USB virus scanners. We check and completely clean the flash drive from viruses


Good day! In today's article we will talk about how to check a flash drive for viruses. I think this question is currently the most relevant. It is possible to catch viruses on your computer not only through the Internet, but also through a flash drive. All users should protect their computer from the effects of viruses so that they do not suffer from them in the future. In addition, Windows often crashes in such situations. Before working with a flash drive, you need to check it for viruses. Believe me, there is nothing complicated. Now you can see this for yourself.

Insert the media into the USB connector of your PC.

The flash drive was recognized by the computer, which means you can get to work. Open “My Computer” and hover over the name of the flash drive.

Now all that remains is to wait for the procedure to complete, after which you will see the result.

Via Avast

If you have Avast installed, then open it and select “Protection”. Then go to the Antivirus module.

Select Other Scan.

Visit the USB/DVD Scanning section.

Once the test is completed, the result will appear. If viruses are found, send them to “Quarantine” or delete them.

Via Kaspersky Free

Open the program and select "Check". You can also go and check on the website online using the link https://virusdesk.kaspersky.ru

Specify “Scan for external devices”, select the device and click “Run scan”.

I also recommend watching and studying the video lesson.

How to check a flash drive for viruses online?

Many people wonder if it is possible to check viruses online? I’ll answer right away, yes. For example, if you do not have an antivirus on your computer, you can check it for viruses using the Internet.

Online Kaspersky

The program itself is reliable and popular. Using its service, you can quickly check your computer for viruses.

What are the benefits of the program?

  1. Does not slow down work;
  2. Does not affect antivirus programs that are already installed on the PC itself;
  3. Reports detected viruses;
  4. Gives the result with a detailed report.

If you decide to use this service, then simply follow the link: http://www.kaspersky.ru/free-virus-scan and download the installer file. Run the program and wait until the scan is completed.

Doctor Web

  • Go to the official website of the program and click on the “Browse” button.
  • Specify the path to the file you want to check and click “Check”.
  • A good way to check your flash drive for free.

Finally, I would like to note that it is completely impossible to scan your computer and remove viruses online.

I advise you to install a full-fledged antivirus program. By the way, such a program will protect your computer, which is very good. Thank you all for your attention, bye everyone!

They get into the operating system not via the Internet or email, but using a regular flash drive. Moreover, most often the owner of this removable media does not even know that his flash drive is infected with one or more viruses. But how to protect your devices from viruses? Is there an optimal antivirus for a flash drive or another reliable way to protect removable media? You will find answers to these questions in the continuation of this article.

First, let's define what exactly we are going to protect. After all, you can find a good antivirus for a flash drive that can prevent infection of your removable drive, but which cannot cope with more powerful threats that attack a computer or laptop. Therefore, you need to understand that your home PC should in any case be equipped with a good firewall and high-quality anti-virus software, which can provide reliable protection against any spyware and virus programs. You should write anti-virus onto a flash drive only if you use it quite often in public places (in libraries, at universities, various computers may not be properly protected) and you are afraid that you might “infect” your portable device.

One of the best tools for protecting removable media is a free utility called Antirun. This program will not only help protect your computer from the penetration of various malicious viruses, but will also protect your flash drive from various “network junk” getting onto it.

Another popular program for protecting removable drives among advanced users is the “USB Disk Security” utility (at the time of this writing, its latest version is 5.0.0.76). This software, occupying only one megabyte, is a compact analogue of a real full-fledged antivirus that can scan removable media and delete infected files from it.

Another option for protecting any removable media connected to a computer via a USB port (this can be not only a flash drive, but also a memory card from a digital camera or mobile phone, MP3 player and other equipment) is to prohibit the ability to write any data to this media without user confirmation for this action. This option will allow you to fully control what, where and when was recorded on your storage device in order to avoid recording it on it and then you will not need any antivirus for flash drives.

In order to protect your computer from a possible threat from removable media, experienced users recommend updating your anti-virus databases as often as possible and from time to time completely scanning all hard drives and removable media that you regularly use. An anti-virus for a flash drive should only be installed if a computer or laptop for some reason has been left for some time without reliable anti-virus protection. If this computer has access to the Internet, then it can be scanned for third-party and potentially dangerous programs even online - many leading antivirus manufacturers offer this service completely free of charge these days.

