Will any virus survive a disk wipe?

"The disk might contain viruses in it."

-Yes, theoretically.  You could scan this drive with your AV before doing adding data or doing any other tasks on the new drive.

DBAN is more about keeping others from accessing your old data when you sell an HDD\SSD (bits of which can be left after reformatting).

If you do a full (vs quick) reformat of the drive it should wipe out any potential Virus.

However, some virus inhabit the boot sector (if the drive was used for Windows previously). In this instance deleting the

virus may be a bit more  tricky.

I don't recall the methods, but you should be able to find a few tutorials with a www search.

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Hi HelpMeAhhhh, I am Rob, an Independent Advisor not affiliated with Microsoft and a 15 time and dual award Microsoft MVP specializing in Windows troubleshooting and Bluescreen analysis. Please remember as independents we are not responsible for the development of Windows or the computer hardware and drivers. If you will work with me I will be here to help until the issue is resolved.

Yes, there is malware that can survive the usual formatting process such as some RootKits.

Hook it up as a second or later drive then as scrub it.

Here to help,

Rob

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Standard Disclaimer: Those may be non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Please let us know the results and if you need further assistance. Feedback definitely helps us help all.

i did not intend to use the new hdd to boot up windows. So I have zero chance of getting my ssd ruined from viruses in the refurbished hdd?

Um what do you mean by "as scrub it"

Erase the partitions and reset them. Then run your suite of malware checkers on it.

(3 Free Methods) How to Remove or Delete Partition Windows 10
https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/remove-....

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If you need to check for malware here are my recommendations - these will allow you to do a thorough check and removal without ending up with a load of spyware programs running resident which can cause as many issues as the malware and may be harder to detect the cause.

No one program can be relied upon to detect and remove all malware. Added that often easy to detect malware is often accompanied by a much harder to detect and remove payload. So it's better to be overly thorough now than to pay the high price later. Check with these to an extreme overkill point.

How do I find and remove a virus?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/ho...

TDSSKiller.exe. - Download to the Desktop - then go to it and Right Click on it - RUN AS ADMIN it will show any infections in the report after running - if it will not run change the name from tdsskiller.exe to tdsskiller.com. Whether it finds anything or not does not mean you should not check with the other methods below.
http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?...

Microsoft Safety Scanner
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us...

Malwarebytes - free
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebyt...

SuperAntiSpyware Portable Scanner - Free
http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner...

AdwCleaner
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcle...

Hitman Pro is a second opinion scanner, designed to rescue your computer from malware (viruses, trojans, rootkits, etc.) that have infected your computer despite all the security measures you have taken (such as anti-virus Hi , I am Rob, an Independent Advisor not affiliated with Microsoft and a 15 time and dual award Microsoft MVP specializing in Windows troubleshooting and Bluescreen analysis. Please remember as independents we are not responsible for the development of Windows or the computer hardware and drivers. If you will work with me I will be here to help until the issue is resolved.

EmsiSoft Emergency Kit - Free - (if prompted do not install their software however do allow it to unpack the downloaded ZIP file so you can run the scanner).
https://www.emsisoft.com/en/home/emergencykit/

What is Windows Defender Offline?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/what...

Windows Defender Offline system requirements
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/wind...

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If needed here are some online free scanners to help

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

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Other Free online scans
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=h...

Here to help,

Rob

------
Standard Disclaimer: Those may be non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Please let us know the results and if you need further assistance. Feedback definitely helps us help all.

the hdd i got is not formatted. Does that mean it is a new one? Also I formatted the disk using disk mamagement. There is also nothing in the new hdd

No way for me to know if it is new. Someone else could have removed the partition.
You can always un-partition it and then repartition and format it.

If in doubt run the tests I posted on the drive.

Here to help,

Rob

I ran an antivirus program(TotalAV) on it and it seems to be virus free. 

Run several of those I posted. No one detection program will detect all malware. Though I bet it is clean.

If you don't have any additional questions, feel free to mark as Answer and choose a rating which helps others find the right info.

Glad to have helped, and have a great day!

Rob

Yeah! It's probably clean.

I expect by 'seller refurbished' he means he did a couple of full reformats, or maybe used something

like DBAN to make sure it's clean and none of the original data was recoverable.

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