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I have a PC that I can dual boot between Windows 7 and Ubuntu.

If I use the Norton Bootable Recovery Tool to scan the PC for viruses (by booting from the Norton CD), will then Norton also scan the Linux partition? Can it read the Linux file system format?

4 Answers 4

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I don't think that it will scan your Linux partition.

Norton Bootable Recovery Tool comes only in 32bit, but it will not run correctly in x64 environment. Also NBRT.exe is the shell the windows boots to.

Now normally there's no need to scan Linux partitions, but if you want to do so, I would recommend that you download the Bitdefenter Live CD, and use that to scan both windows, and Linux partitions.

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  • Hallo Mitch, thanks for answerting the question. I am using a 64-bit System and the scan runs. But I do not know how to avoid the scan of the linux partition? I hoped theat NBRT is not able to read the ext-file system. But I do not know how to find it out
    – Barbara
    Dec 5, 2013 at 14:00
  • NBRT probably won't scan your Linux partition. I've never used the tool, but I would say that once it gets to scanning the Linux partition, it will probably by pass it.
    – Mitch
    Dec 5, 2013 at 14:29
  • I really hope so... I tried to ask also norton support - it takes time to get an answer. But unfortunatelly I need to know now. I just thaght somebody had already used it on ext3 file system :(
    – Barbara
    Dec 5, 2013 at 14:35
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First of all Norton Bootable Recovery Tool is integrated with Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE).

So basically its scans your pc and the windows based partitions like fat32 and ntfs and makes your computer little slower, secondly it can not check linux partitions .even it wont detect it for consideration .As linux uses ext format of partition.

So there is nothing for Norton Bootable Recovery to look inside linux partition as it cant.

One of the biggest advantage of any linux distro over windows is they cant be affected by any virus easily, there is a rare chance of that , means you probably dont have to care about viruses in linux.

Hope thats what you wanted to know.

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  • Dear Sushantp606, thank you for the answert. I guess WinPE is not accessing ext3 formats? But maybe NBRT is also adapting some kind of a translater/converter to be able to read the ext3 data format? I just want to prevent NBRT to check my linux partition. It should only check the windows partition...
    – Barbara
    Dec 5, 2013 at 17:18
  • How do you know its scanning the linux partition ??
    – Sukupa91
    Dec 5, 2013 at 17:27
  • I tryed to start the scan by booting from the NBRT DVD and there is just the option "complete scan of the pc". I cannot chose which partition it should scan. That's why I just canceled the scann because I want to avoid the scan of the linux partitions...
    – Barbara
    Dec 5, 2013 at 17:34
  • Just do complete scan , that Norton cant even see linux partition , that is considering all windows supported partions as whole HDD, look what you can see under windows is what norton can see, he cant go beyond its limit.
    – Sukupa91
    Dec 5, 2013 at 17:36
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There is no definitive info on the product site of the manufacturer. But since it only refers to repairing unbootable Windows installations, it is extremely unlikely to work on Linux installations, which makes it completely unnecessary to support non-Microsoft file systems. I can't even imagine how to prevent Windows from booting with malware located on a secondary partition.

If your question was, if you can repair a malware infested Linux installation with NTBR: No. There is not a single word on the product page about any other OS than Windows.

Edit: I find it very unlikely that NTBR will touch your extfs partitions, because it can't do anything useful with them within its scope for the reasons mentioned above, and because it would be very unwise to do something destructive, if it doesn't even know what it's dealing with.

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  • Dear David, thanks for the answer. I just need to check Windows partitions for viruses bur must avaid to check ext2-formated partitions. If Norton is not supporting ext3/ext2 etc. file format the problem is solved :) But still there is no information on this on the norton web site. And the support guys were rather confused by that question...
    – Barbara
    Dec 5, 2013 at 16:56
  • I can imagine their confusion. One more reason to assume, NTBR just doesn't care about non-MS file systems. To my knowledge Norton never did nor plans to support non-Microsoft operating systems. Dec 5, 2013 at 17:09
  • But what will happen ones the NBRT is reaching the ext3 formated partition? Will it just skip it - I mean if it could read it?
    – Barbara
    Dec 5, 2013 at 17:14
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Just in a chat with a Norton tech about NAV and internet security on a dual boot machine. After a lot of explanation, he said that Norton should not interfere until Windows is booted. He also said that Norton was able to scan (not specifically NTBR) the Linux area. Haven't got my dual boot machine in place yet, so this is just 'What he said.'

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