The external hard drive becomes unreadable and corrupted due to carelessly disconnecting or powering down the industry without following the eject drive protocol. You can fix corrupted hard drive with a quick scan on the PC with the disk checking utility and its drive repair function. Todays viruses/malware are coming at us faster than ever. This video covers how do scan for viruses and other malware on a flash drive, zip drive, external h.
Another option for scanning for viruses when you don't have access to Windows is to use a free bootable antivirus program. These are programs that run from portable devices like discs or flash drives, that can scan a hard drive for viruses without starting the operating system at all. CHKDSK also fixes misaligned time stamps, file size data, and security flags on files on the drive. CHKDSK can then conduct a complete scan of the drive, accessing and testing every sector of the hardware. Hard drives are divided into logical sectors, defined areas of the drive where a certain defined quantity of data will be stored.
In more recent years, one of the most common ways for a virus to spread itself has been through the autorun.inf file that resides on the root of your removable device such as a USB stick or hard drive. When you insert the device into a computer, the autorun file then executes the program it’s told to which in many cases can be malicious file, and then you have a problem on your hands.
Thankfully in Windows XP and above the Autorun.inf virus issue is now pretty much redundant as the inf file no longer gets executed by default in Windows when it’s inserted and so the malicious file cannot get launched. The problem with removable USB devices is they are so portable that the drive could have been plugged into several other computers before it comes back to you. And with that in mind, there’s always a chance that it could have been infected and other types of malicious files might have been transferred onto it along the way.
Several Antivirus packages these days will offer to scan USB devices when inserted, but sometimes this option is buried in the settings and not automatically enabled.
Some others don’t offer this function or only scan the Autorun.inf file to see if it has been infected and you would have to run a manual scan yourself which can easily be forgotten. Here we have a way to automatically scan the USB flash drive whenever it is inserted or plugged in to a Windows computer.
USBVirusScan is a small program that will launch any program you provide as a command line parameter each time a USB drive is inserted. As you might guess, the author uses it to start a full virus scan on the inserted USB drive, and named it as such. But the program can actually be used to launch any program, batch file or script you tell it to and isn’t limited to just running security software.USBVirusScan isn’t really a tool for beginners though because it doesn’t have graphical user interface (GUI). The configuration and launching is done from a batch file called Start.bat and the tool itself only has an About screen that looks like the image below which shows the command line options.
The only thing you need is an Antivirus package installed. If you don’t have one and don’t want to pay for one, have a look at our comprehensive list of free Antivirus software. Then you’ll need to find out the commands that need to be on the line that can perform a scan when you insert a USB drive. Once you have the command line, just edit the Start.bat file in the USBVirusScan folder.
The command line options can be a bit confusing for some users and finding the correct syntax and commands is not always easy because every antivirus software is different. So for your convenience we’ve provided a few command lines for some popular antivirus software. If you’re using a 64-bit Windows, you may need to change the Program Files entries to Program Files (x86) depending on which folder your Antivirus uses. The simplest way to check is to browse and see which folder the Antivirus is in and use the correct one in the batch file.
Place “Start USBVirusScan.exe” without the quotes at the beginning of Start.bat and add one of the commands to the line depending on the Antivirus software package you have. Then simply execute the bat file and the program will sit in the system tray waiting for a USB drive to be inserted. Memory usage is small occupying only 1MB on our Windows 7 64-bit test system, so can easily sit in the background all the time if you come into contact with lots of USB flash drives.
On the next page we’ll show you the command line options required for USBVirusScan in 15 popular antivirus and internet security packages.
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C:Program FilesMicrosoft Security ClientMpCmdRun.exe” -Scan -ScanType 3 -File %%c:
if i insert a usb drive can be letter d e f g h … ?
how you can understand the letter to must use ?
Replyhow you can understand the letter to must use ?
and why you use %% ?
%%c:
ReplyGreat program idea, but I have to ask, why is it that Antivirus suites don’t do this automatically. It just seems like common senses, you shouldn’t have to use another program and then program it to use your antivirus. This is beyond stupid in my thinking about how antivirus utilities work, they should be protecting flash drives automatically.
ReplyIts good to find the virus scan in pc system
Thank u
praveenkumar
Replypraveenkumar
will this auto scan utility work with Bitdefender free edition? if so, how should do that? please send me the procedure..
