external hard drive backup virus

[snazzyconnor]

If I have two or more computers and back them all up onto the same external hard drive (using windows backup) and one of the backups has a virus installed on it could the virus jump onto one of the other backups and/or infect any computer connecting to the hard drive?

 

[geofelt]

I think not.
A virus is a program that needs to be run to do it's nasty thing.
Just residing on a hard drive should do nothing.

If, however, you restore it and run it will be bad.