Viruses affecting different partitions

[clemsontiger]

I am running a dual boot Windows XP and Redhat 9 linux off of a single hard drive. My question is if I were to contract a virus in Windows XP, is there a chance that it could spread to or effect the partitions that I have made for the linux os or is it quarantined within the XP partition? If it can spread, is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening?

Thanks.

[Nerderello]

it is highly unlikely that a Win XP virus would touch your Linux, BUT it could still effect your Linux partition as a whole. It could, for instance, delete the Linux partition.

The reasons I say it is highly unlikely for it to effect the data on your Linux partition or to run under Linux are :-
1) WinXP itself does not know how to read or write linux partion data, so for a virus to do it, would require the virus writer to include Linux filesystem read/write routines. Highly unlikely.
2) Windows programs do not, directly, run under Linux .

Nerderello