[riffraff9]

A friend of mine has been having probelms with his PC.

AMD 64 3000 Socket 939
512MB memory
nVidia 6600GT
XP SP3 all up to date.
Norton 360

It started when he tried to run Disk Defragmenter and got a message to the effect 'Unreadable Security Data Stream".

I ran CHKDSK and the same message came up but Windows was unable to repair it.

As this did not bode well and thinking I was dealing with a software problem the data was backed up and as the installation was about three years old i was set about doing a re-install. As a side issue partioning the disk was also unsuccesful.

First thing was the installation would not even start the formatting process. So I tried to run Spinright on it. Spinrite is a bootable drive analysis and repair utility. Some people think its great, others dont like it but thats beside the point. Spintite did not get past the first block and went straight into diagnostic recovery mode and then did nothing. I have used this on dozens of occasions and never seen this before. I was pretty sure the hard drive was heading for bin.

As a final check I took the drive out and stuck it in one of my desktops and ran Spinrite again. Exactly the same result.

I looked at one of the screens that shows the raw data being processed. Again this would be the first block This stuff should flick across the screen like something out of the Matrix. See 1st pic.

What I actually got was in the section the raw data should have been processed was a blank screen apart from a single small square in the middle. See 2nd pic.

On closer examination it was a crudely fashioned smiley face! See 3rd pic.I cant help thinking it should not be there.

I tried to scan the drive using my Kaspersky. Kaspersky shows the drive with a small circle with a white question mark on it and will not scan it. The drive shows up as Healthy in Disk Management.

Has anyone come across this before?

Thanks in anticipation (tempered with a sense of foreboding)

[hrlow2]

Can you boot into Safe Mode?
If so, try your procedure from there.

[riffraff9]

Thanks for the reply.

Spinright is a bootable CD and runs immediatly after the post and before windows starts to load. There is no option to run it in Safe Mode

[hrlow2]

I meant to try your Antispyware, antivirus, and defrag in Safe Mode.Things usually work there when they don't in normal mode.
May have to re-post in malware.

[rainforest123]

From the event viewer, applications, I think, could be system, is an entry called winlogon, which contains the chkdsk results.

Please copy [ click on button, on right, with 2 pieces of paper ] the report & paste it in a reply.

If spinrite won't run from a bootable disk, your problem is either an unusual piece of malware, or the HDD is dieing.

Definitive [ probably ] test is HDD diag; preferably from the HDD manufacturer. As a subsitute, Drive Fitness Test, DFT from www.hgst.com > support > downloads.

RF123

[riffraff9]

rainforest123. Tried the Maxtor HDD tool. Boots up fine but when i tried to run the basic test came up with there is an error with the drive and told me to run the advanced test. When i did that it reported back it could not communicate with the drive.

hrlow2. Yep, i'll give that a go.

Thanks

[techservices24]

plaese tried to boot your system in safe mode then perform the defrag and chkdsk utility.

[rainforest123]

rr:
Please backup your data immediately.

Your hard disk drive is likely to fail, soon.

Thanks for the report.

I suggest that you use Acronis True Image, from a bootable CD, www.acronis.com to clone your HDD to a new HDD of the same or larger capacity.

If your computer or HDD are under warranty, check with the responsible entity.

Best of success.

RF123

[dvk01]

try running chkdsk /f from recovery console

[riffraff9]

Yep, confirmed, Unrecoverable physical defects on the hard drive. All backed up and am going to try and clone. However when I tried to partition it, the errors prevented it from doing so, so I might have the same problem with cloning.

That is really weird though, of all the symbols to appear on the screen on its own, it happened to be a smiley face.

Thanks for your advice and assistance guys.

[dvk01]

when you try & clone it, those errors/bad sectors will be moved onto new HD

if you have important documents/images etc copy them over but don't attempt a clone

I have just had the same problem with a family computer and had to do a fresh install in the end onto the new HD

[rainforest123]

Yes, the cloning will not fix problems, but if successful, it will save you a lot of time, ff.

Your situation is not enviable, rr.

As dvk01 notes, sometimes the only successful option is to harvest your data, then re-format, re-install.

Best of success, rr.


RF123

[pcdebol]

you might try toughtest on the drive it will wipe the entire drive but when its done it will let you know if its a healthy reusable drive or for the scrap heap.
it reads and writes seven different patterns to the drive just to make sure its working ok.

Also accomplishes a military grade wipe of the drive while doing it so defiantly back up beforehand.

[rainforest123]

pcdebol:
please provide a link for the product you mentioned.


rr:
If you wipe your HDD, there will be nothing from which to clone. Your source will be empty.

RF123

[pcdebol]

it is http://www.tufftest.com I just looked at their website they used to have a trial version that would do the HDD wipe but it looks like they have done away with it now so its 29.95 to buy the pro version that will do it. Its a good utility and will help diagnose almost any hardware problem but if you are only using it once it may not be worth the cost.

Sorry about that I haven't been to the site in about a year.