Computer Virus revisited

AND NOW a story from the "medium old" days

"Back when" I got started messin with computers, hell might as well start at the beginning, which was almost the end..........

When the Commodor 64's came out a friend?? of mine bought one and talked me into buying his Vic20. "Poke and Peek." audio cassette for a "hard drive" An old TV set for a display. Damn near cured me of EVER wanting to anything with computers

Then at a "hamfest" (amateur radio get together and flea market) I got what was for the time a fair buy on a "Bleeding Edge" ??8086?? I think. Had two 360K floppies, an added hard drive, an an amber ?? 10" monitor. BIG stuff!!! DOS 3. something. Xtree Gold

Then I started buying used junk out of the local "Nickel's Worth" a free "for sale" rag. And I got some boards, some junk, some REAL junk, and so on. Eventually a 286, then a 386, then a FOUR eighty SIX he says, reverently!!!!

At some point I ended up with Windblows 3.x And my neighbor GAVE me a CD with a 95 upgrade. Unfortunately, this was before I was on the brand new internet, and did not know that you can "hack" W95 upgrade into a fresh install, VERY easily

So ANYWAY (jumping ahead) it turns out that I found out much later, that I'd obtained the "Magellean" virus, most likely from a "friend" who had sent me some floppies of "Great Free Stuff."

And the trouble began. I did not KNOW I had a virus, and the damn thing would "kinda" work. But you could NOT read a locked floppy (like an MS W3x floppy) because the virus kept telling you that "it could not read the floppy because it was locked." For a time I did not KNOW any better, so I UNLOCKED them.

This went on..........and later got some new stuff, Pentium II, W98, etc etc, until one day at a thrift store I came across a NOS Norton "suite" had anti virus, a desktop, and a bunch of trouble shooting utilities.

So I installed it, even though it was out of date. And KA-BLAMBOH!!!! it pops up with Magellean!!!!

So I guess it must have taken me 3-4 years before I finally got that "mess" cleaned up!!!