Virus Question

[grimmylina]

Hi Everyone,

Can someone help me with a question? I used to work on a PC and it had alot of viruses/soyware that were never cleaned up properly. A few months ago I reloacted and started working form home and bought myself a MAC and since then I have been working just on it.

I have an external drive that I keep all my web files on....I have to go pay a visit to the office I was previously at and have to bring my external drive with me and work on that old PC. Supposedly an IT guy went it and totally cleaned it up but that's what they said before too....

Will it be safe to plug my external drive to that computer and then when I return plug it into my MAC? I paid for my MAC so that's why I am worried. I don't want to bring any nasty files back with me.

The IT guy says on my MAC I don't have to worry about viruses but that's not very reassuring.

Does anyone have any comments/info that might help put my mind at ease?

Thank you!!

Allie

[KDLA]

Something that might help is, on your work computer, to turn on your Windows Firewall (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/internet/sp2_wfintro.mspx) all the way up to the highest setting -- but make sure to activate the "ask me whether to block or unblock" option. This might help if your PC is hooked up to the internet and the viruses are connecting to that.

Also, if you're really worried about your work PC, have the IT guys reformat your disk. That'll wipe the slate clean. Just make sure to back up your work before doing so.

KDLA

[grimmylina]

I will do that. I told them to wipe that PC clean so hopefully they did that but I will be sure to do that Windows Firewall thing.

Thanks for the great advice!!

[bathurst_guy]

PC viruses wont run on a Mac.

[grimmylina]

Thanks!!

[WebJoel]

I will do that. I told them to wipe that PC clean so hopefully they did that but I will be sure to do that Windows Firewall thing.

Thanks for the great advice!! I had a computer some years ago that had a "Monkey-B" virus on it that, even after the hard-drive had 'been wiped', still resided and caused trouble. I was later told that this virus was a 'boot-sector virus' and maybe the hard-drive had been 're-formatted' but not F-disked(??). A virus residing in the boot-sector doesn't get 'wiped' by formatting.
This must be the case because it was maybe 2 years ago I bought WIN_XP and wanted into install on a HDD that currently had WIN-98. It won't 'over-write' it of course, so I completely formatted the hard-drive and tried to install XP. That didn't work... even though the hard-drive was "100% empty", the volume still show that the drive was "WIN-98". That information was still on the boot-sector, unaffected by the formatting..
I ended up taking it to a pro-shop and having them install XP...

And for anyone thinking about upgrading to VISTA... read this:


http://aaxnet.com/editor/edit043.html

:eek: