How to check for viruses? Detailed analysis

The article describes how to test a USB flash drive for viruses, what is dangerous is the infection of removable storage devices and how to cure the infection.

The Digital Age

Every year the availability of digital technologies is growing, and for a long time no one is surprised by a powerful computer, tablet or smartphone with Internet access. Such technologies have firmly entered our world, and many people no longer imagine life without them. And it's not just about entertainment, they essentially simplify any work, communication between people and other processes. But over time, there was a whole set of criminals who use digital technologies for various crimes, theft and personal gain, they are called hackers, and their weapons are computer viruses.

It began long before the ubiquitous spread of computers and the Internet. The very first viruses were original jokes and rallies, they did not pursue evil intentions, but over time everything changed. Especially when computers began to use various financial organizations, and people use credit cards and other electronic currencies.

To protect against them, anti-viruses have been developed, but malicious programs can bypass them, and very often unsuspecting people participate in their distribution, for example, with the help of an already infected flash drive. So how to check for viruses and remove the USB flash drive from them? In this we will understand.

Ways of distribution

First, let's talk a little about what viruses are attacking flash drives and how dangerous it is.

Any virus, both biological and computer, needs to somehow spread itself. In the case of digital technologies, the Internet and vulnerabilities in operating systems and antiviruses are needed. And at some point hackers invented an interesting and original solution in their own way: the viruses began to copy themselves to the circuit carriers.

In practice, it looks like this: when a computer is infected with a virus, the virus does not give itself out for a while, and when a removable device connects to the computer, whether it's a USB flash drive, floppy disk or hard disk, the virus is copied to it and when it connects to another computer it infects Already it. Such malicious software may not expose itself for a very long time and be activated by the creator's command immediately on hundreds of PCs. And if this happened, then how to check the virus on the USB flash drive?

Checking

First, you need to determine the antivirus program. They all perform the same task, but some differ in functionality, for example, do not have an intelligent module that recognizes the threat that is not yet available in official databases. So, if you need a guarantee, it is better to use several antivirus utilities at once , they are free of charge and you can find them on the official websites of the full versions of the software.

In the case of a conventional antivirus, you need to open "My Computer", right-click the flash drive icon and select the anti-virus scan item.

If temporary utilities are used, then before launching them, you need to specify the scan zones, in particular, the flash drive. So now we know how to test for a USB flash drive.

The duration of this process depends heavily on the power of the computer, specific security software, "jam" flash drive and a number of others. By the way, most modern antiviruses can check all removable media automatically immediately after they are connected, or you can configure this parameter manually. So now we know how to clean a USB flash drive from viruses.

Errors

By the way, flash drives, like all storage media, are sometimes subject to the influence of file system errors. This happens mainly due to the interruption of reading or writing information, power failure and other. In any case, if the flash drive does not immediately fail, but the system reports errors, you can try to fix them. So how to check the USB flash drive for errors? In Windows, the system itself will offer to run the check if there are errors. But you can do it manually. You need to select "USB flash drive" in the "My computer", right-click, then "Properties", "Service" and "Check disk for errors".

But sometimes it happens that standard tools can not do it, then a specialized program comes to the rescue. You can check the flash drive with a third-party software, for example, Flash Memory Toolkit. This free software, which can be found on the official website. If you can correct errors, the program will do everything automatically and you will be able to use the storage device again.

Conclusion

So we figured out how to clean a USB flash drive from viruses and check it for file system errors. It is desirable to conduct these actions regularly, as they will protect you from infection of your computer and loss of important data. But there is no ideal protection, besides, viruses are constantly being modified by their authors.