[Wylug-help] strange hard drive problem

[david powell]

ok so not realy a linux problem but has anyone else encounted this
problem 


a machine set up with windows xp , server 2003 on an ntfs file system 

note not dual boot  this is a windows only machine 

but the machine works fine (or as well as windows lets it anyway ) 

then one day it appears to have cought a virus , the virus checker finds it 
and manages to remove it seemingly ok 

but the virus like effects on the machine continue , files start to disapear 
and eventualy a reboot fails 

now  on 3 separate occasions , on 3 diferent machines , where the old 
"infected" machine and data have not been incontact with the new machine 

ends up with the following problem 

	windows refuses to install on the hard drive that was infected 
even if the following has been done 

reflash the hard drives flash rom , force a drive blank changing all data on 
the drive to 0's , creation of new mbr's boot sectors and partition tables 
and refalshing of the pc's bios  although both appear to be unchanged from 
there normal code so no infections there 

the drive appears to be faulty , but , it is posible to install linux on it 
without any problems at all , so its not a hardware problem , even all the 
drive tests show no faults , but a windows install on it will fail to boot 

now what i find is suspect is once this has happend there is no way i have 
found to recover any data from the drive , so i have been unable to review 
the logs , and software on the drive for sign's of beeing hacked or wether it 
was a virus , and the same one 3 times in the last 5 years is suspect 

this time its my laptop that has the problem , and just lost 2 months of work 
on it , so will have to restart designing  my open hardware fpga board once i 
can get windows installed on it again so i can use the cad software , i have 
got to wait untill i can afford a new drive for it