After a bad virus attack I have these concerns.Help!

ivinsjames

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I had a virus a while back that infected both of my internal HD's and my external one too. After I got rid of it, my OCD flared up. Now here are my concerns:

1.Can a virus hide an executable or duplicate itself into your Memory/Ram once your computer becomes infected? If so is it possible for the virus to come out of hiding and re-infect your computer?

2.Can having a virus PERMANENTLY damage memory Ram?

3.Can a virus make a hard drive unusable or back itself up in your HD and re-infect your computer even after using an anti-virus and getting rid of the virus?

4.Can a virus possibly attach itself to cds or media and run (not hard drives but just discs of any kind) when you use them while infected?

5.Can a virus ruin a GPU?

So, some of these might sound dumb or naive but I assure you they come from true misunderstanding of how viruses work and move coupled with OCD. I would really like to just have confirmation and knowledge to put these worries to rest since OCD takes a lot of unnecessary time to quench. Thank you in advance for any helpful responses.
 
Answers in bold.

I had a virus a while back that infected both of my internal HD's and my external one too. After I got rid of it, my OCD flared up. Now here are my concerns:

1.Can a virus hide an executable or duplicate itself into your Memory/Ram once your computer becomes infected? If so is it possible for the virus to come out of hiding and re-infect your computer?
RAM? No. RAM is volatile memory is as soon as power is lost to RAM (i.e. you restart or shutdown), it's cleared. HDD however, yes - depending on the virus/malware in question (in particular, rootkits, or if you didn't remove all traces of the malware)

2.Can having a virus PERMANENTLY damage memory Ram?
No

3.Can a virus make a hard drive unusable or back itself up in your HD and re-infect your computer even after using an anti-virus and getting rid of the virus?
Depends on the virus/malware in question. There are MBR viruses that infect the boot record, there's rootkits, there's lots of kinds of nasties if not properly removed can make infections come back.

4.Can a virus possibly attach itself to cds or media and run (not hard drives but just discs of any kind) when you use them while infected?
Only if the devices are rewritable, such as flash drives. CD/DVD RW discs I suppose could also theoretically become infected...but that would require the malware to activate the burner and write to the disc, not just read it. Flash drives are more likely to be "carriers" of malware, as they're just flash storage that's rewritable.

5.Can a virus ruin a GPU?
Depends...if the malware was designed to do something like mine bitcoins or some other GPU intensive task, then yes it could eventually wear out a GPU because it was always 100% use basically.

So, some of these might sound dumb or naive but I assure you they come from true misunderstanding of how viruses work and move coupled with OCD. I would really like to just have confirmation and knowledge to put these worries to rest since OCD takes a lot of unnecessary time to quench. Thank you in advance for any helpful responses.
 
"HDD however, yes - depending on the virus/malware in question (in particular, rootkits, or if you didn't remove all traces of the malware)"

So, you are saying that a virus can back itself up onto a external HD that was connected during the infection and then re-infect my computer?

"Depends on the virus/malware in question. There are MBR viruses that infect the boot record, there's rootkits, there's lots of kinds of nasties if not properly removed can make infections come back."

Even if I re-installed Windows the virus can still be present on the Hard-drive?

"Depends...if the malware was designed to do something like mine bitcoins or some other GPU intensive task, then yes it could eventually wear out a GPU because it was always 100% use basically."

Yes the virus I had was one that left encrypted versions of all my files and demanded money to get my files back. I don't think it managed to damage my GPU though since I haven't had any graphical problems or anything. Could it have done damage that I can't see? This virus happened in 2013.
 
"HDD however, yes - depending on the virus/malware in question (in particular, rootkits, or if you didn't remove all traces of the malware)"

So, you are saying that a virus can back itself up onto a external HD that was connected during the infection and then re-infect my computer?
Depends on the infection. That's how a lot of viruses spread (besides networks/internet) is through removable devices (such as flash drives and external HDD's).

"Depends on the virus/malware in question. There are MBR viruses that infect the boot record, there's rootkits, there's lots of kinds of nasties if not properly removed can make infections come back."

Even if I re-installed Windows the virus can still be present on the Hard-drive?
Again, depends on the specific infection. This is why identifying what you have/had is important to know what other characteristics it has (whether it uses rootkits, infects MBR's [less common nowadays], spreads like a worm, etc.).

"Depends...if the malware was designed to do something like mine bitcoins or some other GPU intensive task, then yes it could eventually wear out a GPU because it was always 100% use basically."

Yes the virus I had was one that left encrypted versions of all my files and demanded money to get my files back. I don't think it managed to damage my GPU though since I haven't had any graphical problems or anything. Could it have done damage that I can't see? This virus happened in 2013.

Encrypting files != mining bitcoins. Usually it wouldn't do both; you're referring to ransomware which usually asks for bitcoins, not uses somebody else's machine to mine for them (this is usually a botnet infection).

If this is from 2013...why are you just now worried about it? It's been 4 years since then if that's the case.
 
I agree with the above comments. As someone who also struggles with OCD tendencies, you may not be able to ease your worries without buying a new computer because the thought will always be in the back of your mind and you will always worry. However, the likelihood of your computer still being infected are slim to none.
 
@carnageX I asked these questions mostly because my OCD had me thinking that anything I had on this HD and anything that I would use or download onto the internal HD that was infected is now some how damaged and I just wanted to put those thoughts to rest which you pretty much did. I would assume the virus has been eradicated since I haven't seen any activity like that old virus since then and my external HD that was infected hasn't had any problems it was all in my head. I'm still a little confused. You said a virus can stay on your HD after wiping a HD and re-installing windows. How can this be? I don't think the virus is hiding in my internal HD after all this time, but I just want to know the answer for my own info.

@AJ504 Lol I know. Iv'e contemplated getting a new Laptop because of this, but being brave and risking embarrassment to ask my questions was worth not having to buy a new Laptop. It would be over something that is simply a fear developed by my OCD that nothing on my Laptop will ever work again because of a virus I destroyed years ago. This is why I seek help from you wonderful folks.
 
@ivinsjames I get it! I understand. I am the same way as getting a new computer is a huge investment, sometimes you just have to work through what you irrational brain is thinking.
 
I'm still a little confused. You said a virus can stay on your HD after wiping a HD and re-installing windows. How can this be? I don't think the virus is hiding in my internal HD after all this time, but I just want to know the answer for my own info.

Like I said, depends entirely on the malware in question as to where it was "located". If it gets itself in the MBR and you don't do a full format (vs just a quick format), it could remain. Or if you had partitions that didn't get formatted.
 
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