Needed apps when migrating computers
When building a new PC so many people get caught up on making sure they pick the correct processor or finding the perfect video card that they often forget the important stuff such as how they are going to get their old data on to the new computer. Something we often suggest to anyone is to setup a NAS on your home network it not only allows you to easily backup your important data but can also offer application hosting so you can offload features you might normally host on your PC.
In this segment we talk about some of the important applications we install when building a new PC and the list might surprise you.
Help, My RetroPC is Stoned!
In the days before the widespread use of the Internet the threat of Viruses was pretty low. To get an infection back then you either needed to download something from a BBS or you shared a floppy disk with a friend. Much like the Viruses today these older infections were simple little programs that hid themselves on your hard drive and would often load into memory even before the primary OS was loaded.
When backing up some RetroPCs in the Hardware Asylum Labs Dennis discovered that one of the PCs was infected with the Stoned Virus. This was/is a Boot Sector virus that loaded into memory when you powered on your PC and would monitor I/O activity and copy itself whenever you accessed a new drive. Typically, this virus would just annoy the user by displaying the “You PC is Stoned” message but, due to a bug in the code if you exceeded a certain number of files in any directory the virus would overwrite parts of the MBR and effectively wipe your hard drive.
This virus also was the catalyst for number of variants including the popular Michelangelo virus that would format your hard drive on March 6th. While it made national and world wide news due to the destructive payload the actual threat was low because it never spread that far.
Related Links
Virus:Boot/Stoned
Stoned Computer Virus
Episode 129 featured music:
Little People - Start Shootin' (http://www.littlepeoplemusic.com/)
