I was wondering if a ghost 2003 image can be infected with a virus, thus making it usless ?

Stephen

If the source for a Ghost image has a virus on it, Ghost will save that infection, as is, to the Ghost image.  I don't think that would make the image file corrupt and unusable--but, when restored, the system would be *infected*.

I've not heard of a virus that targets Ghost image files after they have been created, and thus makes them corrupt and unusable--but, I'm sure that could be done by a virus maker if that was their intent.

Are you dealing with a specific *problem*?

Stephen, one approach to alleviate your concerns is to construct and save a MD5 hash of the Ghost image.  If you recreate the hash at a later date and the value is different, then something inside the image has changed.  If the hash value is identical, however, you can be certain that file has been unaltered by a virus or anything else.

Reference:  http://www.fastsum.com/

Thanks for your help guys, Im not dealing with a problem at the moment, i just wanted to prepare myself if its posable.

Stephen, I understand that you are working with Ghost 2003.  In the event that you make the transition to Ghost 9/Ghost 10, you then have the option of mounting the image (i.e., “recovery point”) as a drive.  Once this simple action is taken, you can then run an anti-virus utility against that drive to discover whether or not it is infected.