Re: hard drive problem

Brad wrote:

"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%2392bgpesGHA.4596@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I thought, I assume, Im guessing formatting only writes to some
block on the disk, something thats equal to the start of a sector or
something saying the data is "erased"? But formatting doesnt, Im
guessing, actually go to each and every last bit to write something?
does it?

No. But doing that is entirely unnecessary. The only time you might
want to do that is when discarding or giving away a computer--to
make it less likely that someone can access your old data.

Ok but I meant could there be virus fragments in these zones of
untouched disk space? open term, malware, spyware, whatever; Im
too concerned about ABSOLUTE virus/malware eradication, it takes
longer but no doubt must remain. I think some offices will take
such a disk and shred it because there could be some change to disk
internals or bios?


Yes, there could be malware (virus or other), not just fragments, but entire
malware files. But it doesn't matter at all. They can't run from there and
there can be *no* danger from *anything* in those spaces.


Messenger Service can often be useful. For example you can use it to
send messages from one computer on the network to another; I use it
for that all the time. It's not a security risk in itself, although
some malware can use to display popup messages. But as I said, the
better solution to that problem is installing a firewall which will
prevent those popups, not turniong off Messenger Service.


Right, totally agree. but home users?


Sure, home users often have small networks, and use messenger service to
communicate between them. For example, I just returned home from an errand I
had to run. When I looked at my computer, I saw that my wife had sent me a
message about a call I needed to return. She sent it via Messenger Service.


Ive never used it like this
and just thought some security bulletin told the home user to turn it
OFF unless they knew they needed to use it. its not a security
threat, just annoying.


Yes, there are some people who advise turning it off. I disagree, as you
know. don't think it's good advice at all, because it hides the threat
instead of fixing it.. The fix is to run a firewall.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


.

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