Hard Drive Destroyed?

[Jason Silva]

Hello,

I got a call from a client who said they were having problems with a PC. When I went there I noticed Norton was disabled and I was not able to enable it. I also could not successfully reinstall. If I remember correctly this is typical behavior for certain viruses. I also couldn't get into WinXP most of the time. I got messages about not being able to determine the computer's license and others about the system having to restore registry files.

I tried installing an alternative AV program called AVG. It also didn't finish it's install. Kept getting an Invalid Language File error.

The PC only had a handful of important docs on it. I was able to retrieve those and started to reinstall WinXP with a CD I had. I'm only testing here, I'll force the license issue later. Anyone, I got several messages that the file wasn't a valid Windows System Image. I skipped a few files during installation but they didn't stop. I put a different hard drive in the tower and got the same results. I then put one of the harddrives that was seeing the error into a different tower and it is currently asking for the CD Key.

So, could a virus have destroyed the hard drive or gotten into CMOS maybe? Or does this sound like a bad piece of hard ware separate from any virus issue?

Thanks,

Jason

[Jason Silva]

I have since changed the CD Rom in the original PC, disabled the Floppy drive and reset the CMOS.
--
Jason Silva
IT Manager
BS-IT Student - UOP
"Jason Silva" <***@silvawebbconsulting.com> wrote in message news:2cCdncrK846QyrzcRVn-***@metrocast.net...
Hello,

I got a call from a client who said they were having problems with a PC. When I went there I noticed Norton was disabled and I was not able to enable it. I also could not successfully reinstall. If I remember correctly this is typical behavior for certain viruses. I also couldn't get into WinXP most of the time. I got messages about not being able to determine the computer's license and others about the system having to restore registry files.

I tried installing an alternative AV program called AVG. It also didn't finish it's install. Kept getting an Invalid Language File error.

The PC only had a handful of important docs on it. I was able to retrieve those and started to reinstall WinXP with a CD I had. I'm only testing here, I'll force the license issue later. Anyone, I got several messages that the file wasn't a valid Windows System Image. I skipped a few files during installation but they didn't stop. I put a different hard drive in the tower and got the same results. I then put one of the harddrives that was seeing the error into a different tower and it is currently asking for the CD Key.

So, could a virus have destroyed the hard drive or gotten into CMOS maybe? Or does this sound like a bad piece of hard ware separate from any virus issue?

Thanks,

Jason



--
Jason Silva
IT Manager
BS-IT Student - UOP

[cc0281056]

Post by Jason Silva
I have since changed the CD Rom in the original PC, disabled the Floppy
drive and reset the CMOS.
--
Jason Silva
IT Manager
BS-IT Student - UOP
Hello,
I got a call from a client who said they were having problems with a
PC. When I went there I noticed Norton was disabled and I was not
able to enable it. I also could not successfully reinstall. If I
remember correctly this is typical behavior for certain viruses. I
also couldn't get into WinXP most of the time. I got messages about
not being able to determine the computer's license and others about
the system having to restore registry files.
I tried installing an alternative AV program called AVG. It also
didn't finish it's install. Kept getting an Invalid Language File
error.
The PC only had a handful of important docs on it. I was able to
retrieve those and started to reinstall WinXP with a CD I had. I'm
only testing here, I'll force the license issue later. Anyone, I
got several messages that the file wasn't a valid Windows System
Image. I skipped a few files during installation but they didn't
stop. I put a different hard drive in the tower and got the same
results. I then put one of the harddrives that was seeing the error
into a different tower and it is currently asking for the CD Key.
So, could a virus have destroyed the hard drive or gotten into CMOS
maybe? Or does this sound like a bad piece of hard ware separate
from any virus issue?
Thanks,
Jason
--
Jason Silva
IT Manager
BS-IT Student - UOP

So I am curious, did that fix it or are you still having the issue. If
that is a virus, that sounds like a preatty nasty one.

stillBoy

[Jason Silva]

Hey There,

Haven't checked this post in awhile, if you're still listening. No. The
hard drive's data was dead. I even purchased a program to recover data. It
recovered every file I wanted, but they were all corrupt. I wound up
replacing the CPU, MotherBoard. I was able to physically recover the hard
drive. The new Motherboard (MSI) has a pretty decent monitoring utility. I
noticed my 12V power was dipping to about 10.5. I changed that out as well.
I'm running about 11.22 now.
--
Jason Silva
IT Manager
BS-IT Student - UOP

Post by cc0281056

Post by Jason Silva
I have since changed the CD Rom in the original PC, disabled the Floppy
drive and reset the CMOS.
--
Jason Silva
IT Manager
BS-IT Student - UOP
Hello,
I got a call from a client who said they were having problems with a
PC. When I went there I noticed Norton was disabled and I was not
able to enable it. I also could not successfully reinstall. If I
remember correctly this is typical behavior for certain viruses. I
also couldn't get into WinXP most of the time. I got messages about
not being able to determine the computer's license and others about
the system having to restore registry files.
I tried installing an alternative AV program called AVG. It also
didn't finish it's install. Kept getting an Invalid Language File
error.
The PC only had a handful of important docs on it. I was able to
retrieve those and started to reinstall WinXP with a CD I had. I'm
only testing here, I'll force the license issue later. Anyone, I
got several messages that the file wasn't a valid Windows System
Image. I skipped a few files during installation but they didn't
stop. I put a different hard drive in the tower and got the same
results. I then put one of the harddrives that was seeing the error
into a different tower and it is currently asking for the CD Key.
So, could a virus have destroyed the hard drive or gotten into CMOS
maybe? Or does this sound like a bad piece of hard ware separate
from any virus issue?
Thanks,
Jason
--
Jason Silva
IT Manager
BS-IT Student - UOP

So I am curious, did that fix it or are you still having the issue. If
that is a virus, that sounds like a preatty nasty one.
stillBoy