OK...so here's something that'll bake your noodle!

[jasonbishop73]

Ok,
I'm a PC tech. I use a Windows PC w/ Norton AV to scan customers infected drives. The process is simple. I pull their drive, put it in my system and scan it with NAV (switching to Trend Micro though now).

Anyways, i can also do this on site for the customer with my winxp lappy and an external firewire drive hook up.

My question is this. I have the Virex from my .Mac account, and I have Symantec for the Mac. Could I use my Mac's to scan infected PC drives and clean it as reliably as my winxp setup?

I know its kind of wierd. I use Macs for my office and records keeping setup. I use it on site to do my invoices and printing. I use it at home for everything else. But basically I just use the PC's at work for scanning for virus'. Any idea if the Macs can do that as well?

Thanks,
Jason

[trpnmonkey41]

Should work perfectly fine. Mac virus scanners have windows virus definitions to protect computers on windows networks from being infected by a file that is on the mac but doesn't effect it.

[Wapa18]

but wouldn't the different file systems used by windows and mac os x prevent it from working? correct me if i'm wrong...i just thought that might keep it from doing it right.

[jasonbishop73]

I would think that since OS X can read ntfs and fat32, it shouldn't be a problem. But maybe it is?

[flonejek]

umm osx cant write 2 ntfs, muahahahaha so you can find em but not delete em lol

[Amen-Moses]

umm osx cant write 2 ntfs, muahahahaha so you can find em but not delete em lol

Why not?

I've not actually tried it under BSD but Linux has no problems writing to NTFS so I can't see why OS X would.

Amen-Moses

[Aptmunich]

Why not?

I've not actually tried it under BSD but Linux has no problems writing to NTFS so I can't see why OS X would.

Amen-Moses

Actually not quite true:

Linux does (or at least DID) have problems writing to NTFS as it is a microsoft proprietary file system and they aren't keen on giving away the details on it. There was a unauthorized hack to get linux writing to NTFS drives, but as far as I know you can't install a linux distro on NTFS.

This might have changed since my last linux experience though...

[Amen-Moses]

Actually not quite true:

Linux does (or at least DID) have problems writing to NTFS as it is a microsoft proprietary file system and they aren't keen on giving away the details on it. There was a unauthorized hack to get linux writing to NTFS drives, but as far as I know you can't install a linux distro on NTFS.

This might have changed since my last linux experience though...

Well that might have been true once but using SUSE 7 I installed Win2000 on one disk using NTFS with a small partition (4 Gb) for the OS and a larger one for data and applications, I then put Linux on a second drive using a Journaled filesystem and set up a large partition for backups. Then I regularly took a copy of the NTFS OS partition into the Linux backup partition, if windross ever fell over I would simply boot into SUSE and copy the last backup straight over the NTFS OS partition and that would get everything working again. I can't see why the same thing shouldn't be possible under OS X although I've not tried it myself (and since XP-Pro does a similar thing itself my old system is now redundant so I've repartitioned everything and given the lot to XP).

btw if NTFS is a proprietry file system how come the DEC Alpha never had any problems running three different OSs on a single workstation and reading and writing to NTFS partitions from all three with no problems? (i.e WinNT, Unix & VMS)

Amen-Moses

[flonejek]

Well the main problem is the linux NTFS support is a kernel module which has yet to be ported to Darwin. Another tip is rather than take out their harddrive and all just boot either Knoppix_STD/Helix and scan with ClamAV after gettin the latest updates or boot BartPE (takes a bit to setup) and do your scanning from the bootable windows CD. (I do tech support mainly with BartPE and sometimes Knoppix if something like a drive is totally rooted)

BartPE: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Knoppix-STD (security tools distribution): http://www.knoppix-std.org/

Helix: http://www.e-fense.com/helix/

With these 3 discs I can pretty much solve anything bar fried hardware, Helix is my fave for getting data of someones screwed drive though I've only had to do this twice. The gnome version Gnoppix is great too if you've gotta take their drive for replacing/ send back for warranty, as they can still use their computer (one of my clients used Gnoppix for a week while his drive was gettin replaced as all he did was read email and surf the net)

Knoppix (KDE based linux bootable cd): http://www.knoppix.org/
Gnoppix (GNOME based linux bootable cd): http://amu.debian.net/

Gnoppix is easier to use than Knoppix and has less software and looks better...