Live USB based antivirus

[MrPacket]

Hi,

I am on the lookout of an antivirus that can reside on a usb stick and also should boot up the system to scan.
The system boots from USB---> a little OS loads ---> the antivirus loads----> give me options to scan drives/partitions (Fat/NTFS/JFS etc..)
I have searched but didnot find anything.

The nearest solution that i can figure out is to have either XP/Linux on a USB and install some antivirus on it.
Is there any other option available?

[nihil]

I suggest you go here and have a good look around.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

Without delving too deeply, I would suspect that your problem is going to be finding an AV product that will scan both Windows and Linux file systems. You might have to use two on the one CD/DVD/USB.

[MrPacket]

But then the problem is that the virus defs are outdated and will the edition on UBCD give me option to update the defs.
Like i run the OS from USB on a system connected to internet. I update the anti-virus, but will the defs be stored on the USB permanently or only in the memory and as soon as i plugout the USB the updates are gone.
If the AV stays updated then that's great as then i can take it to a system without internet and can scan it.

[nihil]

As with any security product, it will require regular updating.

Look at your AV for instructions on manual updating and updating over a network, or remote updating.

Otherwise look at how your AV works, and note which files get updated. Download to your mothership and simply copy<replace> the files that change.

Incidentally, I wouldn't rely on a USB stick, I would create a mirror CD/DVD as well. I am sure that you will encounter systems that won't play nice with the thumb drive, and that would be your backup.