I have been working on a laptop for 4 days now. I have run Mcafee AV and AVG 7 alternately and have found over 40 viruses,trojans etc. I have run Adaware, Spybot S&D and a few specific fixes. The first AV scan w/McAfee took over 24 hours on a 20G hd with only 8G being used!!
Today, when I restarted the laptop I got a stop error. That problem was dealt with with Dell and they are sending me a new hard drive. My question may sound dumb, but can a virus actually cause an unrecoveable error to the point of having to replace the HD or was this a coincidence that the HD crashed when I was doing all this work?
thanks for any input. 
Some viruses or trojans are known to sometimes cause damage to hard drives I have read about this before on another forum.
You sure the virus didnt attack your bios?.
| yule wrote: |
I have been working on a laptop for 4 days now. I have run Mcafee AV and AVG 7 alternately and have found over 40 viruses,trojans etc. I have run Adaware, Spybot S&D and a few specific fixes. The first AV scan w/McAfee took over 24 hours on a 20G hd with only 8G being used!!
Today, when I restarted the laptop I got a stop error. That problem was dealt with with Dell and they are sending me a new hard drive. My question may sound dumb, but can a virus actually cause an unrecoveable error to the point of having to replace the HD or was this a coincidence that the HD crashed when I was doing all this work?
thanks for any input. |
Perhaps this thread would be helpful -
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?p=64356
Don't copy-paste articles from another source like this.Some viruses are claim to be capable of changing voltage on your main board - I'm not sure its true but if it is, then some of them can damage your HD. But its just a rumor.
I think so
some years ago
I heard it was possible from a paper
but I never met this
it is possible.. if the virus or trojan loads up a very basic program, it can edit your bios to make your computer think the harddrive is way faster then it is.. the harddrive will usually spin very awqwardly and invalid data willl be sent//received as a result, although this is a very uncommon virus because it is very motherboard manufacturer specific.. IE asus made virus's will only affect asus mobo's
usually no physical harddrive damage will occur, you usually just reset the bios with a quick flash or get a new motherboard :/
A virus cannot directly or significantly effect anything beyond that which is manipulatable via data I/O. Period. Any damage to a HDD or processor would be limited to what changes can be made concerning said hardware. (For instance, a virus could cause a continuous load on the processor, HDD etc and cause damage from heat or other effects of 'over-revving'.
Like S3nd K3ys said, It can't cause direct damage to your hard drive but can cause indirect damage to it. I have known many people who have been able to write a virus like this. Although many of these are very rare, they are out there. That is why i recommend not having McAfee and having some other anti-virus program like Norton. I also recommend having a firewall. There are many good free ones out there. Last, I recommend having an operating system such as Linux (mainly Gentoo or Fedora Core) because they are much less likely to have a virus (since many viruses are written to harm Windows).
| cronic5 wrote: |
| ...Last, I recommend having an operating system such as Linux (mainly Gentoo or Fedora Core) because they are much less likely to have a virus (since many viruses are written to harm Windows). |
I agree on this one, but the software I use for my work will not run on anything but windows. So I am forced to have a windows box. I do have a box at home with Fedora on it, and dabble with that some. But unfortunately, windows is my OS de jur.Virus doesn't damage your computer. It's just a virus. I have an antivirus and it notifys me often when the virus comes. It didn't damage my computer. Just use the best antivirus as it's possible and ignore the virus if it's keep annoying you. That's what I do.
| saadonline wrote: |
| ... and ignore the virus if it's keep annoying you. That's what I do. |
Some viruses take control of the boot system. The boot of hd is the part where are stored the data from that the computer starts. The computer reads this information before star the operating system and of course, before to start the antivirus software. So, if a virus gets that place, there are many probanilities that your pc is dead.
Yeah some viruses and trojans may cause any damage on harddisk.
For example trojans are openinig your ports and other users can be connected your computer.
When they are connected, they will be changed your bios configuration and this may cause a damage on your harddisk or any part. They will be formatted easily your harddisk too.
