What happens if you download a virus...

racerboy59

racerboy59

racerboy59

Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2009
Posts
450
....but don't open it? Is there any harm in that? If the process is not initiated then it can't change anything within the OS. Am i right?

I'm asking because if someones computer can't load into windows, and you take their hard drive and put it in your own system to copy over important files, can the presence of the virus alone cause your system to **** up???
 
Usually you'll have to execute the file that contains the virus, so having it sitting on your PC shouldn't cause a problem. If you suspect something is there though, get your AV to run a full system scan and bin anything it finds that's suspicious.
 
excellent. everything is working as i expected, but just takes a little while getting use to it. i've been using windows all my life. thanks for the help.
 
You should able to access the Windows file system easily and just cherry pick the files you want and save them to an external drive or something. Always useful to have a Live CD around. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom