You can use a standard computer anti-virus program (like AVG, McAfee, Norton, etc.) to check a thumb drive. Just plug it in and go to your anti-virus program and select that drive letter to scan.
thank you cuties, i didn't know any of this information. i will get busy on this tomorrow, but is it wonderful we are always learning, thank you again, hugs, big hugs Toni lee
I've checked into this. I know my anti-virus Avast checks files as I download them. Some flash drives have anti-virus on them, but not many. You can buy an anti-virus program to scan thumb drives. You want to disable the autorun on the thumb drive so it does not automatically run when you plug it into the computer. The link below discusses the hazard of infected thumb drives. Good luck---
Before I add to the external hard drive I run a virus check either on the whole computer or just the files I'm transferring. You could do this check before adding files to your flash drive and also what "asterixsew" mentioned.
To virus check the flash drive I think you need to put it into the laptop/computer and then run it the anti virus softwear through it