Is it possible to get viruses through Boot Camp that will affect my OS X hard drive? Also, if I'm running Parallels or VM Fusion, will viruses still be an issue and at the same level?
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Getting viruses through Boot Camp?
- Thread starter orangeillini14
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soms
macrumors 6502
If the virus targets your harddrive, yes. Such as something that will delete/erase your harddrive/Windows partition, it could very well nuke the whole thing.
celticpride678
Guest
As far as I know, it will stay in the Windows environment. Meaning, nothing should happen to OS X, but something can happen to Windows.
iBookG4user
macrumors 604
If there's a virus that formats the whole drive then it will affect your mac partition as well via bootcamp. But no mainstream viruses do that, you usually don't even know they are there because their purpose is to make money, not destroying your data.
angelwatt
Moderator emeritus
No, not really. As far as the virus will be concerned it won't even know it's in a virtual machine. It will not be able to see any more of the HD than Windows can.
True but if youre in Boot Camp its a different story.
Boot Camp drivers give Windows read-only support for Mac volumes, so as far as I know, unless it goes in at a very basic level and wipes your hard drive, it cant mess with your Mac partition.
angelwatt
Moderator emeritus
That's true. I had kind of forgotten Bootcamp is dual booting, not a virtual machine style setup. Though, still rare to find something that would do damage to Mac from there.
Yes, that's what I meant, Bootcamp is not virtualization, and there do exist viruses that just completely wipe the drive, although none of them are common. This would delete the OSX partition as well.
Of course this is very unlikely but it does mean that in an extreme case your Boot Camp partition can affect your mac partition.
I agree that when using virtualisation programs like parallels or VMware you are always safe as far as your mac partition is concerned.
Of course this is very unlikely but it does mean that in an extreme case your Boot Camp partition can affect your mac partition.
I agree that when using virtualisation programs like parallels or VMware you are always safe as far as your mac partition is concerned.
Jethryn Freyman
macrumors 68020
I'm pretty sure that Windows in Boot Camp can't even detect the OS X drive. It's how BC was designed. As long as it stays that way, it's safe.
It definitely won't stay that way, boot camp 3 has (read-only) access to the OSX partition so it is definitely aware of it.