Virus Ruins Hard Drive? - Comments Page 1

Back in the day, there were viri that knew to park the head in a BAD location. Which meant that when the HDD was started back up, it was likely to scratch a chunk of the HDD. Granted this would be a much older computer that must have been seen by the GeekSquad. This soft of virus wouldn't work so well on later HDDs. I would kind of like to see the actual results of their diagnsotics.....

It could cause repeated read/write to certain key areas of the drive that would wear it out faster?

It could also wipe the error tag portion of the HD which would require a full zero fill to fix.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The first one, maybe, but it would take a LONG time to damage a drive that way. The second one is a software issue, which would require formatting.

I have a similar question... I must have a virus, yet I can not find any on my computer. What happens, is my hard drive claims to be full, yet I'm constantly trimming it. Any advice/knowledge on this?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Why do you think it's not really full? Try JDiskReport at http://www.jgoodies.com to get a graphical look at the disk's file and folders.

It depends on what you consider a ruined HDD.

My HDD started out to make scratchy noises intermittently first for say 30 sec and then quiet. Then after a while it start doing it again and after a prolonged time the duration start to get longer, up to the point when you boot up after loading all startup programs the scratchy noise startup immediately and you cannot do anything with the computer. When in safe mode Panda AV,Ad Aware, SpybotSD, Ewido can not find anything. Trying to use kill disk to clean up HDD, the scratchy noise takes over and the program just can not run.

I have two 40 GB disk that have this problem and I would like to donate to some experts to find out what kind of virus it is and most importantly where it is hiding because the Anti virus Panda and AVG cannot detect.

Any one wants to do research on these HDD let me know.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Why would you assume a virus? It sounds exactly like what a failing hard drive would do.

You should also F-Disk it, unless your manufacturer hides the backup software in a hidden partition. All kinds of stuff can be in these partitions, and it can also make your drive seem smaller. Another thing is to reset the Master Boot Record. It is a seperate command in fdisk. These are areas the formatting alone won't erase and nasties can hide there. see Windows Help files, etc. for the exact procedure.

Well, It is true no matter what hard drive you have, If its infected with a serous virus it can ruin the hard drive. When the drive gets put under the abuse of the virus it strains the hard drive and can make it over heat or form bad sectors inside of the hard drive making it unreliable.

Is it probable that it happened to your hard drive? Most likely not. My first opinion for you would be to back up your data on a CD disk or External hard drives and Zero out the hard drive. To do this simple back up the info, and put in your OS Windows disk, Boot from disk, and then do a Full format of the Main OS hard drive. Should take 1-2 hours depending on your hard drive size. Once that is done, Reinstall your Drivers first, and then the programs you had before you reformatted.

Some hits and pointers. Make sure you make a list of all your recent programs that you have, And download them all before you reformat. To find your drivers, Just simple find your computer model number and google it for its drivers. Also make sure you have all of your documents, pictures, video's and w/e else your going to need, remember all information will be lost..

Also, a little more information to help you. To help you determain if sectors on your hard drive is bad or not, you can check it yourself.

1. Go to Start Menu

2.Click on "run"

3. Type chkdsk in the Open line..

4. Let it run its check, In the end it will give you results on what sectors and how many are bad, and also try to fix them. I recommend doing this before you reformat your computer.

Do this before you reformat. What happens if this checks ok? Well chances are it won't. Almost any hard drive 2 years or older never passes this test. But one thing to keep in mind on another problem. If you have recently been infected with a virus or spyware. Chances are you System registry is completely infected depending on how bad the spyware was. With this being said, YES you will have to reformat anyway to get these viruses out of your computer Or just to get your computer to run right. If you knew what you were doing, Its possible to ovoid reformatting, But because you seems like your a amature. I wont recommend you to dabble in the system registry. its a quick crash course to ruin your computer.

If you insist to keep your computer the way it is and not reformat Or buy a new hard drive? YES there is. I recommend the following. I don't promise you these will fix your current problems. But they will help.