For security you must be clever 
A virus attack can deifnitely damage ur hardisk, but trojans cannot, they just merely play around with ur files on ur harddisk. Some Virusses can attack ur BIOS, as stated earlier, and can also damage ur harddrive clusters, meaning like damage the data present on that regeon of the hard disk, meaning the data gets irrecoverable, and furthur more, writing data to that portion of the harddisk becomes impossible, even though that section of the hdd is clearly contributing to the over all space statistics of ur harddisk
And also, 24 hours for 8 gigs of data is waay too much, i would suggest ur use a software called:
Registry Cleaner Optimizer by Palsol
www.palsol.com
Thatl clear out all Slowdown problems of ur hdd and computer, believe me i cleaned out 24000 registry entries, and didnt realize it was my registry which was giving a hell of a slowdown on my system! 
wen ur comp is hacked, its usual to see cd roms going in and out randomly,,floppy drives starting and shutting on their own. fan speeds can be adjusted via bios,, so obviously temperature can be raised inside the cpu. so yes dude,,viruses can damge ur hdd, in case u dont clear them up
what u need to do is buy a sh!ty hd and set it as master then get the one that will not boot up and set it as slave now u will be able to acess that hd it works done it before
yes a virus can ruin your hard drive, but only certian viruses
and also if you bought your laptop Used that will also be your problem...
i bought a used laptop once from an actuall computer store and it had an actual hard drive virus on it, by that i mean there was a Virus CHIP on the hard drive that allowed it to run for 5 days then it would delete everything and give me like 90 viruses that messed everything up... so thats another thing to look for
but thats my input man you can try other things but thats my idea
good luck with it bro
A virus cannot itself damage your hardware under a modern OS. HAL wouldn't like that.
As for your infection:
http://stopie.com I've had this problem before in Windows ME. The computer boots up for about 30 seconds then automatically shutdown without any warning.
I'd say rather unlikely but not 100 percent impossible.
I think first the virus has to gain system privileges, execute in ring-0 whatever you call it, so that it's able to access the hardware directly.
Then the virus needs to know how to damage your specific hardware. Like sending some manufacturer dependant command sequences to the device that sets it to an error state or using some mechanism thats normally used for flash upgrades, but that could be also used to corrupt the firmware of the device. E.g. it's well known that you can flash a lot of cd drives. A few years ago there were also viruses that corrupted the system bios on some boards in a similar way I think.
Another problem might be low level formating of the hd, which could lead to errors on modern drives. Ok, maybe this issues are also history.
So my conclusion is still, that it's extremely unlikely, that a virus executes with system priviliges in XP for example and has also the right code in it, to exploit some manufacturer specific stuff to damage your hard drive. But this is just what I think about it at the moment. Don't know much about the latest virus problems.
| saadonline wrote: |
| Virus doesn't damage your computer. It's just a virus. I have an antivirus and it notifys me often when the virus comes. It didn't damage my computer. Just use the best antivirus as it's possible and ignore the virus if it's keep annoying you. That's what I do. |
lol??? I mean, a virus CAN definitively cause hard disk problems, and not just that. It can mess with BIOS.., With the voltage and velocity of the computer, make a dangerous overclock that can "burn" your CPU... For example, did you know that there are monitor virus? That they put themselves in the monitor memory, and that makes them harder to delete. Besides, if the virus keeps annoying you, you ignore it? That's so cool. Your computer must be the most protected computer in the world if you still using that theory in the world we are! | m_furquan36 wrote: |
| A virus attack can deifnitely damage ur hardisk, but trojans cannot, they just merely play around with ur files on ur harddisk. |
That's not true. Trojans can damage your hard disk when you turn on your computer next time using a timer. To avoid this there are online magazines like Astalavista Security Group, that informe you how to be an hacker in order to understand and protect yourself from virus, hackers, spywares, adwares and stuff like that. | m_furquan36 wrote: |
| A virus attack can deifnitely damage ur hardisk... |
Um, no. It is physically impossible.
