Great idea Graham. I have Norton Ghost too. Unfortunately my customer whose computer I worked on yesterday didn't.

Computer Virus writers are getting wilier and wilier. If some of the Drives affected were actually (non-recoverable) as apposed to a lot of them just crashing and not being able to boot up then you possibly wouldn't be able to just re-format the Drive affected but instead would have to possibly trash the Drive and buy a new one if need be. Of course if you have two Hard Drives on your machine, if one is not affected by the Virus, your good to go because you have a Back Up Drive. On the other hand; if the one that IS affected is 'destroyed' (non-recoverable) you will need to buy another Hard Drive if you wish to again have a Back Up Drive on your Computer. Which is an out of pocket expense even though you and I have the mighty Norton Ghost.

PS: The article doesn't specify whether any Drives were actually 'destroyed' (non-recoverable) but eventually (if not already) Virus Writers using craftier and craftier Viruses will not only be able to 'destroy' a Hard Drive but also possibly every other piece of hardware hooked up to the PC. All in one ill fated swoop! Zap!! Goner! Kaput!! ---Kapeesh?

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 03-20-2004).]