BUB 209 said:
Does reformatting always work?
For malware removal? ~ No, not always. Format doesn't cover all
of the places on disk that malware can hide. Malicious boot code
for example won't be erased or overwritten by mere formatting.
.....or are there circumstances where the hard drive is forever trashed?
For the most part, malicious software doesn't physically damage hardware.
....but sometimes it is not cost effective to reprogram firmware.
Can the cmos chip get infected?
The CMOS chip? ~ no, chips can't be infected. Malware can write
to the CMOS data area (or erase it I suppose), but the data stored
there is not code to be executed, it is data.
Do you mean the BIOS firmware? I haven't heard of any replicative
malware successfully using this code storage area as a place to hide.
However, several have used it as a damaging payload target.
Somebody told me there's a vast underground
salt deposit where virus- ridden computers are stored.
That is where I found most of the machines I am using today.
(those, and the ones possessed by demons, are all buried there)
(the latter a joke of
course, the rest not. Ha, ha.)
I was kidding too (except about the demonic possessions)
