I multi-boot with Mandrake 9.2, Slackware 9.0 and windows 98. I use Mandrake for all my email and web surfing. I'd like to get rid of windows but my daughter insists on using it!
If a virus or worm got into my box while I was using Mandrake could it find its way to the windows partition and do damage there?

legin

Though there are a few linux viruses, they're rare, well-known and aren't going to be a problem for you - you're highly unlikely to be infected while running linux.

I suppose you _could_ save an infected mail attachment on a Windows-readable partition (fat / fat32 for Win98), double-click it in Windows and so infect yourself, but you'd have to do it deliberately.

If you're really worried, check out ClamAV or f-prot (google, both free for home users) they're AV scanners for Linux, but since most of the traffic comes into your box under Linux, most worms and viruses won't be compatible with your machine

OTOH If your daughter put an infected disk / cd etc into the box while it was running _Windows_ and the windows installtion became infected, it could mess up your linux partitions (overwriting / corrupting / whatever).

So you're looking at the wrong attack vector.