1. Download Spybot from www.download.com, This will try to fix spyware infections and clean your registry of them as well. It does a damn good job.

2. Download AVG Virus Protector. Its free ware and its the best. Its designed by people who care and want to protect you. Its Microsoft recommended. Its been known professionals to use it. Its very good. I'm a gamer and i trust nothing less.

3. Run chkdsk, let it try to fix your hard drive sectors.

4. Run both spybot and AVG completely. Let them solve as much as they can. they will lock down your computer nicely.

I NEED TO FIND OUT IF MY HARD DRIVE CAN BE SAVED,i OPENED A FILE AND BOOM IT WAS A VIRUS,MY COMPUTER IS AT A STAND STILL,NEED ADVICE TO MAYBE SAVE MY HARD DRIVE,AS I HAVE SO MUCH ON IT,THANKS RALPH.

I fix computers all the time. I used to do a good business of it back when pc's were not so cheap. Anyway, I can say with certainty that there is an active virus floating around that infects a drive, and when it is discovered, removal may trigger some sort of destruction sequence. This may sound far fetched, but I have experienced it several times now. Basically I get a computer in for repair that seems to have a boat load of malware, and possibly a virus, it is crippled to a slow grind, no networking. I run through some tests, clear out a little junk first and reboot. The machine reboots and has restored back to the previously bad state. It takes a few hours but I can get it back to a functional, clean'ish state. Some malware still is reinstalling itself, but has been rendered impotent. Seems like the path to recovery.

So, my last test is a deep virus scan. At this point, I get a positive for a virus, unknown, that cannot be removed without restart. I proceed, the computer boots to blue screen, no boot drive found, and the "click of death". Seriously.

I have seen this exact scenario at least four times, including my own home pc. All pc's were running xp. I have seen a few other similar cases, but without one or another symptom.

I have an external HD on my G: port. It was recognized last night and today it is not. No matter which USB slot I try to connect it to, Say "H" port, "H" disappears from the "My Computer" screen. If I unplug from "H" and reconnect to "G", "H" reappears in My Computer as a removeable drive, but "G" does not.

It acts as if the drive has been wiped out to the point that my computer can't detect that it is there. The last thing I downloaded onto that drive is Picasa 2 to upload pictures. I'm using XP and no Anti-virus software.

Please help! I have all pictures of my kid's first 3 years on that drive.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like the drive could be damaged. If it doesn't work in another computer, you may have to use a data recovery service. But first, read this: http://askbobrankin.com/hard_drive_recovery.html

Hi. I have a virus "iexplore.exe" on my computer that is running XP Home. My computer is a Compaq and it is about 2 years old. I had it cleaned but this particular virus, from what I've read, is nearly impossible to remove. I can access my files.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Why do you think this is a virus? That's the filename for the Internet Explorer browser. Do you have any antivirus software now? If not, this may help: http://askbobrankin.com/should_i_buy_antispyware_or_antivirus_software.html

listen there is no way a virus can destroy a hd. It may slow it down or you may have problems. But is is not possible to destroy it. They are made to fetch files for hours strate.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks for the strate talk.

I don't know if there are viruses that can harm your hard drive,but i just encountered one that tried to delete all of the files on my hard drives. It was through a jump in a link on google. It had a message that it was scanning the hard drive and then that it was starting file erase sequence. At that point i just pulled the plug on my computer to avoid any risks. So far i have not noticed or found any viruses on my computer or any missing files.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It was probably just a spoof, but that sort of thing can happen. Normally, though, viruses have a vested interest in NOT harming your machine. Your computer is more valuable to the Bad Guys as a spam-spewing robot, a participant in a denial of service attack, or a source of valuable personal information.

Forgive me, but I am so sick of this Urban Legend! There is no virus that will literally your hard drive. Yet, I get emails from people I know warning me that one of these viruses has been found and is going around.

Impossible! If all else fails, including your anti-virus program, your anti-spyware program, etc., simply reinstall your operating system. That will put your PC back to what it was like when you bought it.

