How to scan for malware from a Flash Drive?

I've heard others on here mention that they are able to scan for malware from]
a flash drive. I was wondering what you need to do to set this up- (im running
Vista..)

Do you need to install some form of bootable Linux on the flash drive?

Would an external USB HDD work as well??

 

You could always use Cureit (the portable version of Dr Web), or NOD32 (which can be configured to be portable). There are even u3 versions of AVs, which are meant to run off or flash drives, from Avast and Mcafee.

 

Also a-squared command line scanner.

 

thanks aigle and n8chavez, i probaly didnt phrase my question correctly - am not really looking for the portability angle, ive

heard that a good way of detecting malware that hides itself from your onboard OS is to scan from a bootable USB drive or Flash

drive...im wondering how to set this up and what OS(Linux?) to use as well as the scanners that you mentioned...






(i have a hidden 1500 MB partition on the onboard HDD that i would like to scan and am getting some odd alerts on Comodo FW)

 

FWIW I clean infected pc's for a living and never use a bootable disk/drive to clean hosed systems. Boot to safe mode w/ networking so that you're able to scan each Administrator account, access its registry, and hop on the internet to grab files if needed. I also keep an extracted SUPERAntiSpyware folder on my USB flash drive so that I can run it (update works too) in safe mode without having to install on the local machine. Here's my rogue removal kit that contains an arsenal of quality tools.

 

Some AVs have option for a bootable CD but I don,t know the details. Others have BartPE plugins but ofcourse u have to make a new CD with all updates each time before scan. So it might not be so feasible.

 

@EliteKiller: Safe mode with network capacity? That could be a dangerous approach if you forget to turn on the firewall...

/C.

 

thanks cerxes, aigle and elitekiller..will try the rogue removal kit...good to see your website is up again, elitekiller- i looked at it a few months ago, then it was under maintenance for a while