I just had an idea for a PC I would like to throw together because I do way to much trouble shooting and processing with my brain for people trying to figure out problems.
Anyway... I want to make a "Dr. PC", a PC with all the latest virus software, spyware software, and add ware software (anything else I missed?). Then the next step would be to plug the HDD of the "sick" PC into the Dr. PC for diagnosis. Does this sound like it could work or has someone already beaten me to the punch?
A problem I see with this is, would the HDD of the "sick" PC have to be the same file system as the Dr. PC? and How would I be able to make a Dr. PC using linux that way there is no way that the Dr. PC could ever get hurt by the "sick" HDD?
Well thanks for the input and advise!

Save yourself a couple of $$ and make life easier by creating a knoppix bootable cd. See this link, about halfway down for what you can do to a problematic Windows install with it. The book itself is excellent, but most of the info you can find by googling.

I like the name Dr.pc it has modding potental hummm "thinks of house on hanted hill" not shure of the data restore and recovery side of it thow.

It is a good idea although most places like compusa or best buy already do that. As far as the other machine not getting sick by useing linux thats not a good idea unlease you do use the cdbootable version knoppix *Mentioned above* there is other ways of doing it though i do believe that compusa uses a network cable or a serial cable to connect the pc's although i havnt observerd there system closely enough. you may want to just go to one and ask how they do it for more ideas.

It can be done and you can do it such that your host system does not get infected. I've done it before.

Here's my suggestions:

If you're going to run it the way you describe it, you can install Linux (like RH9) or something like that and than Windows in emulation mode. Depending on how much programming you want to do, you will get varied results. Wine, xwine or winex (I forget which one it is), is fully capable of running it. From what I've been told though, it takes a fair amount of editing and tweaking the source code in order to get it to run because there is no one defacto standard for it yet. On the other hand, you can go with a packaged solution like VMWare, but allow yourself A LOT OF TIME. The last time I ran it on Red Hat 9, with dual MP2600s, it took 13 minutes to bring up Windows explorer. I didn't go any further than that because it was just too slow and it was pegging the processor. (sidenote: VMWare has been only about 25% efficient and resulting in a major loss in performance because of the amount of software overhead required for running a full blown Windows in emulation.)

The other possiblity would be to scan the entire system over GbE. So your host system and the infected system is never in direct contact and that any "transfer" (think like STD), you can also just pull the plug on. (In theory, if your host system IS in direct contact with the infected system, you can also pull the plug on that one too - the power cord that is - and it's Windows, so it's going to corrupt some files, but no big deal. It can take it.)

3rd possiblity would be to run the scan using zones. (At least I think that's what they call it, it was either that or it was partitions/sections.) What happens (in the case of Solaris for example), you can actually "section" off a part of the system so that nothing else can be affected by it.

3rd option, part B, would be if you were to have a Sun System (which you can get off eBay for $300-400) and that will come with the SUN PCi II coprocessor card. Install Solaris (if it isn't already installed). Install the card. Install Windows. Bind Windows to the card, and scan your system that way. It won't come into direct contact either; but at least if the host gets infected, you can just delete the diskimage and start again, OR, if you want, back up your diskimage before attaching the infected system, so it creates a sort of "recovery point" if you will.

That's how I would do it.

In practice though, I've gone with the 2nd option, over 100 Mb network. One of my friends was kicked off the school's network because they detected a virus on her computer, so they booted her to prevent it from spreading. I hooked her system up to my router that I had in my (dorm) room, and scanned her system over my micro LAN. Worked great. Also got her to update her virus scanner as well after that was all said and done. Took a while, but that's what happens with Windows, IDE hard drives, and 100 Mb network. It's easy, simple to use, effective, not exactly the most efficient, but it's one of those tasks that can be scheduled to run overnight.

Curious question though - what software were you thinking of using to do the "debugging" on the Linux front? There aren't that many that I know of that would be able to do the same thing. Just a thought.