I have pals who work in I.T., like Sun Microsystems, and they all say this is hogwash. However, a hard drive can go bad, sure. But, it won't be from a virus. For the last time, this is a hoax!!!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ummm, right! That's what the article says. :-)

i have a huge nasty virus and it put a partition that is write protected into my harddrive. I have formatted the whole computer but there is a drive boot(x) that is filled with files that i want to remove. how can I remove this drive using command prompt. i can not load windows onto my computer or anything until this drive is gone. Can you please help.

thankyou in advance, val

EDITOR'S NOTE: The FDISK utility will help you manage partitions.

A sophisticated virus could run a low level format on your drive or reset your entire drive to 1010...etc. Never say that science can't so something.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, of course, but that's just writing to the disk, not causing physical damage.

I've just discovered a virus that does destroy hard drives. It destroyed my laptop harddrive and three other harddrives of people i know in the last week. It corrupts internet explorer and mozilla firefox browses first making them unusable, then after between 5 to 10 startups of the comp it destroys the boot sector on the harddrive making it unusable. It actual creates bad sectors in the boot sector so FDisk and Formating are not possible. If you find you are having browser problems with IE and Firefox on you PC i suggest formating before the boot sector can be infected.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You suggest *FORMATTING* as a cure for browser problems? Isn't that like suggesting decapitation as a cure for a headache? And are you going to keep the name of this awful virus a secret?

Ive delt with a lot of virus's and now of days they have virus that dont even require your computer to be turned on just as long as it is plugged into the wall it is enough. I to ran into this virus Nick is talking about atleast similiar one. The virus well even turn my computer on when it is off. Im to late though i attempt to reformat my computer and it wont let me it well just freeze up at oe of the reformat screens. Ive never encountered a problem like this before and I've seen some horrid virus's

I am not familiar with any viruses that attack the flash rom of harddrives, but it would be technically possible to damage the drive using a method similar to a firmware update. I have heard of viruses in the past that have done this with motherboard bios. But due to the very specific memory addresses that change with every brand and type of drive out there, I think this would be a very unlikely exploit. As a technician though, I have seen drive failure mysteriously linked with viruses. Such as a computer's drive will fail within weeks or days of a virus discovery. My theory is that it might be related the drive continually seeking in a certain sector. And over time this may cause actual damage to this one spot in the disk cylinder or even the drive arm.

Listen fellas, who ever the smug well paid writer or editor is , he is total clueless on viruses that destroy hard drives. Someone in china has created a Trojan hard drive destroyer, and has a condescending solution for getting rid of the virus he created online. Once you are attacked, even when you try to format the drive, the virus creates a 8mb partitian that can't be erased or formatted. The trojan attacks and destroys your "C" drive and like the creatures in the movie alien, you dare not kill it!!! It just gets worse, and laughs at XP installation attempts. Xp progress bar shows it's formatting the drive, and like the devil it reappears if you use FDisk to examin your drive. You guys remember those primitive low tech tools such as FDisk and Format, well they don't work.

The aliens have landed! And they kill hard drives! Guess they have been designed to increase China's hard drive sales in the United States!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Wow, Charles... I feel so stupid after reading your comment. I'm going to unplug my Internet connection and just hope they don't sneak in under my office door.

I firmly believe in the "virus kills a hard drive" scenario. I have experienced a certain situation where my drive fails. But let me explain.

I now always format my drives into partitions due to one virus that made me lose a whole lotta files on my c-drive. At the same time another hard drive in my computer stayed unaffected. Since that time I make a small partition for my c-drive and op system, and load all my programs in a relatively small 2nd partition and then the third larger partition is my "working" or "storage".

Since then I have had something knock out my c-drive on two different hard drives. The drive wont work at all unless I put them into external cases by USB and then I can see the 3 partitions but only can access the 2nd and 3rd partitions. All that data has been recoverable. But no way can I recover the drive entirely to get that first partition. Fresh windows install cannot see any drive to partition or format.

I was for sure playing with some questionable software when this happened the second time. The drives are not dead, only made to look that way. So at least I have storage drives I can load and throw on a shelf.