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Transfering music- viruses?


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lmvo23
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Old 10-19-2008, 07:54 PM
I'm getting a 20" iMac 2.66 Ghz in the next couple of weeks. Tonight I started organizing my files to be transfered and my boyfriend (who has been an apple user his entire life) mentioned something that got me thinking. Is it possible for my downloaded music files to have a virus that doesn't affect PC's but may affect a Mac?
Spork
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Old 10-19-2008, 08:02 PM
More than likely, no. Most viruses are designed for PC but it would be possible to get a virus if it was ment for OSX. It's about a 1% chance you're going to get a virus from transferring your music.
lmvo23
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Old 10-19-2008, 08:04 PM
That's what we figured. BUT I do have 16gb of music...which slightly increases my chances.

I may just delete all of it and start fresh.
Kash
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Old 10-19-2008, 09:04 PM
Spork actually exaggerated the number, there is a ZERO chance of you getting a virus when you transfer music from your PC to your Mac unless you actively went out there and purposefully downloaded a Mac virus and inserted it into your music directory.

I transferred music library much larger than yours from my PC to my Mac with no ill effects. No need to waste your time starting over.

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Aeaus
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Old 10-19-2008, 11:59 PM
Are you slow?
There's no way to put a virus in a .mp3 or .m4a file...
It's freaking sound.
fungry
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Old 10-20-2008, 01:23 AM
Aeaus is correct. Your files are audio files. In other words, they would not contain any viruses -_-. Unless you have executable files within the folders which is beyond me because why would that be in a music library.
Eric559
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Old 10-20-2008, 02:24 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeaus View Post
Are you slow?
There's no way to put a virus in a .mp3 or .m4a file...
It's freaking sound.
Haha. That is correct.

Viruses are usually found in exe files and such others.
lmvo23
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Old 10-20-2008, 08:26 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeaus View Post
Are you slow?
There's no way to put a virus in a .mp3 or .m4a file...
It's freaking sound.

It was an honest question. No need to be a jerk about it.

To everyone else:
Thanks for your input.
Aeaus
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Old 10-20-2008, 09:19 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by lmvo23 View Post
It was an honest question. No need to be a jerk about it.

To everyone else:
Thanks for your input.
Well not to be rude, but I never knew someone could be so computer illiterate.
MacFanBoy
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Old 10-20-2008, 09:52 PM
People have been known to rename xxx.exe files to xxx.mp3.exe and hope that you have the show files extension turned off in windows so it would show as xxx.mp3
MacInWin
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Old 10-20-2008, 10:13 PM
And, you can imbed executables in image files, so it is theoretically possible to do the same in audio files. Just for now, no one has done that (as far as we know).
Forum Shark
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Old 10-20-2008, 10:13 PM
Man, she had a question. It got answered, you didn't have to be a jerk about it. This is the switcher forum, so she obviously isn't a computer genius, she may even be a really casual user. (Like my mom. She can't even copy and paste.) Really, if you're not going to say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Didn't your mommy teach you?
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xstep
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Old 10-20-2008, 10:37 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeaus View Post
Well not to be rude, but I never knew someone could be so computer illiterate.
LOL! Well then, you've shown your ignorance at least twice in this thread then. At least that is fixable if you are open to learning. Being rude, as you were, can be more difficult to over come. Good luck with that challenge.
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xstep
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Old 10-20-2008, 10:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakerich View Post
And, you can imbed executables in image files, so it is theoretically possible to do the same in audio files. Just for now, no one has done that (as far as we know).
Exactly!
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KeithTeeple
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Old 10-20-2008, 10:50 PM
I wouldn't think you'd get a virus. Very very unlikely. From what I've heard, there are something like 10 known viruses for Mac.

Press any key to continue, or any other key to cancel.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary
and those who don't.

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