[rshaffer61]

Hard drive and if no recovery disks are available you will need to purchase a OEM version of your OS.
Vista or Win7.

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No. That would be the cost of a new Hard Drive (aka in geek speak HDD) if you purchased and installed it yourself which is cheap, cheap, CHEAP! Probably without tax and shipping of course.

The cost of the recovery disks I posted above in post #53. Try calling that number to see if the discs are available for purchase. Don't believe everything you read on the web. The information could have been wrong.

Personally, I would not attempt the restore till we hear from either SleepyDude or rshaffer61. I've performed many factory restores, clean installs, etc. on healthy HDD's, but a bad sector has been detected on the HDD of your laptop and I truly have no idea what the factory restore would do in this situation.

I am a thousand times less confused now
I'll wait to see if SleepyDude or rshaffer61 give me any more feedback at this point without the disks so I don't end up with an even more sad notebook
Thank you again for the explanation and information DonnaB

[uc577]

No. That would be the cost of a new Hard Drive (aka in geek speak HDD) if you purchased and installed it yourself which is cheap, cheap, CHEAP! Probably without tax and shipping of course.

The cost of the recovery disks I posted above in post #53. Try calling that number to see if the discs are available for purchase. Don't believe everything you read on the web. The information could have been wrong.

Personally, I would not attempt the restore till we hear from either SleepyDude or rshaffer61. I've performed many factory restores, clean installs, etc. on healthy HDD's, but a bad sector has been detected on the HDD of your laptop and I truly have no idea what the factory restore would do in this situation.

I am a thousand times less confused now
I'll wait to see if SleepyDude or rshaffer61 give me any more feedback at this point without the disks so I don't end up with an even more sad notebook
Thank you again for the explanation and information DonnaB

[SleepyDude]

Hi,

Based on all the information collected from your machine I'm convicted that you got infected with some Rogue program like this Smart HDD, I suspect the virus isn't completely gone and that's why you have the glitches you mention and probably what is interfering with the Recovery Disk creation process.

In my opinion you should start a new thread on the Malware Removal section of the forum to get specific help on Malware removing.
Before you post please read Malware and Spyware Cleaning Guide starting from step 2.

I'm really confident that after your computer gets clean you will be able to create the recovery disks.
For now I wouldn't recommend to use the Recovery process because some virus can resist to the process and infect the computer right away, also the process could fail I don't know for sure.

Your Hard Disk have a bad sector but I don't see any evidence that is degrading rapidly.
Cleaning the malware and then create the recovery discs would be the steps I would do if I were in your situation.

[DonnaB]

As posted by SleepyDude;
Based on all the information collected from your machine I'm convicted that you got infected with some Rogue program

@ SleepyDude,

My first thought as well when I first read the following from uc577's first post:

As posted by uc577's;
starting showing error messages (like 20 at a time) that a connection to a certain drive couldn't be made (I can't remember which :/). It deleted all of my pictures, music, and documents (AHHH) and certain functions don't look or work the same

Seems like this came on suddenly! And 20 at a time. Seems extreme.

Deleted or hidden by malware? A system restore may taken the system back to a time before the rogue was installed but the damage could be lurking in the background still. Correct?

Good call on starting a thread in the removal forum.

[rshaffer61]

I agree and if it is a hidden infection we would be spinning ur wheels with anything here on the tech side for now. If the problem continues once a malware tech has declared your system clean, then return to this topic and we will continue with our end of assistance.

[uc577]

You've all been so helpful
I'll update on this topic if it isn't a matter of cleaning away malware, let's hope that takes care of it though

[rshaffer61]

Please look at this HERE
With help from DonnaB we have found the recovery media for your system. Win7 64 bit as you mentioned in your original post.
Scroll down to the entry that says Order Recovery Media and expand the entry.
Click on the link for the media and you will see there are 5 disks included in the kit.
Thanks to DonnaB for her excellent research in finding this information.

[DonnaB]

Wow! Check this out! I did create the discs for my HP from the Recovery Manager the day I brought it home, the RECOVERY (D:) partition is intact and I also created a disc using Macrium Reflect. If these discs are FREE! I may just order them myself!

I've always been told that if it is important then it is best to have at least 3 backup copies in case one of the others get lost or damaged.



I see that you did post in the removal forum, uc577. Please be patient. They are very busy and you will not be overlooked. I'm anxious to see if anything is found.

[SleepyDude]

Wow! Check this out! I did create the discs for my HP from the Recovery Manager the day I brought it home, the RECOVERY (D:) partition is intact and I also created a disc using Macrium Reflect. If these discs are FREE! I may just order them myself!

I've always been told that if it is important then it is best to have at least 3 backup copies in case one of the others get lost or damaged.

Hi,

During my searches about the problem with the Recovery Disk creator I have found a post where a HP representative says they send you the disks for free if the computer is under warranty and the process to creating the disks is failing. In the case of uc577 the computer is out of warranty.

[rshaffer61]

Yeah I don't think you will see the price till you put in the serial number and then click Next.

[uc577]

You guys are amazing!! Thank you so much for the links I was going crazy trying to find where to purchase them just in case I'm not able to create them, I'm much more relieved now

I hadn't checked the results of my antivirus thoroughly enough I guess though because the day the issue occurred I just saw that many many MANY trojan viruses had been deleted. All of them were titled Trojan:Win32/FakeSysdef except for one titled Trojan:Win32/Alureon.FV I did a full scan again this morning just to see if anything else would be found and yet another of these was found and removed.

I'm going to update my post in the malware section with this information (by editing not adding a reply or I'll be waitlisted even longer I've realized)

[SleepyDude]

Hi,

Do you have another computer available? If so try to not use the "bad one" or at least disconnect the computer from the Internet until it gets clean.
Some malware will open the door to others if they can get access to the internet or update itself from the internet.

[uc577]

I hadn't thought of that. I'll definitely do that thanks

[SleepyDude]

I hadn't thought of that. I'll definitely do that thanks

No problem. Check the malware thread you are getting help there
You have to connect to the internet to follow the steps posted.

Good luck.

[uc577]

Hello again!
I am nearly entirely clean now but I was unable to "purge" my system because I could not make a new restore point manually as instructed by the tech specialist in my other topic so I was told to return here to finish up and reset my computer to its factory state.

Any help will be incredibly appreciated, thanks you guys have all been so helpful and amazing!