Hi all.
I'd appreciate people's thoughts on this;
I use Myriad & Autotrack in a home studio set-up (I'm a freelance radio jock).
I have 2 x 200 Gb Maxtor ATA 133 hard drives, wired up to a ATA hard drive controller card (not the IDE controller on my motherboard).
Hard drive one contains 2 partitions - one for Windows XP (Home Edition) of 20 Gb, and the second for Myriad audio data (PCM) at approx. 175 Gb.
The other hard drive is one partition, containing all the Myriad and Autotrack system files, along with more audio data.
It's all backed up on a 400 Gb Lacie external USB drive.

The other day, I got a virus - Bloodhound something and Psyme something or other - both low-risk Trojan Horse viruses according to the Symantec website). Norton Antivirus 2004 stopped it and denied access for these Trojan Horse viruses to run. I had inadvertently disabled auto-protect momentarily, though.
Running NAV 2004 found an infected file, though, and deleted it.
The viruses were only in my temporary internet files folder, i.e. on my main Windows XP drive, and nothing had got onto my system and damaged it in anyway- this was confirmed by running a full system scan.
They try to run a program by utilising a flaw in IE 6.
I have an up-to-date system, having used Windows Update regulary, but still had this problem (although the viruses were blocked by NAV anyway).
I also use Zone Alarm firewall.
Anyway - now my point - at last !
I have since re-formatted my main hard drive that contains my Windows XP Operating system, where the virus infection occurred using a low-level re-format-which has taken hours !
I have re-installed Windows XP, and all seems O.K.
Is this a bit O.T.T. to re-format after a virus infection, and should I also consider re-formatting the other drive on my system ?
NAV 2004 now finds nothing at all on any drives, including the external Lacie backup drive.
I obviously don't want to re-format the backup drive, as I would lose all my Myriad and Autotrack data if I also re-format the other drive on my system that contains this data.
The P.C. is used heavily by myself for my radio work, thus the paranoia !
And there's all that data at risk.....I do think there is a tendency to over-react though with viruses - especially as these were low-risk ones.

Your thoughts are welcome.

If you have run the AutoUpdate facility of Norton and done a full scan you will be fine - it will pick up anything particularly \"low risk\" viruses. The fact that it is listed on the Norton website shows that they know about it!

There is also, to the best of my knowledge, no way of putting infected code into audio files so you could always check that your other drive only has audio files and text files in it. But I would not bother - I would be 100% confident if you have a AV scanner running.

Alex

I would say that what you did is probably a little ott, but when it comes to a critical PC it's always better to play it safe.

In terms of your critical data, this is a perfect example of why you should take regular backups. I notice that in your other thread Pete gave you advice on how to do this. Have you implemented his advice?
Such backup would allow you completely wipe your system and scratch that paranoid itch was and for all

[quote:bf9de1488c=\"Richard Payne\"]In terms of your critical data, this is a perfect example of why you should take regular backups. I notice that in your other thread Pete gave you advice on how to do this. Have you implemented his advice?
Such backup would allow you completely wipe your system and scratch that paranoid itch was and for all [/quote]

[quote:bf9de1488c=\"Chris Weaving\"]It's all backed up on a 400 Gb Lacie external USB drive. [/quote]

One assumes that he is worried that his backups are infected as well. If I had access to that sort of hardware (dream on!) then I would have the last day's backup (incrimental) and also run a weekly (full) backup. As long as you detect any viruses or missing files within a week you can retrieve them.

Alex

oops. What can I say, it's early!

I agree with you in that case. A two stage system would be best. Of course, depending on the cleverness of the backup software, you could potentially need 800GB of storage to hold both backups.

Youre going to hate me. . . .

[quote:3da8b74d73=\"Chris Weaving\"]the second for Myriad audio data (PCM) at approx. 175 Gb[/quote]

So a 400GB drive will take two complete backups, and almost certainly one and 7 incremental ones. To do this you would need clever backup software, I believe that P-Squared recommended some to you before.

Alex

I believe he was referring to the second partition of the first drive, not the second drive.

[quote:604bd2c97f=\"Richard Payne\"]I believe he was referring to the second partition of the first drive, not the second drive.[/quote]

Sorry, you are correct. However, Unless he changes more than 13GB of audio a week he should be able to take a complete backup (assume 375GB, if both audio partitions are full) and then loads of incrimental ones in the remaining 25Gb.

Alex

Guys,
Thanks for the informative discussion !

At the moment, the Lacie 400 Gb USB backup drive contains 2 drive images (with no incremental backups) of the audio data contained on the Windows XP Operating system (as a seperate partition), and a image of the second hard drive drive, which is really my main Myriad drive, containing Myriad/Autotrack data and the main audio drive.
I use a program called Acronis to do this.

Both drives in the PC have now been low-level re-formatted - I've just got to re-install everything now !

Yes, my concern was that the backup drive could get infected, as it is permanently connected to the PC via a USB 2 port.
At the time of infection it was turned off. though. A subsequent virus scan reveals no infection either.
Yeah, imagine having to re-format the Lacie backup drive, and losing all that data !
But, as I've said, this is O.T.T. - NAV has found no problems.
How many people actually go to this extreme after a virus infection ?
Yep, probably no-one !

Keep the chat going.....

Well guys, everything is back up and running fine, and NAV reports no viruses on any drives (including the external drive).
Thanks for your input.

One quickie - my second hard drive (purely used for storage) - should this be a primary partition or a logical one ? Does it matter ?
I know you can have up to 4 primary partitions on an OS - so long as only one is set active and bootable (the OS one).
The main hard disc contains 2 partitions - one primary and bootable containg my OS (XP Home Edition), the other a logical one containing audio data.