We should not forget that if you handle your computer and removable media carelessly and negligently, no antivirus for a flash drive or PC will help against malicious software. If you regularly check the operating system and its resources using specialized programs, the likelihood of your computer becoming infected is practically reduced to zero. The main thing is not to forget to comply with the simplest requirements for protecting your PC and you will not have to contact repair shops after any breakdowns associated with viruses and other malicious programs.

Every storage medium can become a haven for malware. As a result, you may lose valuable data and risk infecting your other devices. Therefore, it is better to get rid of all this as soon as possible. We will look further at how you can check and remove viruses from your drive.

Let's start by looking at the signs of viruses on a removable drive. The main ones are:

  • files appeared with the name "autorun";
  • files appeared with the extension ".tmp";
  • suspicious folders appeared, for example, "TEMP" or "RECYCLER";
  • The flash drive stopped opening;
  • the drive cannot be removed;
  • files have disappeared or turned into shortcuts.

In general, the media becomes slower to be detected by the computer, it takes longer for information to be copied onto it, and sometimes errors may occur. In most cases, it would be a good idea to check the computer to which the flash drive is connected.

To combat malware, it is best to use antivirus software. These can be either powerful combination products or simple, highly targeted utilities. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the best options.

Method 1: Avast! Free Antivirus

Today this antivirus is considered one of the most popular in the world, and for our purposes it is perfect. To use Avast! Free Antivirus to clean your USB drive, do the following:


You can also scan media through the context menu. To do this, follow a number of simple steps:
Right-click on the flash drive and select "Scan".


By default, Avasta is configured to automatically detect viruses on connected devices. The status of this function can be checked using the following path:

Settings / Components / File system screen settings / Scan on connection

Method 2: ESET NOD32 Smart Security

And this is an option with less load on the system, so it is often installed on laptops and tablets. To scan your removable drive for viruses using ESET NOD32 Smart Security, do the following:

You can set up automatic scanning when you connect a flash drive. To do this, follow the path

Settings / Advanced settings / Virus protection / Removable media

Method 3: Kaspersky Free

The free version of this antivirus will help you quickly scan any media. Instructions for using it to complete our task are as follows:


Don't forget to set up automatic scanning. To do this, go to settings and click "Examination". Here you can set the antivirus action when connecting a flash drive to a PC.


For reliable operation of each antivirus, do not forget about virus database updates. They usually happen automatically, but inexperienced users can cancel them or disable them altogether. This is not recommended at all.

Method 4: Malwarebytes

One of the best utilities for detecting viruses on your computer and portable devices. Instructions for using Malwarebytes are as follows:


You can go the other way by simply right-clicking on the flash drive in "Computer" and selecting "Scan Malwarebytes".

Along with cloud services, we very often use regular flash cards to store photos and movies. We connect it to other people's computers and laptops, which carries the risk of infection with viruses and other malware. The statistics are inexorable: every 10th computer is a direct threat. The question arises: how to protect a flash drive from viruses without reducing the comfort of its use?

Standard Windows Methods

Most often, a USB drive is infected through a file autorun.inf. This file serves a very specific purpose: automatically launching or installing applications from a flash card to a computer. It is hidden, but is present on any flash drive. As in other areas of life, early protection and prevention are better than time-consuming treatment that does not guarantee a 100% positive result. Therefore, the main task is to make the autorun.inf file invulnerable to attempts to infect it.

It is extremely important: the methods described below will protect the media from malware that uses USB flash as a means of spreading itself (it is they who seek to overwrite the mentioned file in their own way). Viruses, Trojans and other troubles in program installers will not go away: use antiviruses to detect them.

Disabling startup

This is a method of protecting the computer itself from a possibly already infected flash drive, both yours and someone else’s. The easiest way to do this is to follow the steps below. For Windows 7:

  • Press key combination Win+R.
  • In the “Run” window that opens, enter gpedit.msc and click on OK.
  • Click on "Allow" when a message appears asking you to perform an action as an administrator. You may also be required to enter an administrator password.
  • In the Local Group Policy Editor window that appears, expand the “Computer Configuration” list, and then “Administrative Templates”.
  • Select "All parameters".


