Storage Problems deleting hard drive

Having problems deleting my sons hard drive (Seagate 1TB Barraccuda) it stated acting very weird a few weeks ago so decided to reinstall windows 7.

Problems started when I noticed 2 small partitions on it, one is system reserved at 99.9 mb but theres another at 200mb no name, can't delete either of them.

Reinstalled windows 7 on it but then auto run will not work for DVD's so couldn't install anti virus, internet works but attempt to get anti virus online will not work.

I've now tried putting his hard drive in a caddy and formatting it using windows on my computer, computer says "cannot format this drive".


So I 've tried to delete everything using CCleaner and the answer I get from that is ,

This volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.

Been at this now for about 6 hours trying different things even tried using Windows DVD and diskpart to access disk but it tells me there is no disk found.

At this moment my brain is starting to hurt

 

Have you tried Linux Live CD Boot?

 

Burn a Parted Magic disk and boot from that - you should be able to do what you want to from there

 

I would if I could but nothing boots from DVD drive, it start up then spins down apart from Windows 7 disc which will let me put another copy onto the hard drive but will not let me delete the 200 mb partition.

 

Have you tried running fdisk, or formatting the drive from the command prompt during the GUI part of the Windows 7 install/setup ?

To bring up a command prompt during setup hit SHIFT+F10

 

Tried that and it just tells me that there is no disc to be found. Tried again to delete all the drive and now it tells me I do not have permission to access the drive.

 

When you say the computer started acting weird, what do you mean?
Do you think there was a Virus on it?

Could be that the hard drive is dying with a bunch of dodgy sectors.

Have you tried booting into linux from a USB stick, and then using the hdd management in linux to view the disks stats?


When you say the internet works, but when you try to get anti virus it doesn't work, what does that mean? Does it not download, disconnect the internet, put you through to a different page?


At this point, without any of the above info, I'd be tempted to say virus, and would probably just try using another hard drive. If that still doesn't work, then we can move on to hardware faults.

 

Hi, it started redirecting to different sites and prompting at various times for bank info, now if you try to get onto an anti virus you get porn.

"Have you tried booting into linux from a USB stick, and then using the hdd management in linux to view the disks stats?" haven't tried that and to be honest not sure if I could do it.

After messing about managed to remove? the 200 mb partition and that has shown back up in the main partition but hasn't solved any thing.

Have now got as far as trying to reinstall windows again but when you get to Custom install and select partition I now get message that ,

"Windows cannot be installed to this disc, the selected partition is of the GPT partition style.

So I try to format it and it will not allow me to.

Have now got 2 partitions, Disk 0 partition 100. mb with 86.0 system

Disc 0 unallocated space 931.4 free 931.4

So up to now tried to wipe drive outside of computer in a caddy , no luck, tried reformatting still no luck .

Think I may have to take an aspirin or 2

 

From what you have said at the start of your last post you have malicious software on the PC, thats 100% it also explains why it won't let you use any anti virus . The mini partition you mention is quite normal on shop bought machines.

When you install windows it will give you options on where to install it. At that point format the main partition. You should also be able to format the other 2 little ones. Then once windows has installed properly you can the go into disk management and delete the 2 little ones.

 

Hi, the PC is one that I built for him about 4 months ago, but the hard drive is about 2 years old.

The motherboard is a Gigabyte Z97P-D3 with an Intel Core i5 4690

 

Its definitely some thing nasty that has buried itself in the root on the OS . If you can format the hard rive in another machine you can start again with a fresh install. Plus get rid of te little partitions so its all one drive again.

Or possibly as has been mentioned before the HDD is knackered or on it's way out.

 

use diskpart on another machine find the disk number using list disk and select disk x where x is the disk you want to blank, then clean, if you are not familiar with diskpart it is run from an admin cmd prompt

 

I starting to think that a new drive is the best option, up to now tried diskpart, that didn't work, trying to format in a caddy, didn't work, erase all the drive while in the caddy with CCleaner, didn't work.

This is the first time that I've been unable to wipe a drive, got a headache now.

Any way I have a son that I'm considering part exchanging up for offers.

 

have you tried a different sata cable?

edit: oops you tried a caddy so i'm presuming the above question is null and void

 

The fact that windows has been reinstalled at least once and the malicious stuff is still there would make me burn the hard drive with fire and buy a new one.

I would also do a thorough check on the computer you plugged the infected drive into just to be sure.

 

As a last resort you can try Killdisk clicky - read through their literature first though as it does pretty much kill the disk as you can wipe both used and unused data.

 

Hi back again, so got an old hard drive placed in caddy and used window to format it, then used CCleaner to erase entire drive.

Then placed old drive in sons PC and installed windows 7 then Norton, then everything else using auto run from DVD writer.

So now have a PC up and running ,just got a 250gb drive instead of 1TB.

So I either have a nasty on it or just a crap drive it's getting destroyed.

Thanks to all who have posted with all your help and advice , off to order a new drive for my lad because I've been told that murder is not allowed and the excuse that the hard drive fell out of my hands wouldn't stand up in court.

 

Cerberus 90 taken your advice and run a couple of scans plus an online scan and my PC has come up clean, (famous last words)