This tips regarding viruses appeared today on another list and I thought the information worth passing on. I just heard from Jim Rubins that his system was infected by the CIH virus. He says he will be out of commission for several days. Hope the rest of you got through Monday without a problem. ------------ DataFellows has been offering F-Prot for years free for personal use. This is a DOS virus scanner/cleaner, but highly respected and effective. And it is updated every month or two. If run under DOS it is better to boot in DOS rather than from a DOS window; instructions are included in the zip file. http://www.datafellows.com/gallery/anti-virus/download.htm --------- Would like to point out that in addition to all you have suggested, there is a free virus checker called housecall on the internet that takes just a few minutes to check for viruses. Here is the url for you to check out and give to your subscribers if you wish. http://housecall.antivirus.com/explorer.html ------- I bought Norton Antivirus version 4 at Walmart for $10. This is a great deal. I had the dreaded CIH virus back in January. I found Norton for 10 bucks and had to get it. It even comes with a year of updates. ------ I have found a spot (due to directions from a son) where you can get a FREE antivirus program. It is as good as Norton. Go to http:///support.cai.com/ and download "Enoculateit". It is free and it does work. ------- Please tell this person they may still be able to recover their precious photos. Last month my boot sector on my hard drive was corrupted. I couldn't even boot my computer. It did not recognize my hard drive at all. I purchased a product at Best Buy, a major electronics store chain in Dallas. (I'm sure it is available elsewhere) It is called Lost & Found. It is produced by Powerquest. You can recover data from corrupted drives, damaged sectors, head crashes, or other damage even after reformatting the hard drive. It was very very simple to use. It works with all IDE, EIDE, and SCSI drive configurations and both FAT16 and FAT32 partitions. And, it doesn't need to installed on your machine prior to use. Its worth a shot. It was only $60. It was WELL worth it. (Norton also has an Unerase program.) Some viruses may just delete the files, which means these programs can work. Other wipe the files which removes all traces of them. All you can do is try this and see what happens. -------- There is a shareware program called "Second Copy" that will back up your data files, or files of your choosing, as you go, if you keep your data disk in a drive, or you can back up at a time you choose. I use a SparQ 1Gb, (no longer made.) I chose it because it can hold a lot more data than my Iomega 100Mb Zip. You can get a 30-day, fully-activated copy of it to try it out. Then you would need to register and pay for it. I think it's $29.95. I heard about it on a program on ZDTV network. I downloaded it from ZDTV at hotfiles.com. It's a pretty easy way to keep data backed up. I am still trying it out and learning more about it. It seems to be pretty sophisticated program, but not hard to learn. Carolyn Mussina Seaman Kinderhook, NY <gregseaman@berk.com>