Is it a virus?

kayFX · 8th Apr 2006, 04:25 AM

i've encounter a few problem that people refer to me.. a partition suddenly become a RAW.. the testimonial to this problem from the owner of the laptop or pc is the same.. they use it fine in the morning/ afternoon or whatever time with no problem at all.. shut down normally.. and then later when they power on they cannot boot.. when try to repair that is the shocking part.. there is no file system.. only partition.. i dont know how to explain to the owner and my best explaination is virus.. but is it a virus? is there such virus capable of doing this? there is some case that there are two partition, one have become RAW and one still have file system.. when i test it on another computer and scan it (no virus found what so ever) still have the file system on the other partition.. when back to the original pc or laptop the partition with the file system suddenly become raw too

.. i dont think its a hardware failure since after the incident still can format the partition and use it.. so what is it?

Chai · 8th Apr 2006, 09:14 AM

Corrupted boot table?

kayFX · 8th Apr 2006, 02:30 PM

what causing the boot table to corrupt? still have no idea..

Dashken · 8th Apr 2006, 05:24 PM

Can be anything... didn't shut down properly, etc.

Adrian Wong · 9th Apr 2006, 10:23 PM

Is the partition formatted in FAT/FAT32?

Data corruption is common in FAT partitions, especially in the office environment where most users just power off their PCs/notebooks without shutting it down first.

Don't think it's a virus since you scanned the rest of your hard drive and found nothing.

kayFX · 13th Apr 2006, 02:41 PM

NTFS.. the partition just suddenly turn into RAW.. is it a rare data corruption? or is it common? i know that if not properly shutdown in FAT/FAT 32 environment will cause corruption, but can it turn a partition in RAW condition? in most cases the corruption can still be repaired..

Adrian Wong · 15th Apr 2006, 03:29 AM

Hmm.. That's really odd for NTFS..

Have you tried scanning the platters yet? I don't mean a soft scan, but a thorough scan of the hard drive platter?

kayFX · 21st Apr 2006, 08:59 PM

erm.. how?

right now im facing same problem and turn out it use a FAT file system..

Shorter · 21st Apr 2006, 10:12 PM

It's fairly rare actually I think. That would be fun to look at. A partition table manager might help. You can maybe set it back to NTFS or FAT (whichever was the case.) I don't think it's a virus. Offhand I'd say probably a BIOS bug or hard disk corruption.

t-shirt · 24th Apr 2006, 11:16 PM

You probably have a corrupted primary boot sector.
it is sometimes repairable using the Dskprobe.exe tool.
as shown here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/247575/EN-US
be sure and read the second article link from the first about how it can go wrong, or poke around the KB to find other articles for other O/Ss/combonations

8th Apr 2006, 04:25 AM	#1 (permalink)
kayFX Active Join Date: 4 Sep 2004 Location: in my room Posts: 601 Reputation: 253 Rep Power: 7	Is it a virus? i've encounter a few problem that people refer to me.. a partition suddenly become a RAW.. the testimonial to this problem from the owner of the laptop or pc is the same.. they use it fine in the morning/ afternoon or whatever time with no problem at all.. shut down normally.. and then later when they power on they cannot boot.. when try to repair that is the shocking part.. there is no file system.. only partition.. i dont know how to explain to the owner and my best explaination is virus.. but is it a virus? is there such virus capable of doing this? there is some case that there are two partition, one have become RAW and one still have file system.. when i test it on another computer and scan it (no virus found what so ever) still have the file system on the other partition.. when back to the original pc or laptop the partition with the file system suddenly become raw too .. i dont think its a hardware failure since after the incident still can format the partition and use it.. so what is it? __________________ everyday learning a new thing.. hey, where is my trophy? http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=92271

8th Apr 2006, 09:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 26,760 Reputation: 3984 Rep Power: 72	Corrupted boot table? __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

8th Apr 2006, 02:30 PM	#3 (permalink)
kayFX Active Join Date: 4 Sep 2004 Location: in my room Posts: 601 Reputation: 253 Rep Power: 7	what causing the boot table to corrupt? still have no idea.. __________________ everyday learning a new thing.. hey, where is my trophy? http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=92271

8th Apr 2006, 05:24 PM	#4 (permalink)
Dashken Administrator! Join Date: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Penang Posts: 29,763 Reputation: 2162 Rep Power: 56	Can be anything... didn't shut down properly, etc. __________________ \| Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.2Ghz \| ASUS P5B-E Plus \| G.SKILL 2x1GB DDR2 800 \| 6 HDDs (2TB+ only ) \| NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT \| Dell E248WFP 24" Widescreen \| Blog : Dashken's I-Blog Gallery : Dashken's I-Paintings

9th Apr 2006, 10:23 PM	#5 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 30,146 Reputation: 3081 Rep Power: 67	Is the partition formatted in FAT/FAT32? Data corruption is common in FAT partitions, especially in the office environment where most users just power off their PCs/notebooks without shutting it down first. Don't think it's a virus since you scanned the rest of your hard drive and found nothing. __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? Keep Tech ARP free! Visit our sponsors! We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

13th Apr 2006, 02:41 PM	#6 (permalink)
kayFX Active Join Date: 4 Sep 2004 Location: in my room Posts: 601 Reputation: 253 Rep Power: 7	NTFS.. the partition just suddenly turn into RAW.. is it a rare data corruption? or is it common? i know that if not properly shutdown in FAT/FAT 32 environment will cause corruption, but can it turn a partition in RAW condition? in most cases the corruption can still be repaired.. __________________ everyday learning a new thing.. hey, where is my trophy? http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=92271

15th Apr 2006, 03:29 AM	#7 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 30,146 Reputation: 3081 Rep Power: 67	Hmm.. That's really odd for NTFS.. Have you tried scanning the platters yet? I don't mean a soft scan, but a thorough scan of the hard drive platter? __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? Keep Tech ARP free! Visit our sponsors! We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

21st Apr 2006, 08:59 PM	#8 (permalink)
kayFX Active Join Date: 4 Sep 2004 Location: in my room Posts: 601 Reputation: 253 Rep Power: 7	erm.. how? right now im facing same problem and turn out it use a FAT file system.. __________________ everyday learning a new thing.. hey, where is my trophy? http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=92271

21st Apr 2006, 10:12 PM	#9 (permalink)
Shorter Warming up Join Date: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 88 Reputation: 15 Rep Power: 0	It's fairly rare actually I think. That would be fun to look at. A partition table manager might help. You can maybe set it back to NTFS or FAT (whichever was the case.) I don't think it's a virus. Offhand I'd say probably a BIOS bug or hard disk corruption.

24th Apr 2006, 11:16 PM	#10 (permalink)
t-shirt Newbie Join Date: 23 Apr 2006 Location: Snohomish, Wa. USA Posts: 14 Reputation: 15 Rep Power: 0	You probably have a corrupted primary boot sector. it is sometimes repairable using the Dskprobe.exe tool. as shown here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/247575/EN-US be sure and read the second article link from the first about how it can go wrong, or poke around the KB to find other articles for other O/Ss/combonations

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