Hi there Moski_,
Is your system clean now?
Even though you had some virus related issue, there's a chance that the drive is failing.
Initialization could be data destructive. This is why, you can try to recovery your data first. Just use some data recovery tool. There are many threads on that in the community.
If you manage to do that, you can do some testing:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
If this does not work, you can attach the drive with different cables to another SATA port, so you can rule out a connection related cause for the issue. I believe you can even attach the drive to another system.
Let us know how this goes,
D_Know_WD