Hard Drive problems... please help if you can!!!

[Strange Famous]

Ok

First of all, my o/s is XP Professional

Now, I have two hard drives in my PC (C & F) - F is a second internal drive I fitted aftre I bought the PC.

I just got an external hard drive that connects via USB 2.0 - which became drive G. I installed the software, connected it, moved some files from F over to G, no problem.

THEN... I restart my PC, and suddenly I cant see the F drive... the PC recognises that there is an F drive, and still calls the external drive G, but t just says F isnt accessable, or "F is not formatted, do you want to format?"

I used the "safetly remove hardware" link in the system tray to remove G, rebooted, but it still cant see F.

Also, every time I start up, I get a message box that comes up from w32, but no message appears... I have a load of spyware on my PC also, and somehow something has disabled my auto update definitions option on Norton (I cant even get onto Nortons website, my browser just wont connect to it, and when I run the live update, Norton thinks Im offline)

The first problem is pissing me off more, what can I do????

I am sure the data is still on drive F, but my PC just wont see it, is it something to do with the external hard drive taking away some detail designated to Drive F???

Please help, all my music files and stuff over three years are all saved on F!!!!

*cries*

[abearaware]

For one, you probably have a browser hijacker installed. You need to rid your PC of all BHO's, spyware, and viruses to make sure you have a stable system. There is a reason that you can't update your definitions and connect to symantec's website. The BHO you have has restricted those such things so you have a harder time removing them. They have basically rewritten your winsock file possibly.

Get your system cleaned up and then I can help you with the hard drive issue. As long as the hard drive is functioning, we'll get it to work.

[Strange Famous]

I've tried everything to get rid of this spyware!

I got a programme that deletes the spyware, and everytime I run it it finds some to delete, but as soon as I go online they come back again

[maleficent]

why spyware cleaners are you using?

Ad Aware is good about cleaning the ones that are in the boot sector, and will have you restart your machine in the cleaning process to get rid of them.

Did you also clean out all your cookies?

And set your preference so that it won't accept any and all cookies?

[Strange Famous]

Ad Aware is the one I have

If I set my browser security to max, it will stop the pop ups, but then I cant navigate the main site I use (on Warner Musics website)

[jaypc2]

try using a program called hijackthis go to google type it in.. u should get pleanty of download sites then post your hijackthis log on one of many computer virus and spywear removal forums the people there should tell you exactly what to do...
... if you were able to remove the spywear make sure that you also removed the registry files (start>run>regedit) that will take you to your registry editor.. once again goto google and type in virus removal and you will get numerous amounts of forums that will tell you what to do from there...

try going into safe mode and see what happens. press F8 at windows bootup

also run msconfig and see what programs are running on start up and check the services (hide all microsoft services helps).

[Strange Famous]

Still cant see drive F in safe mode.

Im going to try taking it out and putting it in an old PC...

[soopafreek]

are your drives designated as master/slave? or are you just using the cable select jumper settings?

[Dragonlich]

Try "Spyware search and destroy" to get rid of more spyware crap. Try a firewall (Tiny personal firewall, Zonealarm) to stop stuff from going in and going out unless you want it to. Install a virus-scanner to get rid of yet more crap.

Perhaps you should try programs like Norton Disk Dictor (part of the Norton Utilities suite), which might be able to repair your disk. Or they might make the problem worse... It's a double-edged sword at times.

Putting it in another PC might work (if the pc supports the new harddisk's size), as long as it can read the drive. Win9x/WinMe won't be able to read NTFS as it is.

Another possibility is a Linux live CD (Knoppix?), or one of the many help-on-a-cd images that are floating around the internet. They'll allow you to boot into an OS, and use that to investigate problems. It's not for the weak, though - you need more than average experience to solve problems that way.

[theburner]

Strange Famous


I think you have the same Browser Hi-jacker I had.. Thing is a beeotch.. Finally just did a reformat and reload.

However, I didn't have any HDD issues with it. Pretty sure you have 2 different issues. I would tackle the browser issue first.

Come to think of it, I did have an issue with a HDD where it would show up, then not show up. Is it a 40GB Maxtor?

Anyways, drive could be on it's way to the great gear morgue.. If you do get it to work, BACK IT UP ASAP.

[blindawg]

Some one has recomended adaware and spybot. I run both at home and work when I have issues.. it usually takes both IMO. There have been occasions when even thsi doesn't help.. Thats when I run (as abearaware suggested) hijack this. you need to be careful with this program but it sure does the trick.. These bastards writing spy/adware have beecome evil lately.. Get yourself a firewall as well. i prefer a hardware based on, but a software one will work as well.. Once you get the spayware fixed, you can tackle the hard drive..