Viruses and Urban Legends

[Coldicote]

Old virus warnings are doing the rounds again, especially one referred to as 'Postcard from Hallmark' that will supposedly burn the whole hard disc of your PC. My question is this - is it possible for a virus to burn the whole hard disc? I've some recollection of reading that it isn't possible, but cannot find it.

[ChuckFickens]

Yeah, it would be possible for a virus to format your drive if you are using a user account that has full admin privileges.

[Coldicote]

Oh dear - worse then I thought! Thanks Chuck

[VHG]

Chuck - How can it format the hard drive if you are in Windows at the time.

Surely Windows would not format the drive it is on.

[squarebear]

I assume it would put a file on your PC that would be activated on reboot?

However, the Hallmark warning is a hoax.

[ChuckFickens]

Actually I think I'd go for, shrink main partition by a few meg, install a basic shell to show a fake windows loading screen (preferably showing something like installing updates please wait) and format the c drive, change the MBR to boot into new shell on next restart.