McAfee Version 7.0 Microscope & Magnifier User Manual


 
Getting Started with McAfee VirusScan Home Edition
28 McAfee VirusScan Home Edition
Emergency disk creation
As it installs itself, VirusScan software will examine your computers memory
and your hard disks boot sectors to verify that it can safely copy its files to
your hard disk without risking their infection. During that installation, Setup
offers to create an Emergency Disk you can use to start your system in a
virus-free environment. Should the VirusScan software itself become infected,
or if you want to be sure your computer is clean before you install any other
software, create and use an Emergency Disk to start your computer.
VirusScan software comes with an Emergency Disk wizard that makes disk
creation simple and fast.
The Emergency Disk you create includes BOOTSCAN.EXE, a specialized,
small-footprint command-line scanner that can scan your hard disk boot
sectors and Master Boot Record (MBR). BOOTSCAN.EXE works with
specialized set of virus definition (.DAT) files that focus on ferreting out
boot-sector viruses. If you have already installed VirusScan software with
default Setup options, youll find these .DAT files in this location on your hard
disk:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Network Associates\VirusScan Engine\4.0.xx
The special .DAT files have these names:
M EMCLEAN.DAT
M EMNAMES.DAT
M EMSCAN.DAT
McAfee periodically updates these .DAT files to detect new boot-sector
viruses. You can download updated Emergency .DAT files from this location:
http://www.mcafeeb2b.com/naicommon/avert/avert-research-center/tools.asp
McAfee recommends that you download new Emergency .DAT files directly
to a newly formatted floppy disk in order to reduce the risk of infection.