Worried to plug in an external hardisk

I have 10 year old hardisk which I decided to use as external hardisk by putting it in an enclosure but when I plugged it in windows 10 laptop it maked my windows laptop very slow and then when I checked for viruses in that windows computer using an another computer it showed it was infected by viruses now I'm worried if I plug it in my zorin os 16 core will it make also slow
Please help me

Why not plug it into Windows, then use anti-virus to clean it?

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I know but I'm worried will it again infect it I'm using Malwarebytes on windows is it good

Malwarebytes is good.

I usually plan to retire HDDs older than 6 years. From my experience using HDDs since 90's, 6 years is a cut-off point when the bad sectors started to increase.

I have several 10 years + old systems but none of them have the original disk. I see disk as a consumable item. The trick is moving data to a new disk before the old one fails.

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im using it just for one of my backup machine

Even so if you managed to use a 10 years old HDD, you can count yourself as a lucky one :four_leaf_clover:

I just look into my HDD inventory (which is getting smaller and smaller since I am replacing HDDs with SSDs), the oldest one I have is 5 years old.

As a side note, I always disassemble HDDs before taking them to the municipal waste centre. I now have enough strong magnets on my fridge to hold my recipes :woman_cook:

One way to recycle e-wastes :wink:

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Viruses from windows don't work in linux, you can use the hard drive just fine.

As other suggested you can remove the virus with a antivirus software in windows though.

Interesting, i have read here on the forum somewhere that windows viruses cannot affect linux systems.

Good to know thanks!

Also I'd like to point out that Linux could be targeted through a use of Wine.

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You could also try ESET Emergency Kit in Windows dowload from here: https://www.emsisoft.com/en/home/emergencykit/

I suggest you clean it up before using on any other operating system

I like tomscharbach. He's very knowledgeable. Wonder if he's related to Aravisian. Distant relative kind of thing. Two very important, helpful people.
Maybe we should do a Zorin User family tree. Who knows, maybe my German/Irish ancestry connects to FrenchPress.. Or FrenchPress to zabadabadoo. You just really never know...lol

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We are all related if you go far enough back..from Adam & Eve :smiley:

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And that my friends, is why Linux no lika the Java. When I saw that someone on here wanted to desperately install Java on their Zorin OS, I was like, why? Haven't you heard its not safe? Well, I guess they wanted it for programming reasons, so ya, they had their reasons.

I would love to run ESET on my machine. But I am deeply bothered by the fact that all commercial companies have given up support for the Linux desktop, for anti-virus solutions. And, I find it a bit of a conspiracy that all of them have done it, just in time for Windows11 release.

We are much more secure on Linux, but I still would prefer to have ESET as an option. But as I said, they don't support the desktop no more.

Going back to on topic with the OP, best way to check hard drive is the SMART DATA, have a look at it. If in Linux, you can get the data from the DISKS utility. If on Windows, I think its located in the right click properties for the drive, but I don't know modern Windows.

If a drive shows bad sectors, time to replace it.

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i have many old hard drives which i use as external hardisk for backup

As long as you are checking their integrity time to time and keep more than one copy of backup, old HDDs have their place :slight_smile:

I am following 3-2-1 Backup Rule myself.

How can you check this in linux ?

I keep a bare metal Windows installation just for that.

With my "physical multi-boot system", it is just a matter of plugging Windows SSD.

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So no real tools in linux ?