Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly?

   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly? #1  

beppington

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Yesterday my hard drive started running constantly & I can longer access the internet or our LAN.

Anybody heard of this?

I have had Microsoft Security Essentials running for quite a while now (maybe a year?) & all seemed fine with that, until now.

I've tried starting in Safe Mode with Networking, but no. Safe Mode only, but no.

What can I do?? Re-format?? :(

(posting from my old, slow laptop next to the problem computer (desktop))
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly? #2  
First, cold boot (meaning turn off your computer for a minute or two, then restart)...see what happens then.
If you can do a systems restore...try that (although I don't think that will fix anything).
If restoring doesn't work and you have the OS set up disk, put that in your CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM) drive and reboot (BTW, you may have to go into your BIOS to set the boot priority to the CD-ROM drive). Always try a repair first...NOT a total new installation!

If none of the above works...well, it may be time to format...just make sure you backup everything that's important to you first, know all your passwords, have all software disks handy (to re-install).
Formatting should always be your last resort...
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly? #3  
I wouldn't reformat it,unless you can do without any information on it, providing it will even format.

Sounds like it cant "read" for some reason. If I was you, I would look inside and try to get the make and model, then go to this website and post the question.

http://hardforum.com/

A ton of PC gurus on there, there should be a sub-forum as you scroll down, I think it's "Data Storage Systems"

If you end up needing a new HDD, you'll get a price shock, since the floods in Taiwan, prices have gone up 150%. Those guys will give you recommendations too, if it comes to that.
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly? #4  
Nothing specific to add but would suggest the possibility of adding a couple prgms to help keep things on the level.

First is Malwarebytes Malwarebytes : Free anti-malware, anti-virus and spyware removal download Its a great prgm and can find and fix things that other prgms miss. I'd recommend trying this app before doing a reinstall.

Other thing to to get and run a sandbox app. See here for an explanation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_(computer_security)

I use Comodo firewall which includes a sandbox function. Firewall Antivirus Software Free Download from Comodo

Personally, haven't had a malware/virus issue in yrs. Good luck
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
I've had the computer turned off & back on about every way possible (re-start; power off; CTRL-ALT-DEL) between yesterday & today. Right now I have it started in Safe Mode with Networking, & that does stop the hard drive from running, but the network still doesn't work.

We tried turning off the network card in the BIOS & re-starting, & the hard drive still runs.

This problem computer was born in '07, & although I like to "use 'em until they die", I also want to be able to make sure I've retrieved everything I need from it (not a diligent backer-upper :eek:), so I went ahead & ordered a new (refurb) computer to replace this one. And, I'll continue to try to fix this one.

I'll check into that site, too, Western. Thanks guys.
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
BTW, I don't know the cause of the problems, of course, & may never know, but I found a video on youtube & wondered if I could save the audio (song) to add to my iPod.

I entered into Google "save youtube audio", & one of the links was a youtube video showing you how to do it.

It says to go to their website, paste the youtube link into their box, click "go" or whatever, & an MP3 will be created. I did all that, & sure enough an MP3 file was created that seems to work fine ... but now computer problems.

The site the video tells you to use is flvto.com ... so beware.
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly? #7  
For years I had a PC and always had some kind of anti virus installed. It seemed like every time the AV term expired there was some issue with the computer and I needed to re up with the AV provider and they would "fix" the problem..... For a fee. Finally bought a Mac and after two years... No issues what so ever. Never again will I deal with a PC
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly? #8  
Did you try just leaving it on till it gets done snooping in your hard drive? I have that Security Essentials on this old desktop,and it or someone invades my hard drive,and jams up everything untill they are about done.You can hear the hard drive running,and if you shut down,and restart,it just keeps running for awhile.All I can do is wait till it stops and goes back to normal,might take 5 minutes sometimes.
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly? #9  
Sounds like it might be doing a virus scan on the hard drive.

Point the mouse pointer at the menu bar. The bar with the Start button.

  • Click on the right mouse button and you should see a pop up menu that has Task Manager.
  • Click on Task Manager
  • Task Manager should have a tab called "Processes" Click on that tab.
  • In the Process window you should see some columns like "Image Name", "User Name", and "CPU." Click on the CPU column so that it sorts. You might have to do this twice to see the CPU value sorted from High to Low values.
What you want to see is"System Idle Process" "System Idle Process" should be some number above zero. The higher the number the less work your CPU is doing. If the value is 0 then some other process is using up your CPU.

If other processes are at the top of the page, they are the processes using up your CPU.

Since your disk drive is running, the CPU might not be the problem. You can add more columns to Task Manager by clicking on View->Select Columns. Pick a value like I/O Read and/or I/O Writes and hit the OK button

Back in the Process panel click on the added column headers to see who is doing the most reading or writing. You will almost certainly have to search the Internet with the process name to find out what that process is doing.

This will take you longer to read than to do. It really is simple once you do it once or twice. Took me far long to try to describe than it takes to do. :D

Later,
Dan
 
   / Virus causing my hard drive to run constantly?
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Did you try just leaving it on till it gets done snooping in your hard drive? I have that Security Essentials on this old desktop,and it or someone invades my hard drive,and jams up everything untill they are about done.You can hear the hard drive running,and if you shut down,and restart,it just keeps running for awhile.All I can do is wait till it stops and goes back to normal,might take 5 minutes sometimes.

The constant running hard drive started yesterday mid-afternoon, & I left the computer running all night, & it was still running this morning & all day today.
 
 
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