Current status or HowTo for F-Prot for DOS floppy disks?

[Gabriela Salvisberg]

Hi

F-Prot for DOS had been a nice tool to scan and sometimes to disinfect
W9x PCs. After some time, one floppy disk wasn't enough, because the
virus defs got too large to fit on one disk. There was a procedure to
create, to use and to update a "two disks set". Now it seems like even
two 1.44 MB floppy disks aren't large enough anymore.

What is the current status? Has anyone created new scripts for this?

Gabriela

 

[Richard Oliver]

Hi Gabriella,What I do with files of that size is to zip them up using
Winzip and then using "Actions " on the Winzip menu,choose "make Exe
file" and follow the instructions-------(choose safe spanning option)
To transfer to another machine----Disk "one" carries a small exe file
which will then extract all disks to your chosen directory-
HTH,Richard

On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 07:02:47 +0100, Gabriela Salvisberg

Hi

F-Prot for DOS had been a nice tool to scan and sometimes to disinfect
W9x PCs. After some time, one floppy disk wasn't enough, because the
virus defs got too large to fit on one disk. There was a procedure to
create, to use and to update a "two disks set". Now it seems like even
two 1.44 MB floppy disks aren't large enough anymore.

What is the current status? Has anyone created new scripts for this?

Gabriela

 

[null]

Hi

F-Prot for DOS had been a nice tool to scan and sometimes to disinfect
W9x PCs. After some time, one floppy disk wasn't enough, because the
virus defs got too large to fit on one disk. There was a procedure to
create, to use and to update a "two disks set". Now it seems like even
two 1.44 MB floppy disks aren't large enough anymore.

What is the current status? Has anyone created new scripts for this?

There are many ways of going about this. If you use compression, a
disk spanning technique and a RAM drive, you can still create a three
disk set including the boot disk which has no F-prot files on it at
all (recommended since people forget to write protect the boot disk
again after updating F-Prot files). My F-pup (or rather the FP-UP.EXE
within) program does this, and so does AVDISK so far as I know.

Without compression, the size of the SIGN2.DEF file is now so large
that it practically requires a diskette of its own, just as SIGN.DEF
has done for a long time now. So using what we have called "the manual
approach", three disks are now required to hold just the F-Prot files
in addition to the boot disk. A updated description of this "manual
approach" has not yet been put up at the claymania web site, though I
know Frederic has it ready to be put up there.


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Jeffrey A. Setaro]

Hi

F-Prot for DOS had been a nice tool to scan and sometimes to disinfect
W9x PCs. After some time, one floppy disk wasn't enough, because the
virus defs got too large to fit on one disk. There was a procedure to
create, to use and to update a "two disks set". Now it seems like even
two 1.44 MB floppy disks aren't large enough anymore.

What is the current status? Has anyone created new scripts for this?

Personally, I gave up on floppies a long time... It much easier to
create a bootable CD with F-Prot and what ever additional diagnostic &
recovery utilities you may need on it.

--
Cheers-

Jeff Setaro
jasetaro <at> mags.net
http://people.mags.net/jasetaro/
PGP Key IDs DH/DSS: 0x5D41429D RSA: 0x599D2A99 New RSA: 0xA19EBD34

 

[Robert Green]

Hi

F-Prot for DOS had been a nice tool to scan and sometimes to disinfect
W9x PCs. After some time, one floppy disk wasn't enough, because the
virus defs got too large to fit on one disk. There was a procedure to
create, to use and to update a "two disks set". Now it seems like even
two 1.44 MB floppy disks aren't large enough anymore.

What is the current status? Has anyone created new scripts for this?

AVDISK (www.avdisk.org) still puts F-PROT on 2 floppies, and the DEFs
will still zip onto one floppy (you have to repalce MACRO.DEF with
NOMACRO.DEF), but not for much longer. You can always use a high
density floppy formatting tool (like FDFORMAT), which could buy a few
more months of 2 floppy F-PROT.

Maybe the best approach is to just have handy a good rescue floppy you
can boot with and run F-PROT from the HDD.

Bob

 

[sinneb]

F-Prot for DOS had been a nice tool to scan and sometimes to disinfect
W9x PCs. After some time, one floppy disk wasn't enough, because the
virus defs got too large to fit on one disk. There was a procedure to
create, to use and to update a "two disks set". Now it seems like even
two 1.44 MB floppy disks aren't large enough anymore.

What is the current status? Has anyone created new scripts for this?

At one time you could run F-Prot with just one floppy disk. Then it took
two disks, now it takes three.

First, you need a Boot/Program Disk with these files on it:
(Do a FULL format of a floppy disk, on a known clean machine with the same
Operating System, including the System files on it to make it bootable.)
command.com
io.sys
msdos.sys
english.tx0 ;extract from the FP-314B.ZIP archive.
f-prot.exe ;extract from the FP-314B.ZIP archive.
f-prot.ini ;created the first time you run the program.
macro.def ;extract from MACRDEF2.ZIP archive.

Next, you need a Data Disk 1 with this file on it:
sign.def ;extract from the FP-DEF.ZIP archive.

Next, you need a Data Disk 2 with this file on it:
sign2.def ;extract from the FP-DEF.ZIP archive.

You get the FP-314B.ZIP archive from:
ftp://ftp.f-prot.com/pub/dos/fp-314b.zip

You get the FP-DEF.ZIP and MACRDEF2.ZIP archives from:
ftp://ftp.f-prot.com/pub/fp-def.zip
ftp://ftp.f-prot.com/pub/macrdef2.zip

To run the program from the A: drive, do a COLD boot (power off,
insert the Boot/Program Disk into the A: drive, power on). At the
A:\> DOS prompt, enter "f-prot /loaddef". Then, just follow the
directions on the screen. You will be prompted when to exchange diskettes.

 

[Gabriela Salvisberg]

[which approach to put F-Prot onto 1.44 MB floppy disks]

Personally, I gave up on floppies a long time... It much easier to
create a bootable CD with F-Prot and what ever additional diagnostic &
recovery utilities you may need on it.

Thanks! Maybe that's the best thing to do, as floppies usually stop
working right in that magic moment, when you need them urgently. I
think I'll have one folder ready with Windows service packs, patches
and malware removal tools (F-Prot, NAI Stinger, KAV CLRAV). And when I
need to fix a PC (not mine <g>), I'll burn a copy of that folder on a
bootable CD.

Gabriela