[green_sleeves]

Been noticing my machine is acting sluggish and the task manager was was jumping from 60-100%....
I've had problems with this drive (a Seagate 320GB) when it started sending porn links in my MSN messenger last winter- I have since installed MSN. One of the smart people here found out it was this external drive when I posted about it last year. Some infected files were hiding in my backed up sent messages from outlook E. I deleted them, but the problem remained.
After checking what was taking up so much CPU usage and finding it was this drive I disconnected it and now my CPU is now 0 up to-28 % on idle.
I am not too exited about reconnecting this drive because I believe there is some malware hiding in the bowels of this thing.
Tried scanning with Malwarebytes, several spyware programs and Avast and nothing is found.
Should I just take it in and let the techies figure this one out? I am not thrilled with firing up the external drive again and not resolving this.

[Megabite]

Have you tried defragging it?

[green_sleeves]

Originally Posted by Megabite

Have you tried defragging it?

Oh yes, it was defragged a few times but it didn't help.....not with the porn it was sending out via msn messenger (I was told it by one of the techies here was malware hiding in my outlook express and I deleted it all) nor the recent surge of CPU usage.
I'm of the mind right now to take it to the shop as nothing seems to work- the high CPU thing started about a week ago,,,,

[Megabite]

Have you tried reformatting it.........If it is under warranty then I would take it back for-sure

[green_sleeves]

Originally Posted by Megabite

Have you tried reformatting it.........If it is under warranty then I would take it back for-sure

well I am having a dumb moment- the drive has a 5 year warranty....I'll just take it in. Don't know if the warranty will cover this but I have nothing to loose! Will read up on what it covers- might be hardware malfunction knowing warranties,not malware stuck in it. (that is, if that is whats causing the CPU spiking)...
No, haven't tried reformatting. But if I do that, wouldn't I loose all my backups? There are a ton of old pictures and 'stuff' that I have deleted from my PC and would hate to loose...

[Megabite]

Why not put the pictures on disc and any safe data and then reformat the drive ...that will clear everything......

[green_sleeves]

Originally Posted by Megabite

Why not put the pictures on disc and any safe data and then reformat the drive ...that will clear everything......

I am feeling sillier by the moment- I do have my pics backed up on discs- haven't done the rest you suggested. But while searching for warranty information I found out the company has a diagnostic test I can download and see if it finds anything.
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...435&NewLang=en

Only means I have to hook the darn thing up again and spend god knows how long to figure this out! Must be the heat (my excuse and I'm sticking to it).
Thank you for jolting me into some common sense!

[Megabite]

Diagnostics should tell you something