Hidden virus won't delete after format of usb drive

[erwin1978]

Ultimately, I found that a USB drive given to me had a hidden virus. Even after multiple format the drive kept infecting me. How was this possible? I thought formatting deleted all files in the drive regardless of whether it's hidden or not?

The virus made sure that hidden files remained hidden even if I chose not to in Folder Options. Eventually, I got the hidden files to show and then formatted the usb drive and that seemed to delete the virus file as well.

This thing eluded me for several days before pinpointing it to the usb drive.

 

[capeconsultant]

Maybe delete and recreate the PARTITION? Dave

 

[BlueAcolyte]

It might have hid in the boot sector or MBR of the flash drive.

 

[erwin1978]

Spoke too soon. The virus is still in the drive. I'll just throw the thing away. I can't believe Norton can't fix it.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

No, no!

Google DBAN. Burn it onto a CD, boot DBAN up, and nuke your flash drive. This completely zeroes out your flash drive.

If the virus is still there, then it actually came from your computer.

 

[Quiksilver]

Do what he said above.
Although to me, are you 100% it's an actual virus and not a false positive?

 

[Yellowbeard]

You can also use a Windows 98 boot disk and use FDisk to remove and rebuild the partition. There's no way a virus will survive destroying the partition, rebuilding it, and a reformatting.

http://www.houseofhelp.com/for...showthread.php?t=62742

 

[tynopik]

seems more likely that the virus is on YOUR COMPUTER and keeps reinfecting the USB drive . . .

 

[bka4u2c]

Tynopik is probably correct. I had that at work recently. Format the USB drive, stick in the infected PC and it would copy two hidden files, autorun.inf and EXPLORER.EXE. It would then infected whatever PC the drive was plugged into, except Vista boxes.

 

[erwin1978]

I definitely think it originated from the usb drive. I reinstalled Windows probably 4 times and finally figured out the usb drive was the origin of the virus. There was an autorun.inf file that executed an .exe file. Both files are then duplicated on any partition in my harddrive. The virus made hidden files and System Files permanently hidden and you can't change it in Folder Options or registry. When I got the hidden files to finally show up, I right clicked the files and scan for virus. This seem to just reactivate the virus and hide again.

So, I destroyed the usb drive and reinstalled Windows. So far no problem. I'll be wary of those free usb flash drive deals that people post often.