Is there a preferred method to verify beyond any doubt that a slaved NTFS partitioned hard drive is not infected with a virus or worm(boot or otherwise)? Is it possible that such a drive could be infected even though it was scanned (as a slave) under Windows (XP Pro) by both updated Norton AV and McAfee Stinger? I suspect that I may have been infecting the new master hard drive through my slaved drive and files on that slave drive with some hidden or persistent boot virus. I wouldn't be concerned except that 2 different boot hard drives have become "unbootable" in a relatively short period of time. Here's some background. My system (Dell 8250, 3GP4, 250GHD, failed to boot past POST as described in Microsoft article 314503 except to a black with flashing cursor. Tried numerous methods to repair (as described in article) such as Boot sector repair, MBR, NTLDR, NTDetect, Windows XP repair, CHKDSK, boot from download XP boot disk, etc. were unsuccessful. Installed and reformatted new hard drive as master. Physically installed old (corrupted) drive as slave. Could read NTFS partition in old drive with Window Explorer. Scanned the old original drive with Norton, and Stinger with no infections found including MBR and boot. Moved files over to the new drive and within 3 days the new drive failed to boot with same symptoms. Repeated this same process with a 2nd new drive and within 3 days it also failed with the same black screen symptoms. So in total, I've had 3 identical boot failures with 3 hard drives. BTW after the 2nd failure I replaced the motherboard. So the obvious thought to me (and also to Dell support) is that I've got a virus problem. Help!!!! This is getting old and I'm getting paranoid.

What happens if you don't move files over to the new HD and just keep the slave drive as is? What kind of file are you trying to copy from 1 drive to another? Are the 2 drives on the same channel or different ones? Try using one of the free scanners like Trend Micros House call or AVG

What happens if you don't move files over to the new HD and just keep the slave drive as is?.....Actually I don't know as I only let it run for a day before I cross pollinated it with my documents, etc What kind of file are you trying to copy from 1 drive to another? ....They are word docs, jpgs, excel files, .pst outlook, favorites, and all the files that you need and use and save with normal operation. Are the 2 drives on the same channel or different ones? ....Not sure what you mean by that, and if I can determine that since I can't boot. In CMOS they were designated as primary 0 and 1, which could mean bus 0 and 1. Try using one of the free scanners like Trend Micros House call or AVG. ....Thanks, I'll try that.