Can a USB stick carry a virus?

Question

Can it transmit a virus from one computer to another?

If I delete everything on the USB stick, will the virus also be deleted?

Answer 1

any writable media can

Answer 2

yes!... it is the most popular virus carrier for today... besides getting virus from or over the internet, USB stick can be infected with viruses as well, and then use it to infect other PC by sharing it to friends...

Answer 3

yes it can. if you suspect that your usb stick has a virus, scan it using an up to date anti-virus software. AVG has a free edition which works well.

Answer 4

yes it can.

Answer 5

Yes, a USB stick can be carry viruses. If you format or delete your files on your USB, then everything would be deleted including the virus.

Answer 6

I think it does, because I have several friends who have USBs with viruses in them regardless if it's clean or full. I think there's some sort of extended memories in USBs that enables these viruses to stay. I don't know though.

Answer 7

Yes very easily

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Answer 8

yes it may carry a virus

it transmit the virus from one computer to another

if u format it everything will be deleted

Answer 9

your best try is to reformat the USB stick, but some viruses can still be there, please always have a antivrus on, i recommend getting Kaspersky or Avast

thank you for reading =]

Answer 10

You can transmit a virus via USB stick. You will get rid of it by formatting the stick.  

Answer 11

It can indeed, it always used to be things like floppy disks that spread a virus around before the internet offered a much more widespread way of spreading them to more people, with USB Sticks having taken the place of the old floppies they are a fairly common way of distributing viruses.

As someone else has said, anything that can store a program, can automatically run a program too (autorun etc) or store infected files that distribute the virus once you open it up.

Just deleting everything off the USB stick is no guarantee of it being virus free, formatting it will be needed for that, just go into my computer, right click the USB drive and Format.

Answer 12

i think this is not possible untill you format your pen drive