norton antivirus says "master boot record has changed since inoculation",trouble?

[bigslammer]

do I have a virus or was it the windows/internet explorer updates. I've also installed netzero, freeaccess, realplayer/jukebox, winamp, MS office 2000. this is a fresh install from about 7 days ago. this is a dual boot 98/nt4 and I had to mess around on NT to get my winmodem to work. I'd let norton innoculate or repair but some people have had bad results when letting norton repair or innoculate. is this nothing to worry about? everything seems to work fine. thx http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Susan]

It's most likely changed as a result of NT.

I trust MS more than I trust Norton. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[socalgal]

Susan, that's truly a scary statement...

[bigslammer]

thx I won't worry about it until I can't boot up. nothing important on my computer except homework.

[Dave_H]

bigslammer,
BE CAREFULL! I once had a similar warning and it said something like "warning this may cause irreversable damage to your data and will require a compleate re-installation of your operating system".

I waited a while and everything was fine, so I figured it was an upgrade or repair I had done. Then I went and did "inoculate" to get rid of the message.

Dave

[bigslammer]

thx yeah everything works fine so I won't use norton's repair. I've heard of others who have had lots of trouble when they let norton repair the master boot record. anyways I believe the install of ms office 2000 and the windows updates caused this problem. In this case I'll go with the adage "if it's not broken don't fix it". http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif Hope everyone has a good year.

[kongkong]

At work, some of our folks customize that message to something like:
"the master boot... whatever... have you installed IE4 or Windows98?"

Did I answer your question? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Underclocked]

Best to just disable that innoculate feature totally. My guess is that it causes many more problems than it ever cured. In fact, I would recommend disabling everything automatic about Norton. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Axel]

I don't use any automated NORTON features myself. I simply keep my virus definitions updated and do an occassional sweep of my system.

Installing a Norton upgrade or creating a dual boot will change the master boot record which causes that NORTON message to come up. If you've done several installs lately with trusted sources for the software loaded, you probably don't have an issue. It's when you get that message, but nothing major has changed on your system in the last few days that you need to worry about boot sector viruses.

[Glytzhkof]

Susan: I have to agree with socalgal, that was a scary quote. Ever hear of choosing between plague and cholera? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Underclocked & Axel: I agree, disable all Norton automatic features. Don't use old versions of "autoprotect" on a Win9x or WinNT system (the outdated VxD drivers will cause more bluescreens than you can count). In short all the "smart" features of Norton will get you in trouble. This doesn't mean that Norton products are bad, because they are not. The problem is that they mess with too many different parts of the system and destroy many delicately balanced dependencies (which Microsoft are good at creating). Use the features of Norton you need and the products are great.

To answer the initial question of bigslammer: as everybody has been saying, don't bother with it (don't inoculate).

[nek]

I used innaculate on my hard drive and guess what I have no hard drive because of it..never again..I now have to find out how to clean and reformat my hard drive because of it...if it's working don't fix it!!!nek

[Dave_H]

Unless I'm wrong, (It happens a lot!)
"Innoculate" tells norton to ignore it
and "repair" would screw up the system.

--Here is what norton says--
(This is from the help file)

Do one of the following:

Select Inoculate if the boot record has changed for legitimate reasons since the last time you inoculated it. Legitimate reason would be an upgrade to your operating system (to Windows 98, for example) or repartitioning your hard disk. If the inoculation alert appears after one of these actions, you should re-inoculate.
Select Repair if you are certain that the boot record did not change for legitimate reasons. Anything that modifies the boot record can make this dialog box display. Do not Repair if your virus definitions are not up-to-date. Update the definitions and run a scan first.

Please correct me if I am wrong, I thought by choosing innoculate I was telling Norton's not to worry and stop giving me the alert.

Dave

[mudoggy]

I believe Dave is correct. I had the same thing happen:

I received the standard message that the master boot record had changed.. only there was a twist: It also said "It's a virus, dumbass!" Yikes! I figured it HAD to be a virus since a software company would never write something like that. I didn't do anything, and went to norton AV site to post a message to the support people, who then also put it on the message board to be read by all. Imagine my embarrassment when I remembered that you can put in a custom message that will pop up when such an incident occurs. Oh man... I felt like a dumba$$, alright! I was the one who created the message and forgot about it! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif Had a GOOD laugh over it, though.

Anyway, I was under the impression that 'innoculate' basically 'takes a picture' of your mbr/system/whatever else, so that it knows what it should look like and can compare if a change has been made. Basically, an image to compare/start from. It shouldn't do anything to your hard drive.. which makes me think you hit "repair."

Repair is the FUN button... you never know what's going to be "repaired", or how. Keep backups of any important files handy! hahaha http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Dave_H]

Hey mudoggy
I set up a system for a friend named Kellie
and put in the message "Virus Alert! Be real F***ing carefull Kellie, call me now!".
A few months later, she was wondering if Nortons AV was working so I told her I would send her a harmless test virus.
(She thought that Dr. Norton was sending her a message.) LOL
Dave