The Power of Ubuntu Live Cd.?

I began using ubuntu live cd to browse the net after my Ubuntu Hard drive was damage and was force to use my windowsXP only. (I have two separate drives and only swapping which to boot via bios and not through Grub). And I realized that using Live CD is practical. My question is if Im booting live cd and surfing the net and if i encounter a virus, will it affect my hard drive with windows even if i was booting with Live CD?

The Power of Ubuntu Live Cd.?

Almost certainly not. The Live CD runs in memory (RAM) only. The only time your harddrive should be accessed is if you mount the device to a point in the virtual file system. If you mount your Windows partition to a folder on the file system, then it is vulnerable because it is accessible. This is something one must do intentionally -- Ubuntu by default does not mount any of the physical disks anywhere on the virtual file system.

All that being said, your chances of encountering a virus with Linux are incredibly low. Do note that Windows viruses will not impact your Windows installation files when you are running your Linux installation because the operating environment is different.

The only time that may change is if you encountered some cross-site scripting that exploited your browser via Javascript. But even then, the person who scripted the exploit would have to anticipate where you the Windows file system. In your situation, it would not normally be mounted. Therefore, the chances of an exploit are exceedingly low.

Hope this helps.

The Power of Ubuntu Live Cd.?

i dont think it will because when ur running the live cd ur harddrive isnt being accessed. the live cd is based off of your ram. so once you power down all the data that you ran into online is erased. besides your running linux the odds of you getting a virus are very slim.

i would rectify you in-op drive tho..

good luck

The Power of Ubuntu Live Cd.?

If the virus wrote anything to disk, MAYBE, but it depends on what the virus was for, usually the viruses for any distribution of Linux is rare. The virus only should damage something if windows is running.