I replaced and replaced. Now there is no component left of the old machine. It is now an Amd K6 500 with 160+ megs of memory. Let’s see you do that with an old mac… ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/23 "2001-05-28T18:20:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by particlewill \* > **the only thing I don’t understand is why my 13 gig hard drive ended up as an 7.99 gig. I may just leave it this way though, because I do NOT wanna go though the hassle of blanking it again.** It might be worth the investment to get Partition Magic. Has a great interface, you’ll be able to see what’s going on and best of all, repartion the drive _without_ reformatting. (Wasn’t there some sort of issue with old EIDE cards only allowing partitions \<8 gigs? Can you put a second partition on?) Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/24 "2001-05-28T20:03:40Z")
(Should this really be in the pit anymore?) Well Fenris, The drive is a Western Digital. I used their software to reformat and partition the drive. The software defaulted to four 2.something partitions. This seemed reasonable at the time. But now, when I go into Windows and look at the partitions, Windows reports them as being 1.95 gig partitons. It looks like I lost four gigabites of space! Who makes Partition Magic? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/25 "2001-05-28T21:13:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by particlewill \* > \*\*(Should this really be in the pit anymore?) > > Well Fenris, The drive is a Western Digital. I used their software to reformat and partition the drive. The software defaulted to four 2.something partitions. This seemed reasonable at the time. But now, when I go into Windows and look at the partitions, Windows reports them as being 1.95 gig partitons. It looks like I lost four gigabites of space! Who makes Partition Magic? > > \*\* Re the pit: Sure. Chas E.'ll slime back and make a “My computer’s kewler than yourz and my OS can beat up your OS!” comment and someone’ll say something contemptous to him. As for Partition Magic, [here’s a review](http://www.consumeraffairs.com/good_guys/partition.html) that I firmly agree with, and [here’s](http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/) their homesite. (Note that the price on their homesite is _way_ higher than I’ve seen it go for at Office Depot type stores.) Part of the problem may be your cluster size (for the uninitiated, files are stored in chunks of data of a certain size called clusters. Each cluster is only able to hold one file or piece of file. In other words, if a file is 101 bytes big, but each cluster is set for 50 bytes, you have to use 3 cluster to store the file, resulting in 489 bytes being wasted space. When you consider how many files are on a computer, you can see how this adds up!) I doubt it accounts for 4 gigs (!) of lost space, although it might be a contributing factor. I believe Windows defaults to a cluster size of 8. There used to be a number of programs that let you adjust this, but Partition Magic lets you do it _without_ reformatting, etc. Another question: Did you run the Debug routine I suggested? There may be a leftover partition hanging around. If you did Debug, never mind since that destroys all partition information. Anyway, hope this helps! Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/26 "2001-05-28T21:16:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\*…you have to use 3 clusters to store the file, resulting in _489_ bytes being wasted space. \*\* Aargh. Obviously that should read: resulting in 49 bytes being wasted space. My kingdom for an “Edit post” option! Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/27 "2001-05-28T21:53:10Z")
**Fenris** has a good point. Your drive might have a partition on it, but no logical drive on an extended partition. You might want to check this out. Without a logical drive on the extended partition, Windows won’t recognize the rest of the data. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2001, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304/28 "2001-06-03T11:54:07Z")
I just wanna give RAVE reviews to Partition Magic! Sure enough, I had almost five Gig in unallocated space on the drive. Now I have a 4.9 gig partition, all shiny and new. Life is good. The machine, (I call it Frankenstein, becaues of the conglomeration of parts) is running smoothly. Now I suppose I should rip out it’s heart and replace it with a faster proccessor and Motherboard… You guys Rule. Thanks and thanks again to all who helped. (Except for that applehead Chas E. I noticed he never did respond to my question about building Macs in yer livingroom… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherein-particlewill-curses-virus-writers-and-prepares-to-blank-his-hard-drives/66304.md?page=1)