Can A virus actually damage the Hard drive make it unusable?

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paulcheung

Active Member
Hi all,
Is there any virus can actually damage the Hard drive physically make it unusable? Can it also fool the manufactures diagnositic tools make it report false findings like too many bad sectors?
I have two relatively new hard drives that got these problems, one can't boot or reinstall windows at all and other can boot on both windows xp and windows 7. but the windows OS report a lot of errors when I try to open programs and I try to reinstall windows 7, it go through but the last part take very long time like it hit bad sectors. When it bootup it take much longer time than before.
Thanks.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
A lot of virus' these days don't damage hard drives. However the only way to really know if the drives are bad or not is to download the DOS utility from the HDD manufacturer and test the drives. There are some virus' that will pretend to be diagnostic tools and say the hard drive has failed.
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Some viruses do, but most don't. Most tend/tended to destroy the Master Boot Record meaning that Windows would not start, making it look as if your HDD had failed.
 
turbodiesel

turbodiesel

Member
like what Vistakid10 and Voyagerfan99 said a virus will probally not affect the drive

and like what Voyagerfan99 also said if you format the drive fully the wont be a problem
 
J

Jon Boy

New Member
I come across malware every day in my job and can say I have never come across any malware that has has destroyed a HDD. That being said I have heard of an infection that targets the zero sectore of the HDD to permanently destroy the system.

Bare in mind that the primary reason malware is released is to make money and if your computer wont boot they are unlikely to make any money from you.

If Windows boots get a decent AV scanner and run a full system scan. If there are still issues run a CHKDSK /f which may fix the issue for you.

Oh and errors like you report could mean you have a rootkit hidden on the system, sometimes in the Master Boot Record as seen with TDL4.
 
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paulcheung

Active Member
How does disk dianostic programs work? On seatool it kind advertising said it have the lifeguard build in the disk, if so, then maybe the virus just mess up the lifeguard sysytem then the tool have no choice but to report fault?
Thanks.
 
PohTayToez

PohTayToez

Active Member
The worst a virus can do is exploit the locking feature some hard drives have. For some hard drives the only way to override this is to get the master reset code from the manufacturer, and they'll only do that if you can prove that you're the original owner. If you can't remove the hard drive password, the hard drive is pretty much useless.
 
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paulcheung

Active Member
Does clone drive get rid of the virus if it is there? I try to clone the drive from the original small drive which have all the drivers and basic programs there.
The original drive should be clean.
Thanks.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
paulcheung said:
Does clone drive get rid of the virus if it is there? I try to clone the drive from the original small drive which have all the drivers and basic programs there.
The original drive should be clean.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

No. Cloning a drive copies EVERYTHING over to the new drive, including any previous issues and virus' on that Windows installation.
 
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paulcheung

Active Member
Clone the hard drive last night, didn't encounter any error, after took out the original small drive and put back the 750GB drive. I format the remainder space, boot it up; some how it just seem a bit slower than before. I don't know if is just my mind or what.
Cheers.
 
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paulcheung

Active Member
NO is not the original drive in the laptop last few months, it is the same 750gb 5400rpm drive, it seem to be faster before the virus take control of the hard drive. I found a few virus in there with superantispyware, when I clean it, it start give a lot of errors and most of the programs can't run. The manufacture's dianostic program stuck and said too many bad sectors. That is why I took out the original drive that in storage to clone back the windows and programs.
Thanks.
 
S.T.A.R.S.

S.T.A.R.S.

banned
Talking about cloning the HDD,in the next 2 days I might make a video series tutorial on how to completely clone the entire HDD,how to return the cloned data back on the computer or laptop in the case of disaster and ALSO how to transfer entire HDD data from one computer or laptop to another computer or laptop and make it work without the need to reinstall and readjust ANYTHING. ;)
And by ANYTHING I mean on:

-entire operating system
-all the programs
-all the games
-all adjusted options in everything (operating system,programs and games)

And that's pretty cool if you ask me since when you need to reinstall Windows OS or when you buy a new computer or laptop or if you change a lot of hardware in your computer or laptop,you will save a LOT of time since you will not need to reinstall and readjust ANYTHING :D

Like I said...I will make that video series tutorial soon probably.Probably in the next 2 or 3 days.Maybe more if I will have a lot of job to do...
 
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