Can empty card be infected?

ehmen · 2015-04-24T21:28:31.000Z

Hi, is it possible for an empty SD card to be infected in any way?

Eddy · 2015-04-24T21:30:33.000Z

Is there anything in a empty bucket ?

ehmen · 2015-04-24T21:38:49.000Z

Eddy post:2:

Is there anything in a empty bucket ?

Computers and devices differ in that they can contain hidden things, examples of which this great website is replete with, not so with a bucket.

Eddy · 2015-04-24T21:45:27.000Z

No they do not.
empty = empty
empty means there is nothing.

If something is hidden it means there is something.

ehmen · 2015-04-24T21:53:25.000Z

Eddy post:4:

No they do not.
empty = empty
empty means there is nothing.

If something is hidden it means there is something.

Exactly, so if a card looks empty in that there’s no files on it and “Properties” says it’s empty, could there still be some kind of virus/infection/malware/whatever on it, which would make in reality not empty, though it seems that it is?

Pondus · 2015-04-24T21:55:30.000Z

Install MCShield www.mcshield.net when done, plug in the card and let mcshield scan it … it will unhide hidden files and remove any infection

ehmen · 2015-04-24T22:09:59.000Z

There aren’t actually any files (since hidden ones are visible, and there aren’t any), I’m just wondering if there can be any infection without actual files.
Can MCShield detect that as well?

Thank you for your response.

Pondus · 2015-04-24T22:31:20.000Z

MCShields specialty is malware that use removable drives to spread. That is what it was made for
Search virus and worms forum section and see all the topics where Essexboy have saved the day using MCShield

He will be online tomorrow if you want his assistance

ehmen · 2015-04-24T23:16:19.000Z

Thank you.

avastuser3796 · 2015-04-25T19:38:02.000Z

ehmen post:7:

There aren’t actually any files (since hidden ones are visible, and there aren’t any), I’m just wondering if there can be any infection without actual files.
Can MCShield detect that as well?

Thank you for your response.

There is 1 piece of malware that is fileless.

https://www.mysonicwall.com/sonicalert/searchresults.aspx?ev=article&id=761

Runs completely from the Windows Registry

DavidR · 2015-04-25T20:54:54.000Z

Michael (alan1998) post:10:

ehmen post:7:

There aren’t actually any files (since hidden ones are visible, and there aren’t any), I’m just wondering if there can be any infection without actual files.
Can MCShield detect that as well?

Thank you for your response.

There is 1 piece of malware that is fileless.

https://www.mysonicwall.com/sonicalert/searchresults.aspx?ev=article&id=761

Runs completely from the Windows Registry

Whilst that may be correct, I don’t see how it can be equated/related to an empty SD Card as that isn’t the registry.

Chim · 2015-04-26T13:16:49.000Z

Okay, so say that I buy a Flash Drive and as soon as I take it out of the pack and plug it into my computer, I then format it so as to get rid of any pre-installed whatever might have come with it. NOW … just freshly formatted, won’t it STILL have some sort of files in there for the Flash Drive to work? Isn’t that how it gets explained as to why you never get the actual GigaBytes available that the Flash Drive is supposed to have?

I’m just wondering, trying to confirm one way or the other. I’m not trying to claim anything.

DavidR · 2015-04-26T13:33:25.000Z

The formatting of any drive results in the loss of some of the available space. Plus manufactures talk in a MegaByte (MB) as 1000 bytes and not its actual size 1024 bytes. When viewed in explorer, its size is shown correctly and less than the manufactures stated size.

Chim · 2015-04-26T13:48:29.000Z

So bottom line … in the process of formatting, won’t there be some files somewhere in there regardless of how small they might be?

DavidR · 2015-04-26T14:06:48.000Z

Well like a hard drive, presumably there would be a FAT table (file allocation table) to record where files are on the disk so they can be found and used. But that is a system style beast and not a file as such in the conventional sense.

Even after a format (Quick Format) of certain media data remains, but the space it took up is marked as available for use and there is no longer a record of that file in the FAT. There is software that can search for and recover data of a so called formatted disk.

Now that you question has you paranoid - the only true way to get rid of all of the data it to - either destroy the disk of run some super strength erasure software. It isn’t actually erasing but doing multiple passes of writing random data over where the original data was. And that doesn’t remove everything it just makes it much harder to recover it because of all of the random over writing it.

I bet you’re glad you asked.

If you really want a scare try Google as the above is just my basic description/understanding.

system · 2015-04-26T15:06:44.000Z

Yes. It can infected. (Virus files can copy to the empty disk)
Before to infect it is empty. But after infected it is not empty any more.

DavidR · 2015-04-26T15:19:56.000Z

Leonard16 post:16:

Yes. It can infected. (Virus files can copy to the empty disk)
Before to infect it is empty. But after infected it is not empty any more.

That is not what the theme of the topic, see Reply #4 from the OP and you can see the direction he is taking/asking about. Which is asking if a currently empty SD Card already be infected.

ehmen · 2015-04-26T17:05:37.000Z

DavidR post:17:

…see Reply #4 from the OP and you can see the direction he is taking/asking about. Which is asking if a currently empty SD Card already be infected.

Right.
Meaning: though it looks totally empty to the user, is it possible that either it isn’t totally empty and has some infection, or it’s empty of files, but has something else (don’t know what) on it that’s an infection or infected?

Chim · 2015-04-26T19:16:09.000Z

;D Hah Hah Hah! No, David, I’m not any higher level of paranoid after my question. I already knew since a couple years back that as you mentioned, just like in a Hard Drive’s case, a Flash Drive is also NOT 100% permanently wiped out after being formatted.

Back then I had bought 2 Flash Drives and they turned out to be very short life lemons. After the first one gave out, I contemplated sending it back to Amazon.com from where I bought it or to the manufacturer for my money back. But, either there on some Amazon.com info or through Googling I found out about that info regarding no such thing as a 100% permanent wipe out. So, I nixed the idea of sending my Flash Drives back to Amazon or to the manufacturer.

The only consolation was that I had bought them with a Gift Card I had won in a MyOpera Community contest. So I hadn’t per se lost money out of my pocket.

Anyway, so regarding this thread … considering the above info, I figured there would just be no actual case of a 100% EMPTY Flash Drive. I figured that unless that data written onto a Flash Drive for formatting purposes was somehow protected sort of in that method that a Factory Image partition in a Hard Drive is protected … a supposed empty Flash Drive WOULD be susceptible to infection.

Well, flawed or not, that was my thinking.

DavidR · 2015-04-26T19:53:33.000Z

There was a time when there were some pre-installed malware on supposedly new drives. But these were also unlikely to be truly empty.

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