possible to check through firewire for viruses?
 

I recently installed premier express in a newly assembled machine, and I would like to keep the box clean of viruses. Unfortunately I don't have anti virus installed in this box.

I was wondering if I hooked the external hard drive holding the AVI files to another computer which has an antivirus program, can I scan through the firewire connection for viruses, and quarantine them?

Yes - when you hook the external drive to your other computer, it will appear as a new drive along with a drive letter. That computer's antivirus software should have an option to scan a particular drive.

This assumes your other computer is running the same OS (or similar) - i.e., Windows since you are using Premiere.

Thanks.

Are AVI files prone to virus infection? Off hand I wouldn't assume it to be too common.

There's a long thread at Velocityreviews debating whether it's possible. The following quote seems reasonable to me:

Subject: Can Viruses infect .AVI files???
Answer: YES, along with ANY other file type.
Clarification: Only executable files can infect a system. If a piece of
code relies on an exploit, it must call on an associated
application to grant it executable rights, such as a Word
macro or MS OLE object/ActiveX control.

Question: But do they (viruses) infect AVI files?
Answer: *Extremely* unlikely - there's no point as there's no viable
exploit available to them.

Question: Could an infected AVI file infect my system if I view it?
Answer: NO.

An avi file could trigger antivirus scanners if it was really virus.exe (say) relabelled as virus.avi - but virus.avi would be essentially harmless.