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[email protected] · Jan 29, 2007, 01:54 AM

if you obtain a virus on your XP partition, will that affect the mac OS? or will it just start to slow down when you use XP?

[email protected] · Jan 30, 2007, 02:15 AM

anyone wana help?

brokenjago · Jan 30, 2007, 03:22 AM

Originally Posted by [email protected]

anyone wanna help?

Absolutely.

No, it will not affect the Macintosh OS at all, even if you were to move infected files from the Windows partition to the Mac one. It will only affect Windows XP, which may or may not slow down, depending on what the virus is intended to do.

spice003 · Jan 30, 2007, 08:40 AM

or you can stop going to porn sites and downloading stupid files and you wont get any.

sieb · Jan 30, 2007, 10:55 AM

IF you have MacDrive installed, it might try and copy itself over to your OSX partition. Even then, it won't do anything to OSX, but if you have any shares open, it could become a carrier and spread it to other XP machines on the network. Thats a big if though. You'd have more luck passing on an infected email or macro virus.

Install AVG and don't worry about it. AVG Free Advisor: Free anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware tools

kmkkid · Jan 30, 2007, 04:37 PM

Couldn't viruses that write over/corrupt files affect OS X files if MacDrive were installed?

Also, aren't there a few viruses that ruin boot sectors within hard drives?

Big Mac · Jan 30, 2007, 04:56 PM

It would probably only ruin the Windows partition.

sieb · Jan 31, 2007, 12:29 AM

If you had a destructive virus that just deleted everything on the partition, then yes, it could affect OSX files, those are rare though. Anymore, most virii/trojans just setup shop in the core files of windows and zombify your box. The OSX partition would just look like a second harddrive with stuff on it, it won't pay attention to it. Now, down the road this might change, but I doubt it.

ghporter · Jan 31, 2007, 09:26 AM

You MUST use an antivirus product of some kind with ANY Windows installation. No question-just do it. Why? Some Windows viruses can make Windows use low-level, hardware type commands to WIPE THE ENTIRE HARD DRIVE. All of it, not just Windows' partition. Goodbye OS X, data, everything! So YES, a Windows virus CAN affect your OS X installation. And while, as sieb says, these are "rare," that's in the context of Windows viruses, of which there are kazillions, with "new" ones coming out every day. You are NOT safe without an antivirus product. And there are FREE Windows AV products out there-just search and you'll find them.

I for one do not trust that all traffic will stop at every red light, nor that I'm safe through just being careful where I surf. DO use an AV product with Windows.

sieb · Jan 31, 2007, 08:01 PM

I haven't used AV software on my home systems for years and never have a problem, not using IE helps. Just installing an AV package is no substitute for not being a savy/educated user and paying attention to what your doing, i.e., don't download attachments you are not expecting, visiting unknown/questionable websites, or not keeping your system up to date. I say to those that are paranoid, install XP in Parallels (with sharing turnd off) and surf from within it.

Do anything important from within OSX.