Help! Virus or genuinely goosed HDD?

Tracyk_2

I get red screen when booting up this morning.

Then various errors -
Windows can't find hard disk space.
Hard drive critical error
Problems with IDE/SATA disk
Damaged hard drive clusters - private data at risk
windows was unable to save all the data for the file [URL="file://\\system32\\496A8300"]\\system32\\496A8300[/URL]. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware.

I ran malware last night and it found and deleted 3 trojans. Tried to run Bullguard this morning - but it got so far and then the pc restarted itself - after trying to close down the above errors.

I can get to control panel etc - but when I go to Mycomputer C: drive is empty!!

Squire_Fulwood

I reckon this could be "any of the above" but a computer I own that does similar things suffers from a SATA connection problem. Every once in a while I have to open the case and wiggle the SATA data lead. I also unplug the lead and plug it in a couple of times to clean the connector.

This may not be your problem but with my computer, if it starts to behave like yours, I go through this routine and it usually starts working again. Of course, if you don't have SATA then disregard this since an IDE connector would not respond well to that kind of treatment.

Tracyk_2

Thanks Squire - I've been googling - and I think its a virus/malware! grr!
Just going through the process of finding out how to get rid of it - can't get on the internet - so seeing if I can get it on a memory stick.

Toxteth_OGrady

You have a scareware infection.

How to remove guides are available at Bleeping Computer. Searching that site for your symptons gives the following link.

Or wait for one of the resident malware experts on here to help.

Hammyman

Find out what make your hard drive is and go to the manufacturers website. On there you'll find tools for checking and testing the drive.

RussJK

Hammyman wrote: »

Find out what make your hard drive is and go to the manufacturers website. On there you'll find tools for checking and testing the drive.

The error message " \\system32\\496A8300" is typical of the fake.HDD rogueware/ransomware. Last time I cleaned it, this type of infection tried to install a TDL3 rootkit as well.