External Hard Drive Infected?

My computer took a dive the other day. I am not sure if it was from a virus, or if it was just an old system and it decided to just go crazy and not work anymore. Unfortunately I also had my external Hard Drive hooked up to it when it all went down.<br>luckily I have a spare computer. Now after all day of upgrading, and downloading, upgrading, and downloading, and running malicious software removal tool, from microsoft, and running bitdefender deep scan several times, on the spare computer. I am finaly satisfied, and ready to use the spare. The only problem now is, I am terrified to hook up the External Hard Drive. If the old computer was infected with a virus, is there is a chance that the external could be too?<br>What are the precautions and steps that I should take to hook up and scan the External HD?, or should I hook it up at all? Is there any way to scan just the External HD? My old, and Spare computers Don't have a firewire(?) connection on them. Please HELP!

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Sm3K3R

My computer took a dive the other day. I am not sure if it was from a virus, or if it was just an old system and it decided to just go crazy and not work anymore. Unfortunately I also had my external Hard Drive hooked up to it when it all went down.<br>luckily I have a spare computer. Now after all day of upgrading, and downloading, upgrading, and downloading, and running malicious software removal tool, from microsoft, and running bitdefender deep scan several times, on the spare computer. I am finaly satisfied, and ready to use the spare. The only problem now is, I am terrified to hook up the External Hard Drive. If the old computer was infected with a virus, is there is a chance that the external could be too?<br>What are the precautions and steps that I should take to hook up and scan the External HD?, or should I hook it up at all? Is there any way to scan just the External HD? My old, and Spare computers Don't have a firewire(?) connection on them. Please HELP!

Disable AutoRun in registry, this should stop a possible autoinfection in case you have an autorun virus, then proceed with scan or format.

Crispin

Disable AutoRun in registry, this should stop a possible autoinfection in case you have an autorun virus, then proceed with scan or format.

Thanks for the advise. THe only problem is, the only info I found was for disabling autorun on the Cd Rom. Not an external hard drive[/size] The External HD I have is a western digital. It connects via a USB port and when connected will automaticaly run(install). If you have a guide, or website that explanes the process of modifying the registry it would be a great help. Thanks

Niels

Hello bluesrecluse,

Please download flash disinfector. This tool will disable autorun for external hard drives,memorysticks and remove worms that use the autorun feature to spread itself. You need to save it on your desktop. After that double click on it to run it. Follow the prompts you will be asked to put in your external hard disk. What this tool does is making a dummy file when a worm that uses autorun to spread places it's execatables there but they can't cause any harm.

Kind regards,

Niels

Crispin

Hello bluesrecluse,

Please download flash disinfector. This tool will disable autorun for external hard drives,memorysticks and remove worms that use the autorun feature to spread itself. You need to save it on your desktop. After that double click on it to run it. Follow the prompts you will be asked to put in your external hard disk. What this tool does is making a dummy file when a worm that uses autorun to spread places it's execatables there but they can't cause any harm.

Kind regards,

Niels

Thanks for all the help. I plugged in the External HD today. No viruses. I guess the old CP was just that...Old. Thanks again for all the Help