Putting MacOSX at risk?

[Dan_Wood]

Just realized this: If J. Random User gets infected, what's to prevent the virus or malware from obliterating or corrupting the HFS+ partition?

Is there a way to prevent such an occurance?

Besides not using XP for browsing, email, or pretty much anything besides gaming?

[bohrhead]

If you don't install MacDrive, windows won't be able to see your HFS+ partition so it won't be able to infect it.

[Dan_Wood]

But you still have the ability to read and modify the partition. Mounting it isn't really an issue if havoc is your aim. All you need is to either twiddle some bits or overwrite it with zeros. Your XP load won't be concerned or care since it doesn't have it mounted, but when you try to boot from MacOSX, it won't happen.

[McoreD]

Try you best to run XP with Limited User. Problem solved. :)
Running as Limited User since August 2005. Still going strong.

http://wmwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Limited_User

[mbp23456]

while malware, viruses, and spyware are a concern
as long as you update windows for security patches and run a decent antiviral & spyware software you will be fine... for me.. i have had a 5M cable line forever with my digital cable service... and the cable company offers free software for windows users for pop-ups, spy, and viral protection...

as long as you leave windows update & your anti-viral on to automatically update every couple of weeks your problems statistically are pretty low...

in addition.. as always.. back up your drive every couple weeks and save any really truely important files as copies to an external drive or a second drive over your network

all this in conjuntion with the saftey options on your airport extreme should leave you pretty well protected... IMHO

[bboucher790]

IMO, if you are protected on Windows with a good virus program, you have to be a REAL idiot to screw up your system. Go ahead and get NOD32 anti-virus. 1000000x better than Norton "Isa-Virus" or McLaughee Anti-Virus. I always test my protection on "porn websites" (hehe). Everytime I'm about to get a trojan, NOD32 blocks the threat. Worms are really a major problems for computers on networks: Schools / Business / etc. If you're just at home browsing, they're not that big a deal. Since I've installed NOD32, I haven't gotten a single virus. Also, what a lot of Mac users don't understand is MOST viruses / malware don't "corrupt" your system, they simply bog it down. So worst case scenerio is your cpu is slower, sometimes to a not-noticable degree. If you have malware, just get AdAware. Run it once a month and you're fine.

If you're super concerned about your data. Spend 120ish bux and get an external HD to backup your data in OSX. As long as you're backed up, you can live without fear :). Totally worth the investment IMO, even if you weren't installing Windows. Random hardrive malfunctions can happen at any time for either PC or Mac.

So there you have it. Couple NOD32 Anti-Virus with AdAware and your system should be protected very very well, with little reason to worry.

[kainewynd2]

I think we've been through this in another thread... :p

As bboucher790 said, MOST viruses / malware don't "corrupt" your system, they simply bog it down

While we disagree on some things, we definitely agree here and on the use of backups.
The point of a virus or a lot of these malware items is to make other people money either by slamming you with ads or taking over your machine to use to make money by turning it into a zombie.

In any event, the only good insurance is a good backup - keep it up to date with xxcopy in windows and Carbon Copy Cloner in OS X.