i have hundreds of pictures in my old laptop, and i just bought a new laptop, and want to transfer my pictures to my new one, but the old laptop has viruses (i think), do you think some viruses can transfer with the pictures to my new laptop, even if the new one has antivirus? what about the music? or maybe the new laptop will notify me if some files are infected and i can stop the transfering? im using a 4 gb transfer little pocket thing…
To begin with, it depends what files those viruses reside in. Also, if you have good antivirus on your new one it should pick it up if it does. What I would do is, since you have antivirus right click on the folder and there should be an option saying " Scan (name of file)" with the symbol for your antivirus next to it.
If you only transfer pictures and music, you will not transfer a virus.
I would clean up the old computer first (check http://www.malwarebytes.org/) but theoretically the antivirus software on your new computer "should" stop any virus from getting transferred.
First of all, if your old laptop has a virus that attaches to USB drives, it could move to the other laptop once you insert it. However, if your new laptop has a good AV protection that scans devices inserted to your USB ports then it should be able to spot and disinfect it immediately.
Secondly, picture and music files can only be corrupted but not infected by virus so simply copying them to another computer won’t infect your other laptop.
In summary, the contents may not be infected but if the container is, then there is a chance of getting infected. Make sure you have a reliable AV program that is always up to date.
The best thing you can do is install Anti virus into your old laptop and Scan and fix the virus in the photos folder(s). And then transfer it to the new laptop (after installing Anti virus in the new one) and scan it once more. But there is one disadvantage- That the infected files will get deleted.
This is what I can advice you… If you have any problem fell free to contact me at-
zmmsayeed80@yahoo.com
zmmsayeed@hotmail.com
So then,
Later
The obvious thing to do would be to get rid of the virus from the old laptop then you can transfer the pictures without worrying. There are free online scanners which will do this. Try the Kaspersky or Trend versions.
Copying the files onto a USB stick and transferring them should still be OK though. However some viruses can create a file which pretends to be an image file but isn’t. That’s usually only a risk from Internet or when the laptops are connected by cable. So long as the new laptop has up-to-date anti virus software and you right click the USB stick and scan it for viruses you should be OK.
I do think you need to change your anti-malware policy though or you will soon be re-infected on your new machine.
It’s not enough to have anti-virus software; you need a complete anti-malware solution which has anti-virus, anti-spam, spyware protection and firewall. Set it to update every day. Some will do this on an hourly basis. My own machines use Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 set to update every night and run a scan overnight.