# External HD potentially infected with Virut, how to cure using Mac?



## Yowza (Oct 26, 2009)

Hello :wave:

I was directed here from the malware forum because my PC was infected with Virut win32/heur, a particularly malicious file infector that has forced me to wipe my hd. My only problem is that Im pretty sure the external where I keep everything stored was plugged into PC post-infection, and some of the .exe or other potentially vulnerable file types could have been compromised. I have since had that external hd, in my only other computer, a macbook laptop running leopard. I've heard that the mac can't be infected by this, can I confirm that for sure? And is there any way to detect and cure these files from within the Mac OS? Would I need to use bootcamp or parallels to effectively treat this? Or ould the windows OS become infected WITHIN my mac? This is my only external so I can not forfeit this back-up, but I don't want to re-infect my pc (unless that's the only way to determine if the virus is dormant in some random .exe's on the external)

Thank you very much for your time and help. Let me know if there's any other information you might need from me regarding the matter :smile:


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

The Mac OS can not run .exe files, so if it was written for Windows, it is just file on the Mac and is harmless to the Mac. As for curing, you will need to do it from within Windows as far as I know, and you will need to goto the Security part of the forum to get detailed help for malware/virus removal. My personal suggestion would be to buy a bunch of blank dual layer DVDs and use your Mac to burn the important files onto, files only, no programs or the like, and then wipe out the drive and start over.


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## Yowza (Oct 26, 2009)

Hi again 

So there isn't any virus scanner, either online or that I could download, that could at least detect the presence of win32/heur or virut within the .exe files on my comp? I was sent to this forum because they were uncertain as how to do that on a mac in the malware forum. I've just spent a heck of a time rescuing the last bits from my pc before I reformatted, would like to to just scan the drive and then plug it back in to my freshly formatted pc if it is still good. I assume if it DOES get infected again then that indicates that my drive WAS infected, but that's a whooole lotta DVD's i'd rather not burn. If there's a slightly less time consuming method, please let me know? Thanks again!


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

There isn't any Mac software that I know of that'll scan for Windows viruses. The best thing would be to turn off Windows autoplay, connect the hard drive and have your virus scanner of choice scan the drive from Windows.


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## rdiiorio (Nov 6, 2009)

1.)FYI-the mac can run .exe since it has the ability to run windows within a VM space.
2.)Run the free download of kaspersky, then uninstall it, then run a copy of Symantec anti-virus corp. (any flavor as long as its virus defs are updated)


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

The Mac will run .exe if only you are running Windows. The OP is asking if there is anything from within OS X, which can not run .exe in any way, shape, or form. I could not find a free download of Kaspersky's software for the Mac, which means running Windows again, which is what the OP is trying to avoid. I still stand by my recommendation of scanning from Windows with autoplay off.


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## Yowza (Oct 26, 2009)

Hello again!

well I attempted to do what you said but I ran into a snag when trying load my external back to my pc to scan it. the external drive is a WD My Book with 1 TB worth of space

I didn't know this before but apparently windows won't be able to read mac os x formatted partitions, only ntfs or fat32?

What I must've done is formatted this drive as mac os x and then copied everything over from a NTFS formatted external USING my mac. Therefore my current drive was never connected to my PC.

So here's my problem then as I understand it (before even dealing with potential virus infection): I want to be able to have storage that is readable by both formats, and then a separate small partition to back up my mac laptop. I stored all other external HD's I own safely clear across the country so I now only have the one. It is 1 TB, so that is about 930 GB that is actually usable. I currently have it partitioned to 780 GB mac os X extended and 150 at mac os x extended (journaled). I have 450 GB of data on the bigger partition that I want usable between both mac and pc. Using ONLY this one external, can I swap it? I'm assuming I will have to wipe the journaled back up partition (which is fine, I can just back up again), partition the remaining half of the drive to NTFS, transfer the 450 GB to that side, and then re-partition it again so I can have that journaled back up? Does that sound about right?

Also, I am assuming if I use NTFS, I won't be able to use spotlight though, correct? Will there be any way to search the drive then using a mac? Thank you much for your help againray:


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

About searching the drive, I have no answers for you. As for formatting, if you want a drive that both OS X and Windows can read and write to, you have to format it FAT32. But FAT32 is very poor with large drives, and files (it can't have any files over 4 Big in size). Windows will not format FAT32 over 32 Gig. There is a Microsoft disk utility of some kind that can format up to 512 Gig, but I have no clue where you can find it. It is hit and miss having the Mac format a FAT32 disk that large, I've had some that Windows can not read, and others that it does read just fine. There are 3rd-party utilities that can do FAT32 drives for you that large. One may of even come with your drive. As for NTFS, the Mac can't write to the disk, only read what is on it. Windows can not read any version of the Mac file system, with out 3rd-party utilities, and there is only one that I know of, and it is a commercial software package. To do any kind of reformatting of the drive, you will need to copy everything off of it. To change the partitions and format to get what you need, the disk will have to be wiped and started over. From what you have said, if you want something that Windows and OS X can read and write too, you need to format FAT32. If you want something that Windows can read and write, but don't care if OS X can't write to, use NTFS. If you want something for OS X and don't care if Windows can't read or write to it, then use HFS+ journaled (aka Mac OS Extended Journaled. In fact, always use this format for the Mac if it's going to be OS X only.).


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## Yowza (Oct 26, 2009)

sigh.....well, I purchased a program called MacDrive because it seemed like an easy 3rd party solution to my problem. Things were working just fine for a day or so and then the OS started getting caught up when trying to access the drive. I unplugged it and moved it back to my macintosh and now it says it is unrecognizable. 

The disk shows up in Disk Utility but the volumes aren't there and it can't recognize the format. I tried a program called DiskWarrior but that won't even detect the drive. Now I'm attempting to use Data Rescue 3, which could not recognize anything for a quick scan and has so far scanned 0 blocks out of apprx. 2 Billion after an hour. The lights are glowing on the drive but I don't hear any internal spinning that would indicate activity.

Any suggestions on other ways to recover my data? Could that have indicated potential infection (avg never indicated the presence of any virus)? Has anyone reported similiar problems after attempting to use MacDrive?

Should've just done the DVD's like you said...or just bought another external and cloned my drive so I could re-partition, but I didn't have the cash to spring for another external. Burned again for trying to take the shorter route :/


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

If you are getting no sound, then I'd say either the drive is bad, or the enclosure the drive is in is bad. It might be time for you to take it to a PC repair place. Being it's Mac formatted, make sure they can read Mac disks.


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