itendo

<<my pc's specs are listed on the side
snapshot; i7 920, vista sp1, mobo:dx58so, 2x2 gig ddr3, 1T seagate 7200.11 x2

i think this first occurred about 3 weeks ago. everything was running fine, i received a notification of important updates from windows, and when they restarted to complete installation, i was greeted with a BSOD. upon restarting my computer, there was some weird boot loader (i think because i was dual booting ubuntu) and it kept trying to run dskchk. whether it found anything or not it failed.

as a result, since i built the pc, i have the vista disk and used it to repair the installation. upon checking the disk it found a root cause for the problem, a corrupt system partition. it tried to fix and then restarted. this did nothing. i tried to do this again, thinking it needed another pass or two, each subsequent attempt i got an 0x490 error that terminated the attempt.

because i had the majority of my user files on another drive, i decided to just re-install and move on with my day. i grabbed my spare 1T HDD and installed vista on it (because a. i assumed this would solve the issue if the hard drive was bad, and b. i would be able to reclaim any other files on the corrupt drive). this worked fine until wednesday morning.

i woke up with a cup of coffee and another BSOD. i dont know if the update (which was the .NET update from a bit ago) had anything to do with it as i had gotten a few (new, this had not happened previously, nor had anything changed) BSODs from the display driver failing (ATI hasn't updated for awhile).

i tried to assess by going the BSOD dumper route, but am unable to do so because i cant launch any fragment of windows. i tried to launch ubuntu (which had not been installed again yet) from a live CD and it failed to at least save my files. i have scoured this forum looking for all the BSODs and the MBR references and havent found a solution.

right now, i am reinstalling vista on the first HDD (btw, i accidentally quick-formatted my reserve HDD with the installer, any sugg's on an unformat utility?), but i would like to know: what happened, and how can i keep it from happening again and is anyone else in my boat too?

usasma

A corrupt MBR is fixable by using the command prompt in Startup Repair and executing the following command:

bootrec /fixmbr

As long as you're in there, run this one also:

bootrec /fixboot

If it refuses to fix it, then I'd have to start suspecting the health of your hard drive. Here's a link to some bootable diagnostics: http://usasma.vox.com/library/post/b...agnostics.html

itendo

i probably posted too few deets as to what ive done already, but i did both bootrec's, and seagate's tool were of no use. however, i formatted the one drive (as both basically are unlinked mirrors to each other now), and reinstalled vista and ran the burn-in diags.

everything from RAM to video came up fine (perhaps conspicuouusly but anyway), except for a side by side comparison of the drives. in a 5m42s duration test, my one 7200.11 1T drive (e:) accumulated 2.05 billion ops, and the other (identical) drive (c:) only hit 121 million ops.

i think that i am going to have to call in the warranty on the bad drive (7/5 was the 6mo from purchase mark), however i need to establish if 2.05B ops is even good for the other one. but watching Pass Mark, its only registering:
(C:)
Read 6.8Mb/sec
Write 6.8Mb/sec
(E:)
Read 73.7Mb/sec
Write 81.1Mb/sec

usasma

Are they Seagate drives? If so, the Seagate tool is the definitive test.

Have you used KillDisk or DBAN to wipe the drive? It could be one of those boot sector viruses or even lower-level nasty that I've read about.

itendo

i had previously tried the seagate tool (from boot). i will try killdisk and dban, but have already re-installed the OS; is one or the other non-destructive of data?

any chance you could post any info you have on boot-sector viruses/lol-lvl nasties?

as an aside: also, i'd like to ask; is there an alternative (ie free/FOSS) to Easus Unerase ($60) to reclaim data on a hard drive i accidentally did a quick format on during Vista set-up. i tried a demo version of Active@ but it doesnt let you recover, it only analyzes. as i see the prices i wish it was an EXT2 or EXT3 drive.

joeten

hi if you have a suspicion of a virus you should post in our security forum
NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help for specific help and advice

usasma

Both KillDisk and DBAN will completely wipe your entire hard drive (not just the Windows partition).
Everything will be gone - data, Windows, all the partitions

Only use to completely start over fresh - this is needed for (IMO) a boot sector or MBR infection. I don't know if you have that, so follow joeten's advice.

itendo

in terms of posting to the security forum, i dont have any reason to suspect a virus. ive tried to look up resources on MBR viruses and how they work but havent really found any good descriptions/discussions.

if anything, i think this goes back to a microsoft .NET update, which after it installed failed to boot after restarting. at the time i was dual booting vista/ubuntu. instead of the standard vista dual boot screen, i kept getting an error (the one that kept running dskchk) reflecting a lack/corruption of a system partition. the hard drive this occurred on is the one with the horrible bandwidth still.

depending on the bottlenecks, i may abandon vista altogether and opt for ubuntu. running virtualized versions of the majority of anything i need, possibly setting up a windows 7 RC partition. i /am/ going to use the wipe utilities listed above on at least the one drive to see if they can help it out. if not im going to need to contact seagate and call in my warranty.