Is it possible to get spyware or viruses from external drive?

Is it possible to get spyware or viruses from external drive if I haven't opened it yet? Like if I just plugged it in and did not open the drive yet, but the drive is on, is it possible to get spyware/ viruses from it?

Is it possible to get spyware or viruses from external drive?norton internet security 2008

do you mean external harddrive or external cd/dvd drive or the like? It is always possible to get a virus the possibility just very low.

Is it possible to get spyware or viruses from external drive?spyware removal

Depends on the type of spyware or viruses, usually no
brand new one? very unlikely, but possible
Do you use autorun? Are you using ESATA, USB, IEEE 1394? I would do some research on the protocols behind them. For instance there are all types of USB (UHCI, OHCI, EHCI) devices. Now imagine after getting the power signal for a usb device that the usb device misrepresented itself (i.e. a thumb drive tells the computer that it is a mouse), but on a hardware level it still responds to mass storage commands. Just food for thought. I don't there are many cases of it in the wild yet. Check the link yo!