Hi,
I don;t have an antivirus in my main DAW.
Today I was given some files (tracks) and the guy used 2 of my data devices (one usb drive and one usb pen drive).
Both of them appeared "empty" when I plugged them in DAW. Both show a shortcut that when I click on it it takes me to the files.
I suspect this is a virus!!! ;-(
Firstly, how can I fix these drives?
Secondly, should I install an antivirus on the DAW? If YES, which one?
Thank you in advance.
joni

djoni
Hi,
I don;t have an antivirus in my main DAW.
Today I was given some files (tracks) and the guy used 2 of my data devices (one usb drive and one usb pen drive).
Both of them appeared "empty" when I plugged them in DAW. Both show a shortcut that when I click on it it takes me to the files.
I suspect this is a virus!!! ;-(
Firstly, how can I fix these drives?
Secondly, should I install an antivirus on the DAW? If YES, which one?
Thank you in advance.
joni

Why would it be a virus?
You can do fine without AV on a DAW. There are many free AV scans online.  You could also use the free version of Malwarebytes.  I use the AV from MS on other systems.  I'd prefer a virus over a resource hogging AV.

Yeah, not mounting a drive correctly doesn't necessarily mean a virus. It could just be choking reading the audio files (I see this a lot on some usb drives when they have a large number of files). Shortcuts to the files may mean that he copied them wrong.

Hey Joni,
If you decide that you want to go with an antivirus program, I have had very good results using BitDefender.  It's inexpensive (or even free) and is very lightweight in the resources department.  It has a feature that minimizes processing when your CPU is being used.  ( I don't pretend to understand how it works, but it does!)  In my case I only use it when I need to be online.  It's easy to disable it when you don't need the web.
 
I've tried several others, all of which have given me undesirable audio dropout or glitching problems.  For me (and my rig) this one works.
 
 Just google it up on the web.....there's a free version, and several that are more fully featured that are reasonably priced.  I'm using the free version as I only use the web on my studio machine when I have to.  Most of the time it is disabled.
 Dave

kitekrazy1
...  I'd prefer a virus over a resource hogging AV.

Those of us who do regular system backup images may be able to say this pretty confidently (though I still use an AV), but there are a lot of users who have no backup safety-net whatsoever.  Let's not give some these folks the wrong idea. 

slumbermachine is correct.  Prob was a copy mistake.
I suggest the free Malwarebytes. I does nothing until you run it so no performance impact.
Any file(s) you download or someone gives you, scan with Malwarebytes. It integrates into Windows Explorer nicely and you can simply right-click the file to scan it.
Run MWB every week or so as well.
As far as the USB drives, scan them... if no malware is found just delete all the files.
If malware is found, it will be quarantined.
Or you could just  format.

I use a laptop with Sonar and I use it with email and for all my regular Googling. I have Comcast, they offer free Norton 360, I use it. It works. I have Malwarebytes Premium. Windows-10, all is well. In the last couple of weeks I have had a strange problem with numerous website stopping to work, then I get a bar at the bottom to Recover the page... sometimes it works, usually not or only for less than a minute. I have not figured this one out.
 
My DAW is a Studiocat Prostudio. I have NO AV program on it. I have no emal on it. I do not surf the web on it. I use CCC, I use Tooktrack, IK, NI, update and download from XLN and things like that. I do use dropbox but I can check things on my laptop dropbox first. I don't have a pictures folder in my DAW dropbox and if anything other than what I want on my DAW shows up in the DAW dropbox, I just delete it.
I REALLY do not think you need AV software on a dedicated DAW. You do need to image and backup though... then you're OK.
Just use common sense and do DAW stuff. Look for stuff you're interested in on a different computer.
 
You are not likely to get any virus if you don't have any social media, no email, and sty off forums on your DAW.
 
YMMV

I use MS Defender, with exclusions for Sonar and samples.

Norton 360 is prob the worst thing to use with a DAW.

microapp
Norton 360 is prob the worst thing to use with a DAW.

I'll take a virus over that. I've removed plenty of them in my lifetime.  Getting a virus is less common than having malware.  So many AVs have dumbed down giving you less control.