Finally Back, Serious PC Questions (Off-Topic)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, February 07, 2017, 18:32 (2628 days ago) @ Morpheus

So is it true?

1) Can a virus differentiate between an external hard drive and an internal one and know when to strike?

Sure. I've had legitimate programs tell me that they don't want to or can't run on an external drive. If a program on the up and up can detect that sort of thing surely a virus can.

2)Can nothing stop--or at least find--something like this??

Depends on what virus you have. Maybe you have Stuxnet, for instance. That one is pretty tricky to stop...

3) Is it possible for a virus to have a "scheduled release"? Maybe something I installed a long time ago and only started attacking recently?

Absolutely. Sometimes viruses hide for a while so big company backup systems will back them up. That way when they do activate, restoring from a backup is useless because all the backups for the past three months are infected too.

4) Can a virus really wipe out a whole operating system, and why?

Yes. Operating systems are just files. Viruses can delete and damage files. Some viruses will delete the part of your file system that tells the computer where all your files are. Other viruses might just encrypt your files then make you pay a ton of money to get the key that unlocks them.

5)Most importantly, is there really no other way to find out the identity/location of the virus than play Minesweeper with my applications and guarantee another two week billion dollar service by someone else?

Try Geek Squad.