"Day Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Are you running a distribution with fdisk as root most of the time? Most > > folks don't consciously run viruses. You can't declare yourself protected > > just because you refuse to check out the possibilities. > NO. They tell me using netscape online as root dont make sense. > Netscape is the only thing I use Linux for.
GOOD, then you are gaining the benefit that the OS provides when used properly. In the past, you've railed on about having to log in for a "single user system", so I wasn't sure if you were just logging in as root all the time. Any unmounted partitions, be they DOS, ext2 or any other are reasonably safe. > If you dont see the logic of installing another drive with > another os to backup, that's all right with me Bob. > Caveat Lector. I see the logic, I'm just not sure it's sound logic. Again, you need to clarify if you're talking about a separate drive, or an entire drive subsystem (controller & drive). If you're talking about another subsystem -- a separate controller and drive(s) -- and your OS of choice doesn't have access to that subsystem, the data is reasonably safe from malicious code REGARDLESS of the OS in use, or the filesystem type on that partition. If you're merely talking about another partition on a drive that is on a subsystem that CAN be accessed, you are dependent on your OS to provide protection REGARDLESS of the filesystem on the "unmounted" partition. If anyone's worried about data integrity, viruses and backups, these are important concerns. On 3/18/2002 Day wrote: > One of the reasons dos will be around; you can partition or > add a dos drive, and use it to store your own personal files > and data which might be lost because of sabotage software. That applies equally to non-DOS partitions and drives. > Unless a Linux virus can get smart enough to mount a vfat, > everything on it will be safe. I dunno if there are windoz > viruses that will find and affect a dos drive/partition. I > would be a lot less surprised. That is not correct. If the partition is present, mounted or not, it could be damaged. What helps prevent such damage is proper use of the multi-user features Day has decried on "single user" systems so many times. - Bob To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
