Infected HDD to new HDD question

yawinsum · 10-27-2009, 04:33 AM

Hi everyone. I have an old HDD that's infected with a nasty virus or two and I wanted to know if I could transfer files from that HDD to my new one without getting the new HDD infected. It would be in the same case, and just transferred using windows explorer. If I need an AV program to scan the files first or during transfer can anyone recommend a good, free program? Thanks in advance.

Brian

tetonbob · 10-27-2009, 09:26 AM

Hi -

Yes, there's always a risk when making active an infected drive on another machine. Depending on the infection, simply making the drive active can infect the host machine, other infections might require executing a file. Techs generally use a dedicated bench machine to perform such tasks, not their main machine.

How badly do you need this data?

Do you not have an antivirus active on the machine already? If not, you should. Some listings are in this sticky.

PC Safety and Security--What Do I Need?

What infection was present on the old hdd, do you know it's name?

yawinsum · 10-27-2009, 05:41 PM

Yes i have an AV running, the free version of Avira. It's not imperative that I get this data back (meaning I don't want to have to spend any money but I will do anything else it takes).

10-27-2009, 04:33 AM	#1 (permalink)
yawinsum Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 9 OS: Windows XP sp 3	Infected HDD to new HDD question Hi everyone. I have an old HDD that's infected with a nasty virus or two and I wanted to know if I could transfer files from that HDD to my new one without getting the new HDD infected. It would be in the same case, and just transferred using windows explorer. If I need an AV program to scan the files first or during transfer can anyone recommend a good, free program? Thanks in advance. Brian

10-27-2009, 09:26 AM	#2 (permalink)
tetonbob Manager, Security Center, TSF Academy; Analyst, Security Team Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Transylvania County, North Carolina, USA Posts: 35,739 OS: 2000 Pro; XP Pro; XP Home	Re: Infected HDD to new HDD question Hi - Yes, there's always a risk when making active an infected drive on another machine. Depending on the infection, simply making the drive active can infect the host machine, other infections might require executing a file. Techs generally use a dedicated bench machine to perform such tasks, not their main machine. How badly do you need this data? Do you not have an antivirus active on the machine already? If not, you should. Some listings are in this sticky. PC Safety and Security--What Do I Need? What infection was present on the old hdd, do you know it's name? __________________ Practice Safe Surfing PC Safety and Security--What Do I Need? Because what you don't know, CAN hurt you. Proud Member of ASAP since 2005 Proud Member of UNITE since 2006 Microsoft MVP - Consumer Security 2009

10-27-2009, 05:41 PM	#3 (permalink)
yawinsum Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 9 OS: Windows XP sp 3	Re: Infected HDD to new HDD question Yes i have an AV running, the free version of Avira. It's not imperative that I get this data back (meaning I don't want to have to spend any money but I will do anything else it takes).