##Solved & Thanks!## Help Please... Is my PC (hard drive/s) failing or have I got a virus?

 
I'd really appreciate any advice on this guys, thanks in advance.
 
Does this look like a genuine problem, or have I contracted a virus, or similar?
 
Basically what happened was I perusing the Coffee House earlier on when all of a sudden, with no warning, Internet Explorer just closed. I opened it again and about five minutes later it happened again. Then a series of 'Warning' windows opened and most of the stuff on my Desktop just disappeared.
 
Here's one of the warnings (they're all identical):
 

 
 
And here's what my desktop looked like ( the System Restore window, I've got that ready just in case I need to try and use it):
 

 
 
I rebooted my PC to see if that would 'clear' the problem and was presented with this "S.M.A.R.T." screen which appeared to be checking through various aspects of my computer:
 

 
 
These are the rest of the 'diagnostic' results:
 

 
 
Here are the more detailed reports from the S.M.A.R.T. 'Repair' tab:
 

 




 
 
 
The weird thing is that I can open any program from my Start menu or Taskbar that isn't displayed in a folder – that’s how I managed to open Photoshop to do these images with and Internet Explorer. All the folders in the Start menu are 'Empty' though. I can't access the Task Manager also. If I try to save any of these screenshots in my Pictures' folder I can do so, but the folder looks empty (where there should be many sub-folders and hundreds of images).
 
I've got all my files backed up on an external drive with Acronis should I need to do anything drastic, although I can't 'see' anything on that drive either, other than these screenshots which I've saved there.
 
 
Back to S.M.A.R.T. this is the 'Main' page:
 

 
 
And this is the 'Advanced' page: 
  
 
  
 
If I click on the 'Repair' or 'Activate' links I'm taken to these web pages:
 

 

 

I even found this little guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqHWumFg6ec

Please defer to Project M's posts... the virus possibility seems most likely after reading his links.


best regards,
mike

Yeah, S.M.A.R.T. looks like a friendly software. I remember reading about it somewhere. But looks like it's geting nastier and nastier. I saw it a few years ago but was in the process of formatting my HDD so I never bothered with it and have pretty much forgotten about it.

You are going to have some quality time with your computer. I've had to get malware off several computers and it usually takes me anywhere from 8 to 12 hours to figure it all out and work through it all but you can do it. Another place is http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?

Have fun!

Julien

Good luck Steve.

These things are always maximum suckage whatever the cause.

I found this Steve.
Sure don't know if will help but...I tried.

Calm down a bit Steve. It is just malware, your hard drive isn't bad. It just takes a bit of time and work but you will get it cleaned up. The forums at Major Geeks and whatthetech have people who will walk you through it step by step if you run into a wall. Sometimes they are a little slow getting to you because they are all volunteers but I promise you'll get through it and everything will be back to normal... it is just a PITA.
I am afraid to click on any links in the coffee house now. I hope you got it somewhere else. I am going to watch and wait for a while. I don't like dealing with malware. You wont either.. but really it will seem really bad but you'll get it fixed. They make it look a lot worse than it is to scare you into buying something from them.

Julien

Yeah...I got hammered with one of them dang things off a google images search of all things...just pulled the plug..had it run on reboot the check and was up and running shortly after that....

 What Guitarhacker said...I had a similar thing not long ago get into one of our work computers. Someone unauthorized had gotten on one of  our computers and picked this up,since there were black porn pop ups I guessed that this is where they got it from, but you could get it from most anywhere.

  The site led you to pay for a service that was bogus and channeled your money to someone in Russia. Clicking any of the so called help links just caused further infections. The total infection count numbered in the hundreds.

You MUST...... Pull the plug or remove the battery and let the computer crash to avoid getting infected. Trust me... it's less painful.

Thanks for this Herb! I knew to unplug my laptop and flip it quick and pop the battery if I spill something on it but I never knew about killing the power if malware pops up... you can bet I will try that the next time I get anything.

THANKS!!

J

sounds like good news so far strums.  I know the panic feeling you must have gotten!

good luck!

Thanks guys, I'm running the scan now, it'll probably take a couple of hours.

I'm just wondering if I cannot access the ATI and the Dell screens because my 1 year warranty has just expired?

I wouldn't have thought so, it must be down to this virus I'd have imagined.

Steve, I have run into rogue system security malware more times than I really want to admit to (on my PC and spent several hours on the phone helping out my mom on a few occasions).

Google "rkill"

It will temporarily stop rogues from running while you search for the proper removal tool and install it.  If you are already infected, you will probably have to download rkill on a different machine and save it to a flash drive or memory stick to get on the infected PC... Most of these rogue security scans disable different browser capabilities- especially those pages of information that show you how to get rid of the rogue.

I'm 99.9% certain your PC is FINE. 

Or.... WILL BE, once you get rid of this bastard.

Thanks Craig, I'm running Malwarebytes now and I've reset all the files.

I'll check out RKill immediately.

Do you remember any problems like the ATI one I'm having?