Can a virus infect the BIOS? How can it transfer between physical Hard Drives?

Disclaimer: I am fairly new to computer hardware/software, compared to many people, but not entirely new. I have been network admin for a couple small businesses (sub 20 computers), built a couple of my own, and do a lot of customizing. Mostly, though, I am just a user. This may explain my lack of knowledge.

Anyways... I think the history is important in understanding my problem, so I am sorry if this is long.

I tried installing some software from a friend, and it ended up infecting my computer with a virus (he didn't know, he hadn't installed the software, and I hadn't asked where he got it, stupid me). I tried formatting the Hard Drive, and the virus kept returning. After a while, I gave up on the computer because it was old and I was in the process of building a new, better one. But I still wanted the hard drives from the old one to tinker around with. I was going to build one into a Linux machine.

So my new computer was built with a new hard drive, and everything worked fine. Recently, though, I tried upgrading from Win2K to WinXP to use Adobe Encore (requires WinXP, stupid Adobe). The hard drive didn't like it though, for some reason, and kept crashing at the splash screen. So I reinstalled Win2K and everything worked fine. I thought it may have to do with the 200GB HD being formatted under Win2K, which doesn't recognize past 128GB, and so there was some issue there. So I tried to install the WinXP on one of my old hard drives, thinking that it was clean.

I plugged in the hard drive and went straight into Partition Magic to format the HD. The first thing it said was that there was a Boot Sector Virus on the HD. So, that explained the original computer problems. I removed that hard drive and plugged the other one back in, thinking everything was fine.

Now, my 200GB HD has the virus, according to Partition Magic. I am not sure how it transfered. Two possibilities exist, that I can understand.
1. It transfered via memory, because I forgot to unplug the power before switching.
2. It transfered via the BIOS. A local computer repair shop said that viruses can infect the CMOS, and transfer that way.

I am trying to understand what is possible for a virus to do. I understand Boot Sector Viruses, now, but not BIOS viruses.

Can anyone clarify this situation for me? I really appreciate any assistance.

Since this has to do with HD and MB, I hope I posted this in the right forum.

Thanks.

Edit - Additional Question: I have a bunch of DVDs and CDs that I burned with data from my hard drive before I formatted it. Would these contain the virus? Boot Sector Viruses can infect floppies, but I haven't heard about them infecting CD/DVDs.

 

It is possible to infect the bios but highly unlikely since the bios has to be flashed to get info on or off it but boot sector viruses can compromise everything and sadly it is not easy to get rid of at all sometimes impossible but I wish you the best of luck and be careful what you get and be mindfull of how you or the distrubutor got it todays world people can be quite distructive.

 

Thanks for the notice. The bios wasn't flashed, I am pretty sure, but some repair shop tech guy said the virus might be in the CMOS of the Mother Board. The only thing on a motherboard I can imagine that holds a charge is the BIOS, so I assumed that was what he was talking about. Now I am not so sure, but I don't know how it would survive a full powerdown.

Anyone have any links to understanding the hardware of a motherboard more thoroughly? Now my curiosity is peaked...