Virus Programs

[JackJohnson]

I have a question just to make sure my virus program works. When it finds a virus and deletes it, does it also delete it of the actual hard drive, (via a small format of the hard drive) im wondering because when ur computer actually deletes a file it only deletes it form the index, its still on teh hard drive until something is written over it.

DO i need to totally reformat my hard drive to get rid of it?

 

[zephead]

it depends on the anti virus software, whether it's in good and up to date working order. check your av software's support references or get an online definition of the virus.

symantec.com is a good site to learn about your problem

 

[Kevin16]

when a file is deleted from the allocation table, it is no longer in use.

 

[olefarte]

Most, if not all, virus scanners will put a virus in quarantine, until you are sure that your computer is in working order and something wasn't quarantined/removed by mistake. It will stay there, and be no problem. If, after a period of time, you see that your computer is in working order, you can choose to delete the quarantined file.

 

[poertner_1274]

Yes, once it is deleted it can't be accessed again, unless you use a disk utility to recover the data. So no worries.