Question about an old hard drive

[jamisoncrzy]

I found an old hard drive in one of my old pc cases. I want to use it for extra storage. But the thing is I dont know if its an old HD that has a virus or something on it. If I hook it up with my current HDD unplugged can it harm my PC?

Another thing how can I turn it into just a plain storage drive, maybe run games off it or something?

 

[ProWilma]

No, generally viruses don't go flying around infecting viruses unless you open the actual program containing the virus. But what I do suggest is that you plug the HDD in and immediately tell your security software to scan it. You know when you plug a usb and Mcaffe or norton or AVG asks you whether you want to scan it, do that and it'll remove the virus.

 

[jamisoncrzy]

No, generally viruses don't go flying around infecting viruses unless you open the actual program containing the virus. But what I do suggest is that you plug the HDD in and immediately tell your security software to scan it. You know when you plug a usb and Mcaffe or norton or AVG asks you whether you want to scan it, do that and it'll remove the virus.

It has WinXP on it. Im currently running Win7. Will this efftect anything?

 

[ProWilma]

No and you wont be able to boot Windows XP at all from your Windows 7 computer.

 

[jamisoncrzy]

No and you wont be able to boot Windows XP at all from your Windows 7 computer.

What if I put win7 on it? Would that be better all the way around?

 

[ProWilma]

You already have win7 on your computer on another hardrive. You don't need to install Windows 7 again.

 

[jamisoncrzy]

So I can plug it in and be all set to use it for storage and run games from it?

 

[ProWilma]

No, you don't need to do that. Just open the folder from the My Computer section.