  • In the list that opens on the right, right-click on the line “Disable autorun”.


  • Click “Change”, make the “Enable” item active, the value “All devices” should be set below.


  • Click "Apply".

Please note: in some versions of Windows (8.8.1), the sequence in steps 4-6 may be slightly different and look like this: “Computer Configuration” – “Administrative Templates” – “Windows Components” – “Autorun Policies” – “Disable Autorun”.

A reboot may be required for the changes to take effect. That's all - now any flash drives connected to the computer will not run on it automatically and will not cause harm without user intervention.

Autorun file protection

Now there is a way to protect the flash drive itself from malware distributed using physical storage media. We are talking about the same autorun.inf.

In the good old days, it was enough to create an empty write-protected file on a USB drive. That is, with read-only rights. Today such measures are not enough. But the essence of the actions is similar. On a flash drive that has been scanned by a good antivirus, after making sure that there are no dangers, create a special file. Open a regular notepad and copy these lines into it:

attrib -S -H -R -A autorun.*
del autorun.*
attrib -S -H -R -A recycler
rd "\\?\%~d0\recycler\" /s /q
attrib -S -H -R -A recycled
rd "\\?\%~d0\recycled\" /s /q
mkdir "\\?\%~d0\AUTORUN.INF\LPT3″
attrib +S +H +R +A %~d0\AUTORUN.INF /s /d
mkdir "\\?\%~d0\RECYCLED\LPT3″
attrib +S +H +R +A %~d0\RECYCLED /s /d
mkdir "\\?\%~d0\RECYCLER\LPT3″
attrib +S +H +R +A %~d0\RECYCLER /s /dattrib -s -h -r autorun.*
del autorun.*
mkdir %~d0AUTORUN.INF
mkdir "?%~d0AUTORUN.INF..."
attrib +s +h %~d0AUTORUN.INF

Save the result to a USB flash drive, naming the file locker.bat. After the dot there is an extension, it is extremely important and should look exactly like this .bat. Open the flash drive through Explorer and launch the newly created file with a regular double-click. It will run as a small program and create a secure folder called AUTORUN.INF.

What does this give? By inserting a USB Flash Drive into an infected computer, you don’t have to worry about the viruses on it that spread via USB. Such a virus will rush to overwrite the autorun.inf file, but it’s not there! Instead, a folder, and one that is protected.

It is also important: viruses can write themselves to other places on a flash drive by changing other files. Therefore, when inserting it into your computer, check it with an antivirus before opening it.

Radical way

If you have to connect a flash drive to someone else's computer, but only to download files from it, the option of switching the file system to read-only mode is suitable. This is an effective, but, in most cases, inconvenient method, making the “send to a removable disk” option and similar operations inoperative.

In order to apply this method you must:

  • Format the USB drive to the NTFS file system. Please note: all data from the flash drive will be deleted! If the flash drive is already in NTFS, skip this step.

  • Write down all the necessary data and put them in one folder.
  • Open the properties of the flash drive (right-click) and in the “Security” tab, click on the “Change” button.

  • In the “Allow” column, uncheck all the boxes except for the “List folder contents” and “Reading” items.
    Click "OK".

Now no virus can be registered on a flash drive.

Using third party programs

You can also protect your USB drive from malware using programs specially created for this purpose. For example, Panda USB Vaccine. This free utility is designed specifically to protect removable media.

After downloading and launching it, connect the flash drive you want to protect to your computer. Follow 2 simple steps:

  1. In the drop-down menu, install the desired USB drive;
  2. Click on the Vaccinate USB button.

That's all! The flash drive is protected from overwriting the autorun file. Essentially, the program simply disables autorun, but does this by pressing a couple of buttons in a convenient interface.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, you will not be able to 100% protect your flash drive from viruses. The measures described in the article only prevent malware from automatically penetrating first onto a USB drive and then onto your PC. Always keep your antivirus up to date and scan flash drives before opening them in Explorer.


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