Hello. I just received my MacBook, and I am currently running the migration from hp laptop to the new MacBook pro. My laptop may be infected with multiple viruses or Trojans. Is there a risk of transferring these? If so, what can I do to prevent it at this point? It has been running for 2 hours already.
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
If they're in any user account, or embedded in third party software you're migrating, then yes.
The only kind of malware that might be able to migrate from a PC running Windows is MS Office macros. Of course if you run Windows on your Mac, it's just as vulnerable as any other Windows installation.
My laptop may be infected with multiple viruses or Trojans.
That's highly unlikely. One trojan, that's always possible, but I haven't heard of any cases of multiple trojans on one Mac in this century. What makes you believe this? If you're having problems, tell us what the symptoms are so we can be of better assistance.
For more about the malware, see my Mac Malware Guide.
If I understand you correctly, you're saying your PC has multiple Trojans and you want to know if they can be transferred via Migration Assistant?
I don't imagine that would be remotely possible. The trojans on your PC must be written to work in Windows.
All Trojans that have come about on OS X must be installed by the user.
I suppose if you migrated the Trojan installer onto your Mac, and it had a Mac version in the installer, and you ran the installer, you could infect your Mac, but you'd really have to work pretty hard to do that.
If I understand you correctly, you're saying your PC has multiple Trojans
Ahh, I missed the migrating-from-a-PC part. Ignore my response! Well, except for the malware guide, that'll still be useful to you. 🙂
Ahh, I missed the migrating-from-a-PC part. Ignore my response!
Oh for criminy's sake! So did I.
Forget what I said. Even if you did manage to transfer something over, it won't work in OS X. It would have to be transferred into another Windows environment.
Will viruses migrate
