[SweetTech]

Hi!

Have you been able to back-up the rest of the data that you wanted from this computer?

I consulted with a colleague and one of the things they suggested in regards to the issues you're experiencing is to run a diagnostic scan on your hard drive.

I would like to have you run the hard drive diagnostics scan. You'll need to visit the following link and locate the appropriate tool for the brand of your hard drive.

Link: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287

The program will most likely provide you with an .iso for the file, and you will want to use that as it's a bootable CD.

If no .iso is present please proceed with the .exe version of the scan.

If an .iso is present, you will need to download a tool like ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com to create the disc, and then boot up from it, and run a scan with it.

If you encounter any issues, or need any assistance, please feel free to ask for clarification or assistance before proceeding.

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I have the WEstern Digital diagnostics tools that came with the drive.
Would you like me to run those if they have a 'physical' scan tool?

I've tried to back up as much as I can think of. I suppose the easiest route
Would be to throw another drive in and reload everything. I just want to be sure there are
No viruses or malware lurking in my backups. I also have a brand new cad system I want to use but
Again I,m fearing there might be something to contaminate it when I tie it in to my
Home network or data storage drives.

Originally I put a 1 tb drive in but win7 wouldn't install correctly so I went back to
My original drive. I'm not apposed to reloading everything if we're sure the infection
Is taken care of.

[kamots22]

I have the WEstern Digital diagnostics tools that came with the drive.
Would you like me to run those if they have a 'physical' scan tool?

I've tried to back up as much as I can think of. I suppose the easiest route
Would be to throw another drive in and reload everything. I just want to be sure there are
No viruses or malware lurking in my backups. I also have a brand new cad system I want to use but
Again I,m fearing there might be something to contaminate it when I tie it in to my
Home network or data storage drives.

Originally I put a 1 tb drive in but win7 wouldn't install correctly so I went back to
My original drive. I'm not apposed to reloading everything if we're sure the infection
Is taken care of.

[SweetTech]

Hi!

Would you like me to run those if they have a 'physical' scan tool?

Yes, I would. This way we can see if there are any issues with the hard drive.

[kamots22]

Well it ran all the way to the end...found errors and when I tried the "repair disk" I rec'd an error.....



I ran a quick test as well that seemed to give more information...

Edited by kamots22, 21 October 2011 - 05:16 PM.

[SweetTech]

Okay, thanks for providing me with those images. I've sent a message to a colleague of mine, to see what we can do next, as those results do have me worried a bit.

So I'm not going to have anything new for you tonight, but I should have something more for you tomorrow early afternoon.

I appreciate your patience with running all of these scans, and then waiting for me to respond. You're doing an excellent job running all of these scans!!

I'll talk to you tomorrow afternoon.

Have a fantastic evening.

Kindest Regards,
SweetTech.

[SweetTech]

Good Afternoon kamots22,

I've heard back from my colleague and they had confirmed what I had feared. It appears your hard drive is failing, and yo need to back-up all of the data that you want from this hard drive, and then replace the hard drive.

If your system is still under warranty, you will want to have them replace it under warranty, but either way, you'll want to back-up your data as everything will get lost on the replacement of the hard drive by the manufacturer.

[kamots22]

Are we sure the viruses are taken care of?
I can put a new drive in and then connect this drive via USB
And copy data over. I just don't want to be copying any garbage
Along with my data...

It's my guess that the malware was there all along and I started having
Problems when the drive started to fail? Would you agree?

What do you recommend as protection so this doesn't occur again?
-malware/virus software?
-best backup system close to raid?

My new CAD system has raid 1 built in but that won't be seeing much
Internet use....trying to protect it....

[SweetTech]

Hi!

Are we sure the viruses are taken care of?
I can put a new drive in and then connect this drive via USB
And copy data over. I just don't want to be copying any garbage
Along with my data...

I can understand that. I am a bit hesitant to do any more scans on this drive, as I don't want to have you run a scan and then your hard drive decides to stop working.

I would much rather you back-up infected data, then have no data backed up at all.

It's my guess that the malware was there all along and I started having
Problems when the drive started to fail? Would you agree?

That's quite possible.

What do you recommend as protection so this doesn't occur again?
-malware/virus software?
-best backup system close to raid?

I'll provide final recommendations in my all clean speech when we finish up together.

I do have a few more scans that I'd normally have you run, but until we can get the data backed up, I'm hestitant to have you do much with the computer.

[kamots22]

Hello Agent ST!

Well....I'm trying to get WIN7 loaded on my data drive.
I had tried to load it previously, but there were problems.

I should prob just order another drive but I figured since I already had this one I could use it.
Plenty of room on the drive, 1tb, but there's other back up data stored there as well.

Tried to delete the old windows installations thru the OTL desktop but again it won't let me.

So....my plan is to load Win7 on the 1tb drive, connect the old drive via a Thermaltake USB drive and
copy whatever data I still don't have backed up to the new drive. If you've got a better idea, I'm certainly
open to it.

Thanks!
v

[SweetTech]

That sounds like a good plan right now. Please keep me posted on how things are going with it.

[kamots22]

Good Evening ST! [or Good Morning?]

Wow....I'm really not having much luck at all.

Tried to load Win7 on the 1tb drive....no luck. So I took what I had backed up on there and put it on my iMac.
Formated the drive, tried to install Win7 ....no luck. Downloaded WD diagnostics. Says there's no drive present
but it shows up when I run minimal Win XP.
I'm getting Error code 0120 which they say is anomaly. Wonderful! I thought those only appeared in Star Trek: Next Gen!

Anyhow...I'm going to run some other scans and if I can't get that HD to work, I'm installing the new CAD system.

I just want to be sure to protect it correctly if you have any guidance as I'd still like to access my old hard drive before you
run your other scans on it. Any suggestions on Virus software? I still have Norton 360 on hand but I'm sure you know my
confidence level with that is not to high right now.

Thanks in advance!
v

[SweetTech]

Good Afternoon!

Tried to load Win7 on the 1tb drive....no luck. So I took what I had backed up on there and put it on my iMac.
Formated the drive, tried to install Win7 ....no luck. Downloaded WD diagnostics. Says there's no drive present
but it shows up when I run minimal Win XP.
I'm getting Error code 0120 which they say is anomaly. Wonderful! I thought those only appeared in Star Trek: Next Gen!

That's interesting. Who's the manufacturer for the 1TB drive? Is it Western Digital?

[kamots22]

It is a Western Digital....WD1001FALS

I've always had good luck with WD's drives, but as of late, they've been failing.
The original drive was a WD as well....

[SweetTech]

That's interesting. I wonder if the 1TB drive has issues with the drive. Would you be able to run the Western Digital hard drive scan on the 1TB drive and see if that detects any issues?

[kamots22]

UPDATE....
I ran the HD scan's already....nothing wrong with the drive.
Found an interesting article on Windows not recognizing ambiguous drives here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925481
Followed the instructions and installed Win7. Now installing 100 updates...lol


I'm getting an error message when trying to run IE : 'The Instruction at 0x####### referenced memory at 0x#######. The memory could not be 'read'
I'm hoping the updates will take care of this as they suggest, but we shall see.

From there I will go to setting up the drive although I'd like to equip it with some antivirus/malware software....that's where your recommendations come in if you have the time.
Then I'll scan my old drive again before transferring all the data.

Hopefully after that we can call this one solved...