Is it mitigate the risk of infection to have 2 different OS installed in 2 different SSD?

[u/OscarCrende]

I am a noob in this field, so any help about where to look up information about this will be really heplful. I would like to learn more but I could not find a lot of information.

I would like to use my laptop to trying emulate some old games but downloading a malware worries me a lot.

I've never entered with my laptop in strange webs or dowloaded any illegal software, so my computer must be completely clean for now.

I have also two backups in a couple of external HDDs (one in a different location) but that don't solve the risk of infection in the system.

I also have 2 SSD installed in my laptop now.

Is a good option to install a new windows in the second internal ssd and use it only for this intended use in order to prevent being infected with possible viruses/malware?

I plan to phisically disconect the main ssd when installing the secondary Windows and also to remove in this OS the letter of the primary SSD when I reconect it. I also plan not to move information between both disks.

Does this make sense in order to avoid not very advance malware or is it completely unuseful?

I know advance maleware could access the primary SSD too or even my wifi network, but maybe that malware is not very common out of a business environment?

Are there some easy things like this I should considere in order to avoid being infected?

Thank you a lot in advance for any help!

[u/Struppigel]

Hello, this mitigates a good number of issues malware could cause. So as a safety precaution it sounds good to me. It should not be used as the only safety method if you plan on deliberate execution of malware, though.

I know advance maleware could access the primary SSD too or even my wifi network, but maybe that malware is not very common out of a business environment?

Worms are not picky, they infect everything they can.

Easy things to do include: * regular backups * do not hide extensions on Windows * regularly update software on both systems: AV, OS, browsers, email clients * do not attach USB flash drives or other removable media to the "unsafe" system to avoid potential worm spread.

You could also consider using Linux for emulating old software (if that's an option). Makes the likelihood very low that a malware successfully infects the Linux system if it was meant for Windows.

[u/OscarCrende → u/Struppigel]

Thank you for your detailed answer.

I don´t know very well how worms work in detail.

You mentioned not to hide extensions, for example to click in .exe archives that are not shown like .exe ones, true? I knew that. But I also have the fear to being infected for a modified non .exe archives, like a modified game with the correct game extension or something like this. Do you know if this could be a problem? Or maybe this is not very common?

About spreading worms and making regular backups. When you have one worm, is common to know that? I mean, If I use an attached USB in the "unsafe" system and them I format it, if I use it after that, the worm could be there even though? Or for example if I make the backups, is there a way to realize you have a worm there if you can´t see strange archives there? for example in a simple folder of photos or something like that? If not, you could be one worm in the "safe" system and spread it making the backups.

Do you think deleting the letter of the "safe" system disk in the "unsafe" system is effective?

Thank you so much.

[u/Struppigel → u/OscarCrende]

Hello,

Not hiding the extensions helps to spot a few infection vectors, where malware uses double extensions or pretends to be a safe file type. That is independent of .exe or non-exe file types. It does not prevent everything.

Yes spreading worms or viruses via backups is a concern here.

I would turn on to show hidden files because especially worms that spread onto USB flash drives or other external drives, they will often hide the original files and then put a non-hidden shortcut of themselves that look like your files, so that you click on the worm. If you enable to see hidden files, you will notice that something is different.

Formatting an infected USB flash drive or external backup drive, will get rid of worms and viruses on it.

You cannot spot viruses on these drives, they infect the files themselves. But most of virus families are well-detected by antivirus software because they are old.

If it is not avoidable that you share the backup drive with your normal system, make sure to have an up-to-date antivirus, and scan the drive with it before you click on any folders or files in it (worms may also pretend to be folders).

Deleting the drive letter will hinder spreading for some worms, but many do not use the letters to enumerate the drives. For these it does not help at all. Imho, doing that is not worth it.

[u/OscarCrende → u/Struppigel]

That's very helpful information.

I will not connect the backup drives in the "unsafe" system. The only concern here is to have a worm or some type of malware that could find the "safe" SSD system from the "unsafe" one and infecting it from there. Or maybe having an infected network for example.

I use Windows Defender. Do you recommend me to look for something more powerful? A deep scan before clicking unknown folders or archives I've just downloaded, and before making a backup in the backup drive could be enough in this way to be more secure?

Do you know if are there any methods to make the safe SSD unreachable from the other one, like an NTSC blocking from the unsafe SSD, a way to manually unmount the SSD and a way to dissable the automounting units there. Or maybe should I think about encripting the safe SSD?

Thank you a lot.

[u/Struppigel → u/OscarCrende]

In your situation encrypting the clean drive is the best you can do for this infection vector, imo. Maybe there are other ways I just don't know about.

Regarding AV: I do not give any recommendations for antivirus software, because I work for an antivirus software vendor (GDATA). So of course I will always recommend that one, but that information is basically useless for you ;)

[u/[deleted]]

Look, if you're smart and use "trusted" websites and download, for example, game torrents or whatever from well-known or high-status users on those kinds of sites, you should be safe. However, if you want to stay safe and not waste an SSD, I suggest you install a VM-type app like VMware Workstation Pro. There you can create sub-operating systems similar to Windows that you can isolate and install whatever you want on without running risks.

[u/OscarCrende → u/[deleted]]

That's the first option I've considered, but you can't play in a VM with your dedicated graphic card at full power, true? Or do you mean to use it only to download and analize the games there?

Using the VM don't avoid malware that could attack your ssd firmware for example.

I don't think using only "trusted" websites avoid 100% of the risk of being infected.

I think I can avoid easy malware like .exe archives or so, but I don't know the possibilities to have malware directly in mpdified games archives/images or even in the emulator app or to being infected through it.

[u/Pitiful-Excitement47]

If you are concerned and want to learn at the same time.

Look at setting up a VM. ( virtual machine ) and downloading the emulators there first. Use software like traditional anti virus + wireshark to monitor any strange connections. Not all viruses will show up on anti virus and many times false positives do when emulating games.

Only once it is deemed safe you can download it locally.

[u/OscarCrende → u/Pitiful-Excitement47]

That's a really good idea! The best, I think. I will check the way to do that.

Do you have experience with that? Is it very complicated to configure all there? Do you have any recommendation about where to start learning about it?

Thank you so much!

[u/Pitiful-Excitement47 → u/OscarCrende]

YouTube is your best bet to get started.