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    I think I got a virus on my flashdrive

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by yaganon, Jul 19, 2011.

  1. yaganon

    yaganon Notebook Geek

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    every time I plug in my flashdrive, there's a message asking me whether or not to scan the flashdrive. If I let the computer scan it, it would come up empty. Just now, I inserted my flashdrive, and the computer reported a threat.

    I also scanned my personal computer, and there was no threat detected.
     
    yaganon, Jul 19, 2011
    #1
  2. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    yaganon, what program are you using to scan the flash drive?
    IF you want a second opinion I would recommend this tool http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-gb/default.aspx
    I would scan the USB and the hard drive on the computer just to be sure both are clean.
    If there are no essential files on the flash, I would just format it.
     
    JOSEA, Jul 19, 2011
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  3. Baserk

    Baserk Notebook user

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    Do you have an AV setting marked for 'Scan removable media when attached' or something like that?
     
    Baserk, Jul 19, 2011
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  4. atbnet

    atbnet Notebook Prophet

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    If there is nothing on it just format it or run a program like Eraser on it to clear it.
     
    atbnet, Jul 19, 2011
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  5. Hungry Man

    Hungry Man Notebook Virtuoso

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    I agree. Formatting it seems like the simplest solution.
     
    Hungry Man, Jul 19, 2011
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  6. yaganon

    yaganon Notebook Geek

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    if I plugged it into my personal computer, does that mean that my pc is likely infected?

    btw. I got some important files on here. Also, there's A LOT of stuff on here. It'll take a while to sort through everything
     
    yaganon, Jul 19, 2011
    #6
  7. atbnet

    atbnet Notebook Prophet

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    Do you have a virus scanner already installed? If it did its job, it should have blocked it from being installed on your computer. However, you need to make sure you scan your computer now.
     
    atbnet, Jul 19, 2011
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  8. chomper

    chomper Notebook Consultant

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    scan the drive that the flash drive is connected to without opening up anything on the flash drive.
     
    chomper, Jul 19, 2011
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  9. chimpanzee

    chimpanzee Notebook Virtuoso

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    consider disable autoplay if you haven't.
     
    chimpanzee, Jul 19, 2011
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  10. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    Hard to say, what is your resident AV program, and what have you scanned with so far? Have you done any scans in safe mode on the HDD?

    Did you share the USB drive with anyone else?
    It could be as simple as a false positive, I use stressrelief.exe all the time and AVAST flaged it as malware, which I know it is not.
     
    JOSEA, Jul 19, 2011
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  11. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    Its safer to assume that it wasn't a false positive. Download an AV such as AVG or Microsoft Security Essentials and do a full system scan in safe mode.
     
    Bog, Jul 20, 2011
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