Safest way to scan a used MP3 player?

[MJ12]

I just ordered a used MP3 player cuz I don't have $300 to drop right now.

What is the safest way I can scan it for viruses without infecting my computer?

 

[Vegeta897]

Dip a q-tip in hydrogen peroxide and gently wipe the connection terminal. Put the q-tip in a petri dish or other sterile container. Apply a few drops of phenolphthalein to the tip, and observe. If it changes pink, that means it's safe. If orange, there is a virus.

 

[mechanicallizard]

If you dont have any phenolphthalein, you can stick the q-tip in the end of your pee-pee for a few seconds. Same effect pretty much.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Format it.

 

[Vegeta897]

Format it.

How will he format it without hooking it up to his computer?

The only option is to hook it up to a usb drive that has its own virus and make them do battle.

 

[Krynn72]

Unplug your HDD, boot from Hiren's, run scans, or just reformat it. Or do it from a live Linux cd, then you dont need to unplug your HDD.

 

[Viperidae]

Or plug it into a condom-PC (Ubuntu) that is immune, then format!

 

[AtomicSpark]

How will he format it without hooking it up to his computer?

The only option is to hook it up to a usb drive that has its own virus and make them do battle.

Maybe the device has an option to format the card? Cameras and cell phones do at least.

 

[Vegeta897]

Well if it did he probably wouldn't have needed the thread.

Though he hasn't received it yet so he doesn't know.

A good virus would prevent the device from formatting itself!

 

[dfc05]

I installed a free program a while back that blocks autorun on USB drives, because I have to transfer data off school computers that I know have viruses. But I'm not smart enough to know if that would actually work for your purposes or not....

[edit] Nevermind, on second thought, I remember it not doing anything for my ipod.

 

[Dinnesch]

Look for a format option in the settings of the MP3 player, no computer needed. Otherwise just boot an Ubuntu live CD with your hard disks out.