Troubleshoot How to Securely diagnose old P4

[cornblack]

I have an old P4 pc lying around. that have intel dgc101c motherboard and only 1GB of ram(ddr1).
now i am on skylake and 16gb ram.

at first i had an 80gb(pata) hard drive on that. it failed because of some mbr or heat issues.
after that i've added 500gb(sata) hard disk that i want to use as an extra storage in current pc.
before using the old drive i want to check it if it contains viruses/malwares etc.
how do i do this?

my approach is to use puppy linux or some sort to analyse the data on both drive format, copy them if useful.

any suggestions?

 

[Fritz]

Hi @cornblack, what operating system are you running on those PCs?

 

[Digerati]

before using the old drive i want to check it if it contains viruses/malwares etc.
how do i do this?

Temporarily install it as a secondary (NOT boot) in your current computer, or in an enclosure attached to your current computer or attached with one of these (nice to just have on-hand) to your current computer, then scan the heck out of it. If me, I would probably reformat (not quick format) it too.

 

[cornblack]

Temporarily install it as a secondary (NOT boot) in your current computer, or in an enclosure attached to your current computer.

i think its risky dont want to infect my new drives.. wanted to test it in safer/older envoirment..

 

[cornblack]

Hi @cornblack, what operating system are you running on those PCs?

windows xp sp3 it was

 

[Digerati]

i think its risky dont want to infect my new drives.. wanted to test it in safer/older envoirment..

That is EXACTLY why I made a point to state with emphasis "secondary (NOT boot)".

There is NO RISK if you install as a secondary drive. Nothing is going to run or execute from that drive if simply attached or installed as a secondary drive. Note I have a little shop and this is exactly what we do all the time. I have a docking station that connects suspect drives as secondary drives to my computer. I then run my scanners on it without ever exposing my computer to anything malicious.

wanted to test it in safer/older envoirment..

Sorry, but that is a contradictory statement. Older environments are less safe, not more safe.

 

[Fritz]

Sorry, I was out the entire day. But @Digerati is right on the money, I suggest you follow his advice.