Replyis it possible to revert back after changes made (automatic scan)? can you show how.
ReplyHow to do this usb auto scan for comodo internet security premium 2013?
ReplyHow Do I Scan My External Hard Drive For Viruses
Although Comodo do have what is believed to be a command line scanner called Cavscan.exe in the Comodo folder, it seems they haven’t bothered to tell anyone how to use it.
The output from Cavscan is always blank whatever arguments you put into it. Comodo’s forums have loads of people asking how to utilize this tool, no-one ever seems to come back with useful answers.
ReplyVery useful program, indeed.
As I use Norton AV, one problem is that the path of NAVW32.exe changes when updated automatically.
So I wrote following bat file which finds the path and kick USBVirusScan.
As I use Norton AV, one problem is that the path of NAVW32.exe changes when updated automatically.
So I wrote following bat file which finds the path and kick USBVirusScan.
Content of USBChkStart.bat :
—————– snip —————--
setlocal
reg query “HKLMsoftwaremicrosoftwindowscurrentversionapp pathsnavw32.exe” | find “:” >–AA–.txt
for /f “tokens=3,4,5,6” %%p in (–AA–.txt) do set nortonpath=%%p %%q %%r %%s
start /b USBVirusScan.exe %nortonpath% %%c: /S+ /B+
endlocal
——————snip —————--
—————– snip —————--
setlocal
reg query “HKLMsoftwaremicrosoftwindowscurrentversionapp pathsnavw32.exe” | find “:” >–AA–.txt
for /f “tokens=3,4,5,6” %%p in (–AA–.txt) do set nortonpath=%%p %%q %%r %%s
start /b USBVirusScan.exe %nortonpath% %%c: /S+ /B+
endlocal
——————snip —————--
Another bat file (USBChkStop.bat) to stop is:
usbvirusscan -q
usbvirusscan -q
Place them anywhere you want (desktop for example). Works great.
Tak
ReplyTak
Thanks mate appreciate a lot
ReplyThanks raymond
ReplyNeat program.. Thanks for the info raymond, I’m gonna introduce this program to all my mates :)
ReplyHow To Scan External Hard Drive For Virus On Mac
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Computer viruses and other types of malware don´t just affect your computer´s primary hard drive. They can also get into devices like flash drives or external hard drives if you´re not careful. You can use Avast Free Antivirus to perform a complete scan of your external hard drive in just a few moments.
Avast is a very powerful free antivirus program designed for the Windows operating system. When you perform a general scan of your computer, the program analyzes all of the files on your primary hard drive for traces of viruses and malware. The problem is that viruses aren’t just exclusive to your primary hard drive – other external storage devices like an external hard drive can be infected as well. You can use the Avast free antivirus software to perform a full scan of any external hard drive you own. You just have to configure the program in a very particular way to allow this to happen.
Step 1
Plug any external hard drive or USB flash drive that you want to scan for viruses into your computer. If you are scanning a USB flash drive, plug that flash drive into a USB port. If you are scanning an external hard drive, use the drive’s USB cable to attach it to your computer. Remember that most external hard drives also require an external power source, so be sure to plug the drive’s power cable into a wall outlet before continuing.
Step 2
Open the Avast free antivirus software on your computer. You can use either the desktop shortcut icon that was created during the program’s installation or the icon in the “Avast Free Antivirus” folder of your computer’s “Start” menu.
Step 3
Click the button labeled “Scan Computer” on the left side of the Avast program’s main menu. The window that opens on screen will feature controls that allow you to scan your hard drive for viruses and malware in a number of different ways.
Step 4
Locate the section of the window on screen that reads “Removable media scan.” This section allows you to simultaneously scan all removable and external storage drives on your computer. Click the button labeled “More Details” to expand this section.
Step 5
Click the button labeled “Start” in the “Removable media scan” section of the window on screen. The Avast software will now scan all of the external and removable drives connected to your computer. Any viruses or other types of infected files that are identified will be immediately quarantined by the program. Wait patiently for the scan to complete to get a detailed breakdown of everything that the program found on the selected drives.
Related article:Using PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus Scan Your PC
How to Use Avast Free Antivirus Software
How to Use Avast Free Antivirus Software