Do I need clean my hard drive from Viruses before replacing Windows with Ubuntu?

Question

I am making the full switch to Ubuntu!

In order to do so I want to wipe my hard drive entirely to remove all of the viruses and what not and then do a clean install of Ubuntu.

However, I am not sure how to wipe my hard drive safely and properly.

Thanks!

When you install Ubuntu, you will be given the option to wipe clean you hard-disk and install ubuntu. — jobin, Dec 21 '13 at 06:15
Are you trying to install Ubuntu for the first time, or is your computer currently dual boot- Windows/Ubuntu? — TrailRider, Dec 21 '13 at 06:15
The problem is that I already have ubuntu partitioned on my hard drive — user2263142, Dec 21 '13 at 06:15
You should still be given the option to "erase entire disk and install Ubuntu. However, it is highly unlikely that Ubuntu has any viruses, any on the Windows partition will not affect Ubuntu, so you could just remove Windows, but, if you don't mind doing a reinstall, it will avoid having to move your Ubuntu partition after removing Windows, so either way is fine; if you don't have much installed in Ubuntu I would recommend doing a full install....Just select Use entire Disk during install, the installer will wipe the disk before install. — TrailRider, Dec 21 '13 at 06:21

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 21 '13 at 07:22

0

Its better to remove your windows viruses before wiping your harddisk...

As you may know ,Guttman says that you need to wipe your harddisk 25 times write to zero to ensure that your harddisk is clean...

Anyway, It is possible to scan your windows partition..

Download and install Avast! Linux Home Edition.

Launch Avast and update its Database.

Now mount your Windows Partition.

Click on Selected folders and browse to your partition.

After you remove the viruses... Now you can install Ubuntu cleanly

Note that: Even you keep viruses it will never affect your ubuntu(linux) but i just mention the antivirus just to clean your hdd.

answered Dec 21 '13 at 07:22

Maythux

84,289

1
wiping the disk 25 times applies to security(ie, not being able to recover files using advanced recovery programs or block level scanning) not to just generally wiping the disk to erase info. 2. If any viruses are present when the disk is formatted might still be psychically present on the disk they will be unable to be found by anything but an advanced recovery program so they should be rendered harmless, but removing them before hand will do no harm either...however truly zeroing(wiping) the drive is an unnecessary(and very time consuming) step. +1 for the rest of the answer.

TrailRider

Dec 22 '13 at 20:30

Guttman says: "Any modern drive will most likely be a hopeless task" http://security.stackexchange.com/a/10474/47947 – LiveWireBT Dec 15 '14 at 14:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 21 '13 at 08:37

Don't use wubi to install Ubuntu.
I hope you already have a ISO file ?
Open it using powerIso. In the poweriso tools , choose option "make bootable USB".
This will your USB a bootable USB. During Restart you will prompted to Install ubuntu.

Choose an option to remove existing ubuntu and windows and Install the New Ubuntu

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

You don't have to perform any special cleaning to clean you hard drive from viruses. If you are in doubt that your partition table is in a healthy state, then you can create a new partition table. Simply speaking the partition table defines where current filesystems lie. A filesystem in turn is a protocol for communicating with the harddrive's storage units (called blocks).

By default every newly created filesystem will assume the space it gets assinged to be empty and will overwrite these blocks, not careing about previously existing data or what protocol/filesystem was used previously.

So creating new filesystems that overwrite old data is enough to deal with malware on your harddrive.

Dont install any Windows compatibility software in Linux, if you want to be safe from Windows malware on Linux.

Do I need clean my hard drive from Viruses before replacing Windows with Ubuntu?

3 Answers3