UPdating Virus Definitions on Norton Anti Virus CD

[tyro]

Hi

I am running norton anti virus 2000. My cd is a little old (obviously) and I wanted to burn a new copy with the latest virus definitions on it. I looked on Symantec's site but all I saw were ways to upgrade the virus definitions on the rescue disks. I thought it might be the same on a cd but the site seemed to indicate that only a limited amount of the more popular definitions were put on the disks in order to save space. I wanted to put all the virus definitions on the CD.
If it is possible, would the latest virus definition be enough or would I have to leave the old ones there as well?

Thank you in advance.

 

[bygeek]

You should be able to download the Virus Definition Updates (

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/download/us-files/20030318-021-i32.exe)

is the current update file. But unless your subscription is up to date, it won't update, and if your subscription is up to date, Live Update will be using the updated files already, so I'm not sure why you want to download them. Am I missing something?

 

[tyro]

I'm sorry, my mind was going faster than my typing. I am trying to update the CD so if I have to run a virus scan by booting of the CD the virus definitions won't be out of date. It seems kind of pointless to boot from the CD and check for viruses if the definitions are months/years out of date. I know you can make floppy disks to boot up and run a virus scan. Symantec's site said that it only puts on the most common viruses in order to save space.
I hope this clears up my questions.

tyro

 

[bygeek]

I don't think you can do this. I've done it from the floppy discs - created them from Norton System works - takes 10 floppys to create the whole set. The probem is the files you download from the website are executible files designed to update you existing virus scanning engine. You won't be able to load the executible on a cd and expect it to work.

 

[KimberTech]

Create the rescue set.
Once you have those, you can manually copy over the updated files if you so desire.
The best way to scan a drive is the clean boot floppy set, but you CAN direct the scan from within the Dos shell provided to another location for the updated files.

Boot from the floppy disk 1
Then it will ask for the Program disk 2
If you choose to virus scan there is a prompt at the bottom which defaults to A: drive. You can change the end of the string to anywhere else you like.

Hope this helps you out. Kimber

The more I learn,I realize how much more there is to know!

 

[tyro]

I have almost found a solution. I went to

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html

, Symantec's source for virus definitions. I clicked on Download Virus Definitions (Intelligent Updater Only)[

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/defs.download.html

]. I then highlighted Norton AntiVirus for Windows and click on Download Updates.
I downloaded the latest virus definitions and ran the file. (It is 20030319-002-x86.exe) it is meant to be run from the command line. It is an alternate method to the live update.
Type in "20030319-002-x86.exe /?" and it gives you the syntax. You choose the path to the virus definitions with the switch "/extract" [like this: 20030319-002-x86.exe d:\nav\virusdef /extract]. This updates the virus definitions.

This is what I did:
I copied the files from the Norton Anti Virus cd to the hard drive. I removed the "read only" attribute from them (if you don't do it the update fails). I named the folder on the hard drive d:\nav. [this was purely for simplicity's sake.] I then copied 20030319-002-x86.exe to the d:\nav directory. [again for simplicity's sake]. I then ran the virus definition updater [20030319-002-x86.exe d:\nav\virusdef /extract]. I then looked at the dates of the files in the folder and they were almost all 3/19/2003.
I then did this to the d:\nav\virusdef\latest directory [I don't know what that folder is but it also has virus definitions in it]. I was told that the extract completed successfully.

That is where I'm up to now. What I still have to do is make some kind of bootable cd and copy the files on to that cd. The best thing would be to get the boot files from my actual Norton AntiVirus CD. I will have to do that soon. Since I have not done this I am not sure if it works. Even if I do do it I am not sure how I will be able to tell if it worked. How will I know if it found a virus that it wouldn't have found otherwise. The other thing I would still like to know is if this virus definition I downloaded includes all viruses known to Symantec or not. I have tried to find this information out on Symantec's site and have not had much success.

I apologize for my rambling, unstructured post. I am tired and not very experienced at posting.
Any remarks, comments, and/or criticism would be greatly appreciated

tyro

 

[BobbyDe]

I believe each updated virus def. includes all defs. up to that date.
For bootable CD creation, try here ->

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/

or here -.

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA004958/bootcd/index_e.html

And some technical for DOS-

http://www.cdpage.com/Compact_Disc_Variations/bootablecdarticle.htm

HTH!
-BobbyDe

 

[allteltec]

I have made a Rescue CD good for fat 32 by madeing a rescue file saved to hard drive.
Making a bootable floppy Win98.
Adding to the end of the Autoexec.bat file.
%CDROM%:
CD rescue
Rshell.exe

Using Nero and makeing a bootable CD useing you win98 floppy and copying the rescue folder from HD to the CD.
You should only use the Norton disk Utilitys and the viris scan of the Rescue if useing on a computer that you did not make the Rescue files from.

I made a CD like this and also put spinrite, Partition Magic 7 dos.

 

[tyro]

alteltec

What about NTFS? I put in a NAV Corprate cd and it booted much like you described (running of a windows 98 boot disk). The problem is I have an NTFS partition. All it did was scan the cd for viruses. I hope there were no viruses on my anti-virus cd! Is there a way to get it to scan an NTFS partition? what about sysinternal's NTFSDOS? I know it's read only (the free version), but would that be enough to recognize the viruses? If the hard drive was infected so much that you couldn't start windows normally, would it help to know that the virus was there?
does Norton write any files on the hard drive when it runs a scan from the cd? Do the latest versions of NAV scan NTFS partitions from the cd.
If you make rescue disks from an NTFS partition do they scan the NTFS partitions when you boot up to them? How does that work (if it does)?

tyro

 

[allteltec]

Will I have ben going to try one useing NTFS Dos bootable, if I get the time tonight I will try one and let you know.

 

[dirtybugg]

if i were you just download the SMART something, you can find it there in

http://www.norton.com

 

[allteltec]

Follow up, you can copy the files from the 2 NTFS Pro floppys to a folder and copy the folder to the CD, you can then run NTFS Pro witch will mount you NTFS drive, then you can run your Rescue upto date virus program.