hard drive starting to fail

A

Atticus_gamer

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 9, 2006
Messages
169
I have the 32gb Raptor, and after someone had downloaded a virus on my system I ended up reformatting and install xp pro all over again. Now my problem is that my system is running like crap, pops and cracks from the soundcard when trying to watch a web video, plug in a usb item and the system almost freezes.At first I thought this may have been a bad install, but I did it all over again and same thing. Ive defraged and to my dismay it still runs like crap. Nothing pops out in the event viewer, The thing is before the virus the system was running great, now it feels like I'm running XP on a 500mhz machine..
My specs are
P4 3.0ghz.,2gb ddr pc4000, 6800gt oc, Audigy 2 zs plat., 32gb raptor, 200gb maxtor, 300gb maxtor, 500watt psu,

any insight would be helpfull.
 
Do a test: install XP on one of your other drives and pull out the Raptor. If it's running better, ditch it. Otherwise, and I think this is the more probable issue, traces of the virus are still on your other 2 HDDs and are constantly leeching back into your fresh installs. I'd take a close look at the data on them too.
 
I would reformat the drive again, refresh the MBR by booting with a Win98 boot diskette and typing fdisk /mbr ( the method I use,) or try this method off of the recovery console (I have not tried it, but it sounds safe enough to me.)

Then install Windows. Then install your antivirus program (I use AVG,) and only then connect to the net and only update the antivirus program and then unplug it from the net and do a full scan. Then, reconnect and get your 500 windows updates.

All this should be done with only the boot drive installed.

Only then should you start using the system normally. Use it with just that one drive installed for a few days and see how it runs.

You may also want to run a Root Kit scanner. I have never had one, but I hear they can be pretty sneaky. AVG has one of them to and can be gotten here. I actually run their Antispyware app too. With the free version, it has a real time scanner for the first 30 days.

I know this is a pain in the butt, but like nuking the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. ;)

Don
 
Western Digital has a tool called lifegaurd tools and they will tell you if your drive is failing. Its a little easier then refreshing the whole system.
 
Data lifequard won't be able to tell if his MBR has been infected with a virus.

But yes, testing the drive with Data Lifequard would be a good step before you start to make sure that the drive is still healthy before spending a lot of time reinstalling everything.

Go to the WD website, find the support section, then find the downloads section. Get the version that creates a CD or floppy, and boot with that with only the drive you want to test attached. Run the complete or long test. If it reports that the MBR is corrupted, refresh it like I said above and try again.

Good luck.

Don
 
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