Virii are data, virtual thingys that open and close virtual 'gates', Hardware is, um, hardware. I can't imagine a virus opening the CD door and smacking the computer with a hammer...
Post proof that physical damage can be caused directly by a virus. I'd love to see it.After further research, I found NOTHING that stated, other than ignorant posting on forums like this, that proves a virus/trojan can cause physical damage to a HDD.
| Quote: |
Q20. I heard the so and so virus and others can damage my hardware/system. Can they?!
True/False = FALSE!
A. This is a popular myth. Unfortunately, even with people posting rewards, no one has ever produced a virus that can physically damage a computer. They simply don't exist. They may erase data or similar, but this doesn't require a new hard drive. It's simply an inconvienience that is easily recoverable. The only physical damage that might result would be the headache you might get from having to recover from this because you forgot to practice Safe Hex
Let's put things in the proper perspective. A virus or trojan is nothing more than a piece of software. Software is something nonphysical for the most part unless you include the ROM's in your computer. For a virus to damage hardware, it would have to create a physical entity, a gremlin so to speak. It would then have to emerge, unbolt the cover to your hard drive or whatever, step in and start hitting it with a hammer. You show me a virus that can do that and I'll eat radioactive waste daily and live. The likelihood of either happening is null unless the physical laws of the universe change overnight. 8*) (index) |
http://www.sirinet.net/~wdirks/virinfo1.shtml#Q20 Of course it can!
If with C you can play with the LEDs on your keyboard then what's the problem with damaging a little microchip? making an overload?
it is possible in some ways if you think about it..
btw "hardware" and "virtual things" sure are connected.
| Helios wrote: |
Of course it can!
If with C you can play with the LEDs on your keyboard then what's the problem with damaging a little microchip? making an overload?
it is possible in some ways if you think about it..
btw "hardware" and "virtual things" sure are connected. |
Post proof. Seriously. I've even got an old PC I'll 'donate' to the cause to prove it.
There is none. There's been rewards offered for someone to write one, and NONE have been produced.
I call shenannigans. 
| Quote: |
| Let's put things in the proper perspective. A virus or trojan is nothing more than a piece of software. Software is something nonphysical for the most part unless you include the ROM's in your computer. For a virus to damage hardware, it would have to create a physical entity, a gremlin so to speak. It would then have to emerge, unbolt the cover to your hard drive or whatever, step in and start hitting it with a hammer. You show me a virus that can do that and I'll eat radioactive waste daily and live. The likelihood of either happening is null unless the physical laws of the universe change overnight. 8*) (index) |
BTW, how does the ability to turn on LEDs (which are 'switched on/off' with software in the same manner images are displayed on a monitor) equate to being able to create a physical entity which can cause physical damage???
Nope, I would have to say that a virus can not physically damage a computer. Thats rubbish. The worst I have ever seen a virus do was to mess up the directory tree of a hard drive. If you know what you are doing, you can get that back with the right FDisk command.
As for flashing lights in the keyboard etc. That is a logical condition triggered by a command. There is no way that a virus can do those things and damage the computer. I have never seen a virus ( and I have seen plenty ) that could change BIOS settings and all that.
So, until I see a virus physically changing hard drive settings or Bios settings, I will have to go with - it can not be done.
Yeah, I certainly believe too that no virus can directly destroy your hardware. Most of the times AVG, Norton, Panda and Mcafee cannot clean them all - solution - clear the CMOS and reformat.
There's a widely popular hardware encrypted Harddisk by Excelstor that handles viruses and trojans with a better hardware incorporated security system. I believe they are using a higher technology than the IBM which embeds security with hardware encryption.
With the FDISK, yeah, I use it. It's a great harddisk formatting tool.
With the trojans, I certainly believe that they are less powerful than a worm or virus. But when it is already controlled by the hacker (using it as backdoor) you're in deep trouble. The hacker can definitely ruin your software system by bombarding you with viruses or simply spying on you or simply erase datas or steal them.
