Hard drive bad or infected with a really nasty virus?

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

'm having a problem with my WD 320 GB (model WDC-WD3200AAJB-56W0A0) internal hard drive , Firmware: 00.02C01.  Several weeks ago I noticed the following when starting my system up:

Invalid BOOT.INI
Booting from C:\Windows

About the same time I notice that my system was acting sluggishly and thought the above was causing this.  I ran Norton AntiVirus but it didn’t detect any viruses.

I found message on a forum that said that the BOOT.INI problem could be fixed with FIXBOOT and FIXMBR.  I slso found on Symatec’s (SP?) website “Norton Power Eraser” and “Norton Bootable Recovery Tool”.  Before attempting to use any of these I wanted to backup both my primary hard drive (the WD 320 GB drive) and secondary hard drive (a Seagate 320 GB drive).  I had no problem backing up the latter (which is reserved for my Flight Simulator files).  When I tried to backup my C: and D: drive partitions on the WD drive I found that my Drive C backup ended sooner than it should have (with a mysterious error) using only 2 DVD disks when it should have taken 3.  Something obviously didn’t get backed up.  When I tried to back up my Drive D partitiion, MyBackup PC reported hundreds maybe over a thousand errors (I didn’t try to count them all)!

I then tried to at least burn the data files on both drives to CD-R disks using Nero and Sonic’s Recordit Now! software.  Nero reported “Burn Failed” every time (something it had never done before).  Recordit simply went dead on me.

I then simply tried to copy the data files to an external hard drive.  This took nearly three weeks because most of the time if I tried to copy several files at once Windows Explorer immediately “Stopped Responding”.  When I tried to copy one file at a time to the external hard drive using Windows Explorer the transfer would begin but then stop part way through.  If I just let it go eventually I simply got a system crash.  In fact, I’m getting system crashes and reboots from the desktop when my system isn’t doing anything at all.  It the last 3 weeks I must have got around at least a dozen such system crashes and rebootes.

It seems too that my system seems to be constantly being bogged down by something.  The hard drive light is almost on nonstop.  Windows task manager reports the CPU constantly peaking at or near 100% even when I’m not doing anything on my system.  At other times it shows CPU at or near 0 but still the system won’t run programs as fast as they should (when I click on My System in Wndows Exlporer it can take a couple of minutes before the information appears on the right side.  The flashlight appears but takes much too long to start moving back and forth as it use to (in these case it should be appearing at all).

I finally got all the data files copies to the external hard drive a couple of days ago.  When I ran FIXBOOT nothing happened at all.  When I launched FIXMBR it reported that I had a nonstandard, or corrupted MBR.  I didn’t execute FIXMBR as it reported my my drive partitions might be lost.  I was able to repair the BOOT.INI file using information obtained from Microsoft.

I then downloaded the WINDLG software.  I tried to run Quick Test several times.  Each time it failed (within just a few seconds) reporting Status Code 07 error, Checkpoint 65, and that SMART self test did not complete.

So, to bring this tale of woe to an end, is my drive infected with a virus that even Norton Antivirus failed to catch or is the drive going south on my?  I was about to reinstall Windows XP Professional (deleting and replacing all the drive partitions) and all my software from scratch but if the drive has gone bad this obviously won’t fix the problem!

Thank s,

Steven Miller

2

Normally, when the DLG fail the SMART test is because the drive is about to fail. It is advisable to run the extended test and be ready to replace that drive.

3

if possible, can you post your SMART info result from windlg ?  or you can use smart monitor tools (Crystaldiskinfo / HDD tune) … from smart maybe we can know if your drive is going bad

usually when windlg report error you should RMA your drive if it still on warranty

But if you have time, go ahead try format your hdd and try reinstall windows

4

Thanks, I’ll run the extented test (I didn’t run it only because I wasn’t sure if it was safe to do).   I suspected that the drive is about to fail (I was just looking for someone to confirm it).  I’ve already started shopping for a replacement…

5

Thanks for the reply!  The Quick Test only reports that the SMART test didn’t report any details other than to say the SMART test didn’t finish.  I’ll try running the extended test and will post any additional details it might provide.  Unfortunately, the drive is 5 years old so its been out of warrantty for a couple of years!

Yeah, I can try to reinstall Windows, deleting and restoring the partitions while I’m at it.  If the drive is going south on me it won’t hurt (G)!  Who knows, it just might work and save me the expense of having to replace the drive (at least for a while)!

6

Oops!  I spoke too soon!  Just got an email from WD saying that my drive does appear to be going bad and that it is still under warranty, BY ONE DAY!  Not only that WD is extending my warranty long enough to allow for me to apply for a RMA to return the old drive for a replacement.  Boy, talk about getting in just under the wire (G)!  Geez, I almost waited to long to contact WD about my drive!

7

I’d run Data LifeGuard from a bootable CD. That will eliminate any Windows problems, as well as your malware concerns.