HD importing

[Grey Area]

Aright.

Ive just got a new pc as me and the old one fell out.

Unfortunately, i have a lot of stuff on the old hd that is important. My question is would plugging the hd from my old pc into my new one leave my new one open to what ever viruses may be lurking in the old one?

I'm not sure there are any but i dont want to risk it unless its safe.

[Tom Salter]

Depends on the viruses. Any idea which ones inparticular?

[choddo]

Install Antivirus, Plug old HD in. Sorted.

[Grey Area]

Like i said, i dont know if theres any on the old hd. i'm just thinking that if there is then will they infect my new drive when i plug it in? (kinda like if you had an infected needle and stuck it in someones arm. is this how it works?...or is that really stupid?)

[Super Stu]

Yes, but if said arm has kevlar armour on it (anti virus s/w) then you can jab with that dirty needle all you want.

[Grey Area]

I see. Thanks for the advice. I shall stab away.

Norton Antivirus is ok for this? (just got the pc the other day so it should have all the relevant updates...)

[Super Stu]

Norton is updated every fortnight. Don't assume that the vendor you had the PC off updated the virii defs for you - they could be as old as the version number (ie. 2003, 9 months old).

[choddo]

Yeah just run LiveUpdate, it probably would have taken less time to do so than post the question

and no, generally most viruses can't infect a machine just cos the drive is plugged in, but some are quite nasty in that it only takes opening the folder they are in (thanks to a since patched weakness in the way explorer reads file info)

Basically if you've got NAV up to date, and all the security patches from Windows Update, you won't have any problems.

[mid]

Only once a fortnight? I've seen eTrust updated once a day when the virus releasing has been busy. Certainly, I've got mine set to check every time I boot up (mind you, thats the advantage of broadband).

[Super Stu]

Yup. You can run Liveupdate every day if you like, as far as I could see when I used to have Peter's bloated ****e, they updated the defs every 14 days.

AVG hasn't been updated since 28/8, either.

I guess it's the big guns like Sophos that churn them out hourly, but I'm not paying the likes of them

[Grey Area]

Just going to revive this thread because i got round to sticking the old HD in to the new computer. Whadaya know. it didnt work. got message up saying 'disk boot error' 'please insert installation disk'. inserted only disk i got with the package (recovery application disk) and it still didnt work.

I thought this was going to be a simple surgical op but it turns out to be an arse, hence i'm trying to direct cable import...which isnt bloody working either!

Any tips on getting this HD to work?

[Burai]

You've set it up as the master. The PC is trying to boot from it, thusly the system disc error.

You'll need to move the jumper on the end of the drive to the correct position so the PC recognises it as a slave. There should be a diagram on the sticker on the top of the drive to show you the correct position for the jumper.

[Grey Area]

Jumper as in the long connecty bit that goes into the back of the hd?

I think i see what you mean. Cheers for that. I'll try it in the mornin

[Burai]

No. The tiny little clip on that series of pins between the power socket and the IDE cable (the bit that connects to your motherboard) socket.

[Grey Area]

?.....................? ?......? <theres only two connecting to another hd

so the shorter of the two plugs?

i'll experiment...unless you think it may cause damage...