For the curious, you can check the worse products of hackers' work.
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/index.html
It's better to protect and maintain not only our PCs but also our precious sites. well of course it can't create a hammer and hit your computer with it lmao.
But maybe it can damage the microchips.. somehow
Bah, I give up.. my knowlage in this area is not good enough 
| Helios wrote: |
...
But maybe it can damage the microchips.. somehow
... |
BTW, 11thRock... there's really no need for your entire post to be RED. It's annoying and hard to read.Sorry, it's my favorite color. And if it's prohibited from posting with such redness, surely the font color red could have been removed. | Helios wrote: |
well of course it can't create a hammer and hit your computer with it lmao.
But maybe it can damage the microchips.. somehow
Bah, I give up.. my knowlage in this area is not good enough |
isn't the clock speed of the modern graphics cards adjustable from within windows ?
also I've seen certain programs (clockgen, softfsb) that can change the cpu & fsb speeds through the clock generator on the mobo, also from within windows.
I think it should be, theoretically, possible to damage hardware through software. But like most people here said, I'm yet to see it done.
Answer is YES.... reason why? For 'ordinary person' 
as myself , they damage harddrive clusters,because virus can more times used same cluster for same 'bull shit' operation.Your HDD working one day as for example one month.... after one month as 3 years and every HDD have time for life | levatr wrote: |
| Answer is YES.... reason why? For 'ordinary person' as myself , they damage harddrive clusters,because virus can more times used same cluster for same 'bull shit' operation.Your HDD working one day as for example one month.... after one month as 3 years and every HDD have time for life |
Um, you're talking about normal wear and tear. We're talking about a virus/trojen DAMAGING a HDD or other hardware.Watch it, this is possible.
Not only your hard disk can be damaged, but other devices too... Hard Disks, Graphic cards, even monitors can be damaged...
The virus should just keep pushing up stressing the devices, turning on and off (can't be made directly, but through the motherboard signals), and you can get your devices damaged...
| neekhu wrote: |
Watch it, this is possible.
Not only your hard disk can be damaged, but other devices too... Hard Disks, Graphic cards, even monitors can be damaged...
The virus should just keep pushing up stressing the devices, turning on and off (can't be made directly, but through the motherboard signals), and you can get your devices damaged... |
And you know this because?? (i.e. post proof)I know electronics and I know that you can do stuff like that.
I'm just not skilled enough to do it on a PC
Oh, so programming electronic schemes isn't possible..?
It's a damn project for my coursework!
Oh, And what is BIOS then? Magic?
You can control hardware(a device) by software(bunch of signals made by your hardware that were translated into a code).
Becasue "software" is made of hardware(0110011? signal generator and logic electronics.. duh! ) | Helios wrote: |
I know electronics and I know that you can do stuff like that.
I'm just not skilled enough to do it on a PC
Oh, so programming electronic schemes isn't possible..?
It's a damn project for my coursework!
Oh, And what is BIOS then? Magic?
You can control hardware(a device) by software(bunch of signals made by your hardware that were translated into a code).
Becasue "software" is made of hardware(0110011? signal generator and logic electronics.. duh! ) |
I know programming and I know hardware and I know a fair bit about electronics, and I'm STILL waiting for ANYONE to show ANY kind of proof that it has happened.
I keep hearing it's possible, but I also hear it's possible that we can travel beyond the speed of light.
Still waiting.
Not physical damage. As stated elseware bios changes etc.
| yule wrote: |
I have been working on a laptop for 4 days now. I have run Mcafee AV and AVG 7 alternately and have found over 40 viruses,trojans etc. I have run Adaware, Spybot S&D and a few specific fixes. The first AV scan w/McAfee took over 24 hours on a 20G hd with only 8G being used!!
