Re: Dual boot and virus

From: Jim Macklin (p51mustang[threeX12)
Date: 05/02/04 

Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 12:59:57 -0500

Just trying to write a short question...the confusion is
probably in my poorly written question.

But the answers given does seem to indicate that dual
booting does not provide any protection from viruses or
worms, if they can get to your system, either in a mass
mailing with and attachment or as a worm (Blaster types)
they may infect the OS in use or whatever they find on the
system.
The "firewall" question was asking about a wall between
partitions, not the Internet. I didn't think I'd ever heard
of such a thing, but it seems like a good idea.

Having external or hot-swappable drives would work, if they
were boot-able, but if you had a virus in the RAM and you
swapped a clean hard drive in, wouldn't your new drive just
get infected?

Thanks all, 

-- 
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
"Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> wrote in message
news:fm7lc.9232$pJ1.5836@lakeread02...
| "Jim Macklin" <p51mustang[threeX12]@xxxhotmail.calm> wrote
in message
| news:%23NfENsEMEHA.1340@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
| > I have read several posts by others, describing their
| > systems and asking about viruses and worms.  Some have
said
| > they don't use certain OS to surf the web.
| >
| > My question, Is the active OS the only place for
infection,
| > or can a virus infect any or all of the installed OSs in
a
| > multi-boot system?
|
| ASSUMING the multiboot HIDES the other bootable
partitions.  If the virus is
| file-oriented, yes to first part of the question (before
"or").  MBR or
| similar, yes to second part of question (after "or").
|
| >
| > If so, would running an older, unpatched version of W95
or
| > 98 leave holes in a fully patched W XP system?
|
| Yes if you're still talking about viruses/worms.  But is
has nothing to do
| with any MS patches for XP, or any non-existent patches
for 95/98.
|
| >
| > Is there anything such as a firewall between systems on
a
| > local disk?
|
| A firewall does not block any virus.
|
| Safest way is to use two separate removable hard drives.
One for each OS.
| One only present at any given time.
|
| Believe you are confusing things a bit between
viruses/worms, and
| vulnerabilities of some of MS operating systems by
hackers.  Apples -
| Oranges.  Can we start some more urban legends?
|
| >
| >
| > -- 
| > The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
| > But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
| >
| >
| >
|
|

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