Virus on mac - well, almost

[krutoi]

Haven't got my hands on it yet, but the patient is a Macbook Air running XP via VMware Fusion. The client allegedly opened an email in XP, got hit with a virus, and now the machine won't boot.

I am reasonably competent with Macs, but have very little disaster recovery experience. Two things that I do know to try are safe boot, and booting off the OSX discs. As far as fixing the problem, will the disk repair utility help?

I am always the first to admit when I get over my head, and certainly my first priority is not making things worse for my (potential) client. On the other hand I love solving puzzles and learning new things.

so a couple questions for you mac experts:
1. Is this an easy fix and worth me giving it a shot?
if yes,
2. What is likely the cause of OSX not booting, and possible remedies...

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Originally Posted by krutoi

Haven't got my hands on it yet, but the patient is a Macbook Air running XP via VMware Fusion. The client allegedly opened an email in XP, got hit with a virus, and now the machine won't boot.

If it got hit with a virus in the virtual machine, It should still boot to OSX just fine. Perhaps Windows won't boot in the virtual machine? If its not even booting to OSX, thats most likely another issue. Not to mention the macbook air has no optical drive unless the customer has the optional external one which came as an add on accessory and also no firewire which makes the air a pain in the ass to troubleshoot. So if it doesn't boot and you want access to disk utility and no external optical drive, you're going to have to have another Mac to run the disk and take the steps for a remote install to get to disk utility on the air. Post back with more details when you find out the actual symptoms.

[gunslinger]

I agree with anonymous Mac tech, more info is needed.

It sounds like one of two things has happened: Either the virtual machine got infected and wont boot or there just happened to be an unrelated problem with the Mac and the customer thinks it got infected. My money is on the virtual machine being infected.

[krutoi]

I agree more info is needed - assuming I get a first hand look at it today, I will get back with more details.

[Ternitary]

Macs don't get viruses often - if you don't download pirated software from unreliable sources, of course. The only protection I have on my Mac is a firewall (Protemac Netmine), and that's really enough for me.

[nibblesandbits]

Originally Posted by Ternitary

... don't download pirated software from unreliable sources...

Where are the reliable sources? lol Kidding. Just saw that there and had to say something.