[Becca-Sarah]

Kinda confused as to what is going on with my netbook. Yesterday it threw up a "data recovery" window claiming that it had hard disk failure and six other 'critical' errors. It also claims that there's insufficient memory to run, yet I've seen it experience this for real recently and there's no way it has insufficient memory, also the CPU counters are showing relatively normal levels of activity. It keeps popping up with "system message - write fault error" messages.

The hard disk failure warning seems dubious because the step to 'fix' it claims I only have the temporary version of 'Date Recovery' and asks me to buy a full license.

I ran a virus scan (Kaspersky) and it came up with nothing. Microsoft security quarantined an odd looking file, I removed it, ran a full scan overnight and turned up a few trojans, removed them and the computer claims to be clean, yet when it restarted it came up with the same data recovery window.

My start bar has lost all its stuck windows, the start menu has no links to programs in it, all program files through the start menu claim to be empty (yet when I get to he C:// drive folder another way I can see that my program files are all there), and all the icons bar Recycle Bin and this Data Recovery thing are gone from my desktop (and Data Recovery certainly wasn't there yesterday before all this started).

Also, I don't have any form of antivirus software beyond Microsoft Security. I rely on free stuff like HouseCall to check my computer occasionally.

Now what do I do? If Microsoft Security is claiming that my computer is clean, what is actually wrong? I doubt it's actually hard drive failure as surely then I wouldn't have been able to open IE through program files.

TL;DR: Computer claiming to have hard drive failure but seemingly doesn't, virus checkers claim there's nothing wrong. Help?

[Tathrim]

(Original post by Becca-Sarah)
Kinda confused as to what is going on with my netbook. Yesterday it threw up a "data recovery" window claiming that it had hard disk failure and six other 'critical' errors. It also claims that there's insufficient memory to run, yet I've seen it experience this for real recently and there's no way it has insufficient memory, also the CPU counters are showing relatively normal levels of activity. It keeps popping up with "system message - write fault error" messages.

The hard disk failure warning seems dubious because the step to 'fix' it claims I only have the temporary version of 'Date Recovery' and asks me to buy a full license.

I ran a virus scan (Kaspersky) and it came up with nothing. Microsoft security quarantined an odd looking file, I removed it, ran a full scan overnight and turned up a few trojans, removed them and the computer claims to be clean, yet when it restarted it came up with the same data recovery window.

My start bar has lost all its stuck windows, the start menu has no links to programs in it, all program files through the start menu claim to be empty (yet when I get to he C:// drive folder another way I can see that my program files are all there), and all the icons bar Recycle Bin and this Data Recovery thing are gone from my desktop (and Data Recovery certainly wasn't there yesterday before all this started).

Also, I don't have any form of antivirus software beyond Microsoft Security. I rely on free stuff like HouseCall to check my computer occasionally.

Now what do I do? If Microsoft Security is claiming that my computer is clean, what is actually wrong? I doubt it's actually hard drive failure as surely then I wouldn't have been able to open IE through program files.

TL;DR: Computer claiming to have hard drive failure but seemingly doesn't, virus checkers claim there's nothing wrong. Help?

Please run HijackTHis! and link a pastebin of the log in this thread. Chances are that there are other things that are problematic on the machine. If you can, also run Malwarebytes AntiMalware to see what's on the machine and link a pastebin any logs produced.

EDIT: In case I haven't stressed enough, do not delete ANYTHING from your machine, we need this to be as is whilst we assess the situation! Please use another PC if you can.

[Architecture-er]

Assuming the worst, have you tried running a chkdsk command to try and fix your hard-drive?

That's generally my go-to solution if my computer is griping about HDD issues, you can either run it by right-clicking your drive, going to tools and system check, or (if you have it loaded onto your computer) - start your PC up, spam-press F8 until it switches into the recovery system, where you can load your PC from a previous save point. At that point it'll probably prompt you to run a chkdsk because of the corruption, so you can perform it there without engaging your drivers (which blocks you from using one of the chkdsk utilities if you run it after a full boot-up)

Otherwise I'd run some virus checks or something, I just suggest the above because I managed to puzzle it all out 4 days ago, when my system went a bit squiffy for no reason (cleaning my start menu icons, thinking the machine was factory new, etc)

[Becca-Sarah]

I solved it. There is nothing wrong with my hard drive, it's a scam. Found and isolated the exe files causing the problem, now running a second scan to check. All of my files are still there, just hidden. Thanks for the advice tho guys.

[Tathrim]

(Original post by Becca-Sarah)
I solved it. There is nothing wrong with my hard drive, it's a scam. Found and isolated the exe files causing the problem, now running a second scan to check. All of my files are still there, just hidden. Thanks for the advice tho guys.

I suggest you still run MBAM, to be safe (the quality of detection is above most other free tools.. Where one Trojan is about, others are sure to follow.

[Becca-Sarah]

That's what I'm running. 3hrs down, **** knows how many more to go... the Microsoft security scan I did overnight took between 4 and 8 hours