I have a 250 GB external hard drive lying around my house that's about 4-5 years old and I'm looking to start using it again. The last time I used it, I recall copying some files to it from an old computer, which may have had some viruses on it. I'd like to reformat the drive completely, erasing any virus that would potentially be on it. However, I am hesitant to connect the drive to my current computer because I don't want to risk getting infected from it.
So I guess my questions boil down these:
1. How can I go about clearing this drive to clear it 100% of any viruses/malware that might be on it?
2. How can I clear this drive without potentially infecting my computer in the process? Or should I just reformat it using someone elses Mac (I use Windows 7) and then plug it back into my computer and reformat it again?
3. If possible is there a safe way to see what files are on this drive without potentially infecting my computer? (I'm 99.9% sure anything on this drive is either completely useless to me or already present on my current laptop so blindly reformatting it is no big deal)
I already have SandBoxie installed on my computer if using a Sandbox would help. I also currently own, and use, Norton 360 and have MalwareBytes installed on my computer.
Thanks for the help.