Possible HDD rogue virus

LadyV

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So, I think I may have contracted an HDD rogue virus on my laptop. All of a sudden, all these windows, stating something about "write errors," popped up on my computer. Another appeared, saying something about a hard drive failure. Then it told me to reconfigure. I didn't, suspecting it was bogus. So instead, I did a system restore. I did this once before on my desktop when I contracted the S.M.A.R.T. virus and everything went back to normal. However, when I performed it on my laptop, all my documents disappeared. Also, I can't change my desktop background, nor can I get my antivirus program to open. I then tried restoring to an even earlier date but to no avail.

I'm worried that I did some serious damage to my laptop. Is there an easy way to fix this? Do I need to take it to a repair place, or did I destroy everything?

Any advice would be appreciated. :)
 

kuwisdelu

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Sorry to say this, but it's entirely possible your data just got corrupted and your hard drive is failing. Might have nothing to do with a virus. Do you have any kind of recovery discs or recovery partition that can check your the integrity of your drive?
 

LadyV

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Sorry to say this, but it's entirely possible your data just got corrupted and your hard drive is failing. Might have nothing to do with a virus. Do you have any kind of recovery discs or recovery partition that can check your the integrity of your drive?

I'm not sure on either account. What you say could be possible, seeing as it's only certain things that are malfunctioning. Others are fully functional. I may just have to cave and take it somewhere. With the antivirus software not working, or at least it seems that way, my laptop is vulnerable.
 

DeleyanLee

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I got something akin to this once. All my files were still there, but suddenly hidden. There's an option in Control Panel-->Files to show all files, even invisible ones. That happened to all my programs too--suddenly were hidden. I had to manually go in to each file's Properties and unclick the "Hidden" and "Read Only" boxes to make them accessible again.

It was annoying, but an easy fix.

No, I never figured out what caused this to happen, but the restore seemed to take care of it. Once I did the manual work to unhide everything, it was all good.

Hope that helps.
 

LadyV

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I got something akin to this once. All my files were still there, but suddenly hidden. There's an option in Control Panel-->Files to show all files, even invisible ones. That happened to all my programs too--suddenly were hidden. I had to manually go in to each file's Properties and unclick the "Hidden" and "Read Only" boxes to make them accessible again.

It was annoying, but an easy fix.

No, I never figured out what caused this to happen, but the restore seemed to take care of it. Once I did the manual work to unhide everything, it was all good.

Hope that helps.
I did what you said, and what do you know, all my files were still there just hidden. Thanks for the advice!
 

Charles Farley

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Sorry but i have to agree with kuwisdelu . .

A write error means that data isn't getting written to the hard drive which isn't uncommon . . .but with the HD failure message coming up also it's time to check the hard drive before it does fail . . . . a good thorough back up of your files to removable media . . a usb key or CD now wouldn't be a bad idea either . . .
 

aibrean

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Newer versions of Windows can detect hard drive failures earlier. I had the same error message popup on a hard drive that was an RMA from a previous failed drive. I had to send it out and get another one.

I would do a write test. My brother uses SeaTools to check disk integrity. If it fails you know your hard drive is headed to the place of no return (unless it's still in warranty and then you can contact the manufacturer for an RMA...usually 2-3 years depending on the drive).

http://www.seagate.com/support/inte...prise-hard-drives/saturn/seatools-win-master/ (SeaTools Download)