Got viruses from my friend external Hdd.

[adham.]

So ...

My friend just happens to have a external hdd which is having a malware and viruses party which sadly got into my PC as well i installed a lot of Anti stuff and malwarebytes but still the problem presists sadly.
I'm obviously doing a full-on format and reinstalling windows but i just happen to wonder and got on google to check it out...

Could a virues/malware survive a format ? Like could it? 

And i've heard they might get into my bios and now i'm offically paranoid and really thinking about throwing my hdd and mobo away.

I've heard they could still be there after a format and could infect bios and mobo!!

Would love to hear your thoughts on that matter because i'm scared right now thinking my PC is probably a rain forest for malwares and viruses

Thanks in advance

P.S : this is a budget build so yeah only one HDD...
Yeah i know. 
It hurts.

[adham.]

Should i throw away my hdd or mobo or what ? xDD 

I'm not joking actually

[RileyTheFox]

1 minute ago, adham. said:

Should i throw away my hdd or mobo or what ? xDD 

I'm not joking actually

Rootkits are really, really uncommon. They used to be the the thing back in the day when the BIOS wasn't ROM. Only times they happen now is really dodgy BIOS updates that you installed or a once in a blue moon virus.

 

You won't need to throw away you motherboard... 

[BratToast]

It should be enough to just reformat for now. Most likely it's only the OS thats infected.

Just be careful that no virus has snuck into your personal files that you may want to keep.

[Drak3]

Viruses can survive between formats, but typically, using an HDD wiping utility will get it.

I wouldn't worry about Rootkits infecting your BIOS if the data wipe seems to eliminate any issues.

Your system should make it out safe.

[adham.]

That is all because i'm thinking on selling the mobo and cpu and i'm afraid that i might give someone bad stuff or "infucted" stuff which sucks for everyone at this point.

[InertiaSelling]

1 minute ago, adham. said:

Could a virues/malware survive a format ? Like could it? 

No. Nuke it with an Ubuntu live USB and it will be fine.

 

3 minutes ago, adham. said:

I've heard they could still be there after a format and could infect bios and mobo!!

As  @EvilCat70 said, this is pretty uncommon. It's difficult to edit due to modern code signing, and since it's so small and low-level, it is not a very good candidate for hosting malware.

 

If you're really paranoid, maybe download the latest BIOS and flash it. But more importantly, format your drive and do a clean install.

[adham.]

4 minutes ago, InertiaSelling said:

No. Nuke it with an Ubuntu live USB and it will be fine.

 

As  @EvilCat70 said, this is pretty uncommon. It's difficult to edit due to modern code signing, and since it's so small and low-level, it is not a very good candidate for hosting malware.

 

If you're really paranoid, maybe download the latest BIOS and flash it. But more importantly, format your drive and do a clean install.

Flashing the latest BIOS update ? Does that like wipes all of the last BIOS and it's stuff?

[InertiaSelling]

Just now, adham. said:

Flashing the latest BIOS update ? Does that like wipes all of the last BIOS and it's stuff?

In theory, it does.

[Levisallanon]

And this is why you should never put your thing into something without using proper protection.

[c4deszes]

The only way it could is if you hadn't deleted it, reformatting everything will work in 99.9% of cases, if you have multiple disks/partitions then I would manually select all the files you trust and delete the rest. Also maybe it's time to sort all of your personal data and make backups.

 

The partitioning I recommend to make issues like these less annoying is to have the C drive which has Windows + Programs that aren't portable and have a D drive with everything else, I would also redirect downloads and other user folders (Documents, Music, etc.) as well cause they might be important. Therefore if something happens like malware, registry corruption or system file corruption then you only have to reinstall windows plus a few programs. Things like steam library, installers and a lot of programs don't require you to redownload or reinstall them.

 

Also if you want to make backups but also be able to push updates safely I would recommend Git. It basically works on anything. What you could do with that is create backups, push the changes you make regularly and it also makes you able to revert changes. You can set it up on a different computer, server, NAS or even just an external media like a pendrive.

 

Quick sidenote: if someone really wanted they could make you throwaway all your PC components but those exploits require such expertise, time and money that they wouldn't bother targeting you.

[Princess Luna]

Is ComboFix still a thing?

[adham.]

2 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Is ComboFix still a thing?

I've no idea what is compoFix.
Care to educate me ?