Virus or Bad Hard Drive ??

[Erehwon]

Trying to help a friend long distance. After viewing an email and then
trying to re-open same email (1st bad sign) computer locked up. On reboot,
came up with a black screen with only icons for My Computer, My Documents,
Recycle Bin and Temporary Files and numerous error messages about a "failed
write command" and recommendation to run HDD scan to fix errors or risk
losing data. Box that came up, however, just had the title of "Live Support
Center" and wanted to download a trial version of program to fix (2nd bad
sign). Did not download but did check Home Page and FAQ tabs from error
message and couldn't find any indication of who it was from (3rd bad sign).
Start > Programs came up saying EMPTY. Shut down and booted into SAFE mode
and then ran
Check Disk by right clicking on drive from My Computer and selecting
Properties>Tools>Error Checking with Automatically Fix any Errors and
Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors checked. Scan appeared to run but results
of scan came and went to fast to be able to read. Still had above error
messages and request to run trial version of Live Support Center.

Booted back in to Safe Mode with Command Prompt and tried a simple DIR
command from root. Came back "File Not Found". Tried changing directory to
Documents & Settings and command prompt showed directory change but DIR or
DIR *.* still said "file not found". Bottom line was that I could go to any
subdirectory I wanted to but could not find any files in any. I then tried
running chkdsk from the command prompt in safe mode and it appeared to run
fine and showed no errors. Tried one more time running chkdsk /f /r on
following reboot but no change. So, Check Disk shows no errors but I can't
access any files ??

Any ideas other than reformatting / replacing hard drive ?

 

[Erehwon]

Start >> Programs came up saying EMPTY. Shut down and booted into SAFE
mode
Properties>> Tools>Error Checking with Automatically Fix any Errors and

You are infected with a Rogue HDD failure scan trojan.

Read this this...
http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=9573

Then post here...
http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showforum=7

Thanks. I think we fought the battle and won. Hardest part was getting
Malwarebytes to download with malware blocking it and no second computer to
download to. Fortunately, System Restore was able to get us back to a point
where it would install.

 

[Dustin]

Glad to hear it and thanks for the update.

David,

you rocked another one into the bit oblivion.

 

[Dustin]

Thanks for the update.

I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the help you offer people
here. It's a kind gesture. For what it's worth, I'm impressed with your
malware skills.

Have a good weekend.

 

[RayLopez99]

"Erehwon" <[email protected]> wrote in



Glad to hear it and thanks for the update.

David,

you rocked another one into the bit oblivion.

Yeah right. Color me skeptical. How do we know that "David" and the OP arenot the same person, working for some anti-virus company, trying to 'scare' people into buying their wares? It's suspicious that: (1) "David" identified the virus by remote diagnosis, and, (2) the OP solves his problem thenwrote back to say it was fixed--usually if it works they never post their success (typical of noobs).

No, I say it was all a 'show trial'.

RL

 

[Buffalo]

"Erehwon" <[email protected]> wrote in


Glad to hear it and thanks for the update.

David,

you rocked another one into the bit oblivion.

Yeah right. Color me skeptical. How do we know that "David" and the OP are
not the same person, working for some anti-virus company, trying to 'scare'
people into buying their wares? It's suspicious that: (1) "David"
identified the virus by remote diagnosis, and, (2) the OP solves his problem
then wrote back to say it was fixed--usually if it works they never post
their success (typical of noobs).

No, I say it was all a 'show trial'.

RL

I guess you are right again, Ray (the noob) Lopez.
Buffalo

 

[Dustin]

Yeah right. Color me skeptical. How do we know that "David" and the
OP are not the same person, working for some anti-virus company,
trying to 'scare' people into buying their wares? It's suspicious
that: (1) "David" identified the virus by remote diagnosis, and, (2)
the OP solves his problem then wrote back to say it was
fixed--usually if it works they never post their success (typical of
noobs).

I know David. I don't know the OP. It's not suspicious to me or other
researchers as we know how he came about the diagnosis. The OP provided
the necessary details. These are: Chkdsk saying all is cool, an app in
windows claiming otherwise, but windows never requesting a disk check on
every boot sorta gives up the secret; IE: a piece of software is
screwing around with the user. Windows will do some stuff if it feels
it's HD is dying in time for it to notice. It isn't going to say it
found errors reading all the time while you're using it, but chkdsk pass
the drive and windows not schedule chkdsk to run on next reboot.

And it wasn't a virus, it didn't replicate. It's a trojan.
David doesn't charge for his software, it's free and fairly open for
study.

No, I say it was all a 'show trial'.

Doesn't matter. The facts dispute it.

--
I don't need no arms around me. And I dont need no drugs to calm me. I
have seen the writing on the wall. Don't think I need anything at all.
No! Don't think I'll need anything at all. All in all it was all just
bricks in the wall. All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.
Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall part 3

 

[FromTheRafters]

"Erehwon" <[email protected]> wrote in


Glad to hear it and thanks for the update.

David,

you rocked another one into the bit oblivion.

Yeah right. Color me skeptical. How do we know that "David" and the OP are
not the same person, working for some anti-virus company, trying to 'scare'
people into buying their wares? It's suspicious that: (1) "David"
identified the virus by remote diagnosis, and, (2) the OP solves his problem
then wrote back to say it was fixed--usually if it works they never post
their success (typical of noobs).

No, I say it was all a 'show trial'.

RL
***
You're wrong, but you're probably used to that. )
***

 

[Dustin]

Yeah right. Color me skeptical. How do we know that "David" and the
OP are not the same person, working for some anti-virus company,
trying to 'scare' people into buying their wares? It's suspicious
that: (1) "David" identified the virus by remote diagnosis, and, (2)
the OP solves his problem then wrote back to say it was
fixed--usually if it works they never post their success (typical of
noobs).

No, I say it was all a 'show trial'.

RL
***
You're wrong, but you're probably used to that. )
***

I don't think he understands how dumb he actually is on this stuff...
Talks down to one individual who could be useful to him.. lol. Praises
everybody else. hah!



--
I don't need no arms around me. And I dont need no drugs to calm me. I
have seen the writing on the wall. Don't think I need anything at all.
No! Don't think I'll need anything at all. All in all it was all just
bricks in the wall. All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.
Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall part 3

 

[FromTheRafters]

I don't think he understands how dumb he actually is on this stuff...
Talks down to one individual who could be useful to him.. lol. Praises
everybody else. hah!

It could be all down to posting style, but makes me wonder how RL is in RL.
If he's the same he probably has a serially broken nose. D