Check Disk Error - What to do?

[thismafiaguy]

I encountered a Check Disk Error after browsing a .gov website and then rebooting my system. At first, the browser stopped responding, then my system randomly started to open up programs like iTunes and Steam. It became completely unresponsive so I had to hit the reset button. That led me to "Loading Operating System..." and then "Disk Read Error."

Could this be a definite hard drive failure? I tried connecting this hard drive to another computer via hard drive dock, and it did not register on the other computer. What should I do? I am getting an SSD to replace this hard drive, but I need to somehow pull the operating system from this hard drive onto the SSD, if that's even possible.

 

[bloc97]

Can you take a picture of the screen that says "Disk Read Error"?
Because this sounds more of a Virus than a real error for me...

Even if it weren't a virus, it is just probably your Windows Installation that became corrupted, repair it with your Win7 Installation disk.

-Bloc97

 

[Niva]

Yeah it sounds like a possible virus especially given the initial symptoms. These days viruses will cause antivurus and system utilities to fail.

Don't post a direct link but can you tell us about the site you visited when this happened?

Recommend fresh re-install if the windows repair doesn't work.

Also you may want to try a live boot from some linux distros just to test the hardware. Not sure you're familiar with linux but lots of options are available, especially for testing hard disks.

 

[thismafiaguy]

Okay, I did suspect it to be a virus at first. The screen just says "Disk Read Error" and under that it says "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart."

I was visiting www.fafsa.gov when this occured. It's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid website, which I seriously doubt contains any viruses. So it must have been from elsewhere.

Why isn't it registering on my other computer though? I wanted to scan that hard drive with my other computer for viruses, but it acted as if it wasn't even connected.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Why isn't it registering on my other computer though? I wanted to scan that hard drive with my other computer for viruses, but it acted as if it wasn't even connected.

If the virus corrupted the MFT or MBR on the drive it may have problems showing up.

 

[bloc97]

If the virus corrupted the MFT or MBR on the drive it may have problems showing up.

If it was the case, you can try to restore the MFT with some thrid-party programs.

This forum thread may help you : http://www.pcmech.com/forum/computer-hardware/127465-how-do-i-repair-corrupted-mft-ntfs-partition.html

-Hope it helps!

 

[thismafiaguy]

It seems to me that the most likely problem here is a virus instead of hardware failure. This hard drive isn't making any sort of unusual clicking noise, it seems to be mechanically smooth.

So it does not register on my other computer when I connect it via HDD dock, and it gives me "Disk Read Error" when I try to boot it. What should I do now to diagnose and fix this problem?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Instead of using a dock, can you use it as a secondary internal drive - i.e. attach to a sata port, and see if it shows up that way. If it does, you can then proceed with a virus scan.

 

[bloc97]

Yea, you can try to plug in into a 2nd SATA port, but be sure to not boot from the 2nd ''broken'' drive, since the virus may copy itself in your ''good'' hard drive...