Today, when I restarted the laptop I got a stop error. That problem was dealt with with Dell and they are sending me a new hard drive. My question may sound dumb, but can a virus actually cause an unrecoveable error to the point of having to replace the HD or was this a coincidence that the HD crashed when I was doing all this work?
thanks for any input. |
ei what kind of viruses and trojans came to your laptop...your lucky your laptop did not became a crap....lol No not now a days. With the older harddrives some times a virus could be written to cause the arms to travel farther then they were designed, thus breaking, or rendering the drive useless in the process. Now like 100% of HD manufactuers have built in stuff where this isn't a problem anymore. And this has been the case for quite a while now.
And as for the post above, yes as I stated above, it was somewhat possible at one time until makers wised up. Your not just gonna write software to do anything.
somefunction{
computer hard drive fly apart in 5 minutes because my program says to
}
hahaha give me a break and learn a little more about computers
-Dave
The nastiest virus I've ever heard of--I don't remember where--used various system internals to draw so much electricity onto the motherboard that it basically destroyed the computer. Virtually anything is possible if you know what you're doing. Are you sure it wasn't just urban legend? I once heard about a virus that was supposed to change the magnetics in your harddrive, thus creaming your system and blanking out any magnetic strips on credit cards laying around next to your computer. It was nothing more then urban legend.
Like I said, some stuff was possible with older hardware, but most of that is taking care of now a days.
-Dave
keys, you can wait for a long time.
Maybe it's not possible now but may be possible in the future.
I'm just saying that it sure will be possible in the future.
but maybe not.. hell knows.
What they do mostly is affect the boot sector of your drive.
They can also re-write your bios.
You can avoid these two issues by turning on the two protection settings that can be found in bios itself.
One is called Virus Protection as it won't let anything re-write the boot sector, the other won't let your bios be flashed by anything until you manually change the setting again.
can a virus cause physical damage to a hard drive or other hardware? Theoretically, yes. Those viruses are even probably out there, although I don't know of any. If a virus say overclocks your video card (makes it go faster), it can fry it. Although it's not possible to do it to your cpu, since you have to overclock it from your bios. I'm not sure if you can overclock your hardrive, but I assume it's possible.
| Omego2K@ wrote: |
| can a virus cause physical damage to a hard drive or other hardware? Theoretically, yes. Those viruses are even probably out there, although I don't know of any. If a virus say overclocks your video card (makes it go faster), it can fry it. Although it's not possible to do it to your cpu, since you have to overclock it from your bios. I'm not sure if you can overclock your hardrive, but I assume it's possible. |
I just got a gigibyte(spelling) motherboard. It has software included with it so you can over clock the computer from the desktop,...in real time, not talking about having to reboot.
as far as hardware is concerned most manufactures are wise to these old tricks. For instance if you try to overdrive a monitor it will simply shutoff, a lot of times it'll display a "signal out of range" message.
again you're not gonna make hardware do what it is not pysically capable of doing. In the past harddrives were physically cabable of having the arms travel past their intended arc, thus damaging them, if the right signals were sent to the controller. It was a friendlier world then and HD manufactors never considered it. Why would someone write code to damage their own hard drive. After virii started coming out that attitude changed. now it is impossible for like 99% of harddrives since there are pyshical mechanisims built into the hardware. I say 99% because who knows what generic harddrive manufactor decides to skip costs/corners.
this goes for most hardware now a days. Its more likely to be damaged by missuse or overuse, such as dropping it or too many games of quake lol, then by a virusYes it can I have had it happen to me, some viruse's can cause the read heads to crash in to the platter's.
though is is possible for viruses to change bios/voltage/config or firmware
they are EXTREMELY rare and are quite obvious when in action
most of the time, the only damage viruses would do is shorten you hdd life by 3 hrs from constant read/write
directly no, but indirectly is yes 
I think somebody already tell you about it before me, but let me makes it simple
You absolutely can change your Pc performance (usually people call it overclock), since overclock have effect on the performance of your PC (it's usually give better performance), ofcourse it's have another side effect, such as overheating, malfunction, until hardware broken.
And the virusses, since vurusses have so much way to do to your pc, it's might be do that things to your PC
Welll. i hope that's clear it all
