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+--- Thread: [Question] Reusing potentially infected drives (/Thread-Question-Reusing-potentially-infected-drives)
[Question] Reusing potentially infected drives - Inori - 12-15-2016
As I mentioned in my thread earlier today, my laptop's HDD broke. Luckily, I have a second copy of the exact same model from my previous laptop, as well as a Windows 7 install USB (which I could upgrade later). Perhaps not so lucky, however, is the fact that said previous laptop was mutilated, from what I can assume in retrospect now that I know more, by a particularly nasty rootkit.
If the rootkit is still on the drive (I cant remember if I've formatted or used it since), would it be safe to use if I formatted it and did a clean windows install? If not, would overwriting it by dd'ing or copying /dev/zero or /dev/urandom to the drive's location (/dev/sdX) be adequate?
RE: [Question] Reusing potentially infected drives - Blink - 12-15-2016
It should be fine, rootkits are still programs even if they work at a kernel level, so they can still be deleted like anything else.
RE: [Question] Reusing potentially infected drives - Inori - 12-15-2016
(12-15-2016, 04:04 AM)Ender Wrote: It should be fine, rootkits are still programs even if they work at a kernel level, so they can still be deleted like anything else.
That was my initial guess, just wanted to be safe since they're so fucking dangerous.
RE: [Question] Reusing potentially infected drives - TheCouchPullsOutButIDont1234 - 02-14-2017
(12-15-2016, 03:02 AM)Inori Wrote: As I mentioned in my thread earlier today, my laptop's HDD broke. Luckily, I have a second copy of the exact same model from my previous laptop, as well as a Windows 7 install USB (which I could upgrade later). Perhaps not so lucky, however, is the fact that said previous laptop was mutilated, from what I can assume in retrospect now that I know more, by a particularly nasty rootkit.
If the rootkit is still on the drive (I cant remember if I've formatted or used it since), would it be safe to use if I formatted it and did a clean windows install? If not, would overwriting it by dd'ing or copying /dev/zero or /dev/urandom to the drive's location (/dev/sdX) be adequate?
Yes, formatting it should work fine. I guess malware could get into the drive firmware, but that chance is about 1 in 100 trillion because I'm pretty sure the chip it's stored on is read-only. So it would basically have to be put in during the manufacturing process. Anyways, format the drives in gparted or diskpart or whatever once and you'll be ok.