<p>i don’t really know much about how viruses work, but i have a quick question.</p>
<p>i keep all of my music on an external hard drive. if my computer became infected with a virus, could this infect these files? and if so, would it just damage the file, or could it bury itself within the file. as in, if i connected my external to another computer, and opened up music files, could a virus in turn infect that computer?</p>
<p>Let’s assume you have music as mp3 files. There aren’t that many viruses which target mp3 though fake mp3 files are sometimes used as a way to spread viruses.</p>
<p>Assuming you run a limited account, you should never be infected with anything. Just use your head and don’t do anything dodgy.</p>
<p>File extensions determine the application that runs when you run a file. I’m not aware of any current exploits with mp3 players but it is a possibility but any vulnerability would have to target a specific version of a specific player.</p>
<p>i do not mean downloading a virus that is masked as an mp3 file. the mp3 files were scanned when i downloaded them, and i’ve played them before. i’m asking if a virus from my computer could embed itself in an mp3 file stored on my external hard drive, and then when i connect it to a different computer, play it, it would infect that other computer.</p>
<p>Not likely at all.</p>