External Hard Drive Questions

I have a laptop that i do everything on mostly. I have a usb drive that i back up information on and also a 1tb external hard drive as well. However, the thing is a while back i had an issue with an old laptop that did not work anymore and went to a repair shop and they were able to transfer data from my broken laptop ssd to it. The ssd still works etc. But the thing was they did not transfer everything into my external hard drive but did most of it.


The thing is i might have only connected my external hard drive to my new laptop that i bought a while back only a few times just to see if indeed the files are there. I do not recall if i connected it to my laptop or my desktop. I believe it might been desktop because i dont want any chance of virus hitting my laptop etc. But i might have connected external hard drive to may laptop.


Im going to buy another computer solely for streaming online and web browsing. Thus if i get virus with it, i don't mind since it won't my main laptop. I will most likely be buying a chromebook as oppose to windows computer. The chromebook will be most likely 16gb so i will be buying a usb stick or microsd card thats 64gb. First off, which is better? I dont mind having the usb stick out etc. Bud do chromebooks prefer microsd or usb stick? The thing is i would be downloading files/movies onto that 64gb stick. Thus any virus i have on it, i do not mind because i will be downloading movie etc. Now if ever get a virus on my usb or chromebook, i could easily format my chromebook and usb where it would be brand new without virus right? The other thing is this. If i connect my external hard drive the 1tb one to the chromebook, if the external hard drive already has virus, well i could connect it to a chromebook like that and then wipe it? The thing is right now i kind of want to wipe out my external hard drive because i think there might be a chance it has virus. But could i connect an external hard drive to a chromebook and do it that way or not? Or does it require windows? The other thing is i have another usb stick where i think it might have virus so thats why i would not connect it to my laptop. Could i connect it to a chromebook and wipe it so i could use it in future where i connect to my primary laptop without any worry? Thanks.

 

You can't get a virus on a chromebook (or at least there has never been one reported on a chromebook).
If you ever thought your chromebook was not working right you can powerwash it - which is a sort of longer reboot that puts it back to factory condition.
microsd vs usb = pretty much personal preference.
formatting external drives from a chromebook = not sure, I haven't tried it yet. If I get time, I will try it.

 

Hi there. The thing is i plan to stream tv/movies through it though. Also i plan to download movies/files from sites that might have malware/viruses. So would this be fine though then with a chromebook and any usb stick i connect to it? Thus i could always use that chromebook and the usb or external hard drive and wipe each one out completely where then there would be no viruses? I will not connect that particular usb or external hard drive to my primary laptop though.

 

Hi there. Well thats because i would be browsing through many different sites. Such as imagine this site has this video. Other sites has this video. Thus i would have to sign up for 20 plus different sites and each one only has one video i want.


And i also want to stream tv and sports etc.

 

Saturnotaku’s point still stands.

You seem to have a strong, maybe exaggerated, paranoid about catching malware. As suggested to you before, one good way of avoiding the download of malware is to get your content from legitimate websites instead of warez sites and the like. There are plenty of legitimate websites you may visit to download/stream the content you wish to have: a *small* listing of potentially relevant sites would include Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, WatchESPN, your ISP/TV provider’s website, Crunchyroll, and Youtube.

 

This level of paranoia almost reaches the same heights as a Kenny1999 thread. Not sure about a website? Run a Linux virtual machine and save a snapshot from a base install with web browser etc... Should anything happen, just load from the snapshot. Don't allow any shared folders between the host operating system and the guest operating system that is running.

If you don't want to go to the effort of a VM, then Jarhead's suggestion is worth listening to.

 

If you're going to go on those type of sites then you badly need to have a good AV installed otherwise its a guarantee that you'll get infected with viruses/malware on your machine and warez and similar sites are filled with them. These days its best to use legitimate streaming sites and they're usually cheap hence why more and more people are cutting off their cables.

 

You could also run Tens linux if your scared of malware, or even Tails linux if you want to go one step further and use a Tor browser.

 

Hi there. I plugged in an old usb stick into my chromebook. I then right clicked and then clicked format. It only took few seconds because that usb stick is very small storage etc. So if you plug any usb stick whether infected or not into a chromebook and then right click it and format, then is it 100% that external hard drive is clean and malware/virus free? Also would you suggest deleting all the files first when viewing the usb stick before formatting it? Or its the same thing? Because i first deleted all the files off usb stick. Then i format and it took few seconds.


So with an external hard drive or internatl hard drive with enclosure, is the process the same? Should i delete all the files first such as highlight all files and then delete. Then right click it and format? Or just format it like that? So same question with usb stick, when you format it, whether external hard drive has virus or not, that would wipe everything out and make it virus/malware free where i could use it on another computer right?


The thing is i hear chromebooks are hard to get viruses or is it impossible? But if you put a usb or external hard drive into an infected pc and and then format it, is there a chance it could still have virus/malware? Thus you use it on another computer which could affect another computer?

 

Hi there. The thing is i have an old usb and external hard drive from a while back. I want to clean these fully. The thing is the usb stick, i have had plugged this usb stick into public computers. I don't believe i ever downloaded any porn etc onto it. If i did it was a long time ago. When i opened it up on my chromebook, all it contains is computer programs but one program says autorun on it. However, i recalled i saved a lot of driver files for an old asus computer i used etc on this usb stick. So i want to clean it fully because i do not feel putting this usb stick into any of my computers except a chromebook.


My external hard drive that i have, i only have my computer files there. The only thing that i have there besides my document files are music that i downloaded from youtube and put it into mp3 or video using the youtubedownloader so i know that is legal. The reason i ask about this external hard drive is because a while 2 of my laptops broke... no it had nothing to do with watching porn/streaming sites. One was a laptop that always had issues and basically stopped working because that computer was nothing but problems. The other computer was an old computer with issues. Well when that happened, i had went to repair shop and they said both computers no longer work and they said they could transfer most/all of my files from my important laptop that no longer worked into my external hard drive. So i gave them my external hard drive and they did that. The thing was when i opened the external hard drive up on a desktop computer, i noticed they didnt convert all the files there. The other thing is there is always a chance it could have virus etc. So when i got a brand new laptop, i never ever plugged this external hard drive into my main computer now.


So because of that, i want to completely wipe this external hard drive because i will not plug it into my main computer as there is lot of financial information on this computer. And thus i want to wipe this external hard drive fully clean... i never downloaded any porn on this ever since it was my important backup external hard drive. Thus i want to know how do i wipe this external hard drive clean. I don't mind wiping everything out on it as i do not need it. But i will backup my computer information into it again. I just will not do it now since there is always chance it has virus in it. So i want to know do i do this by connecting this external hard drive to an old windows 7 desktop which might have virus... or use a chromebook? The purpose is to wipe it fully clean so when i connect it to my main computer, it has no virus. All my financial and other information important will be on this external hard drive. I wont even have music in it etc.

 

Why dont you boot up to safe mode and then plug in your external hard drive to scan the drive with your AV? You can also reformat it from there too with disk management or with another partition software.

 

It seams to me you are wasting a lot of time and giving yourself a big headache over something that can be fixed really easy. Thumb drives and harddrives are dirt cheap now. Much cheaper than going to a repair shop so throw them in the trash where they should be and buy new. Problem solved. My time is to valuable to mess around with something like this.