You encountered a Trojan infection and now your system is experiencing critical hardware failure.
You encountered a Trojan infection and now your system is experiencing critical hardware failure.
Hello everyone, I recently downloaded an Excel template from what seemed like a reliable site. As soon as the download started, my computer slowed down significantly, and it took a long time to find where to save the file. After closing everything and restarting the PC, I noticed two drives missing—effectively one HDD storage was allocated to both. That’s when I realized something was wrong. I turned off the computer, unplugged the hard drive, and cleaned dust from it. Still, I thought it might be a virus. After cleaning, the drives returned, but whenever I tried to access them, I received a "FATAL HARDWARE ERROR." I ran a full scan with Windows Defender, which found and quarantined the viruses, then deleted them. I also cleared temporary files using Safe Mode and ran additional scans in Command Center. I even took the PC to a repair shop, but the issue persisted. Do I still have a chance to recover my files? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your help!
That's not sufficient. A decent trojan will be harder to detect. Use MalwareBytes to check what it reveals. Regarding the hardware issue, it could still be running, possibly trying to encrypt the drive and failing at some point, or the data might have been corrupted—reforming the drive and performing a full format usually restores it. A quick test would be to create a bootable USB with Ubuntu after MalwareBytes and try accessing the drive; if it opens, you should be able to retrieve the files.
Install Malwarebytes and perform a complete system check. Once the Trojan is removed, retry the scan. Based on how serious the infection is, you might recover your files again.
Get the Ubuntu ISO file, install Rufus, locate a USB drive with at least 8GB capacity that supports wiping, then use Rufus to transfer the ISO onto the USB. Insert the USB into your computer’s back panel, choose it as the boot device, and start the process. Ubuntu will launch in a boot mode from the USB, allowing it to recognize and access the drives.