Hard Drive Failing Or Virus/malware?

I have an HP running Windows 7 that's about 5 or 6 years old.

All of a sudden I'm getting error messages of a failing hard drive attribute 5 (sectors). I'm just wondering, before I chunk down cash on a new had drive if this might be a virus or malware issue.

My kids use this computer mostly and I've had to remove a few nasty things in the past, never had serious issues after removals though.

I've run the diagnosis stuff and attached. I'm not seeing anything that wasn't already caught/quarentined by my protections already in place, but maybe I'm missing something. I did not run the temp cleaner because I didn't want to erase anything just in case.

Thanks for any assistance!

I attached the last Malware log and the one when I ran the diagnosis from the read/run me because it had quarentined a few things the other day. And I don't have a log from the TDSSSKiller because it said it was clean and did not produce a log.

 

Thanks. I spent yesterday backing up before I did anything else, just in case. I'll re-reun and see if any drivers need updating, but it looks like I'm probably buying new.

 

Going through the same thing right now. It looks like my hard drive doesn't know where to end so it's writing over other files (overlap). No previous problems, no warnings. Thought I had Malware or a virus, but when I ran Western Digital software, it ran for like 10 seconds and it came back with "fail." The drive now shows up as "unallocated", and I'm out a 1 TB drive. I ran TestDisk to retrieve the lost partitions, and I'm in the middle of rescuing important files. I have and image from a few days ago, but it was on a separate partition of the bad drive. Time to go Solid State.

 

Download Crystal Disk Info and it will tell you the S.M.A.R.T status of your hard drive. If it says Caution or Bad you are looking at needing to replace the hard drive. If it says its good, it's pretty safe to assume that your hard drive is not at fault. http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

 

Thanks Brandon. It's been almost 3 weeks. I diagnosed it as a bad drive. Now I'm trying to recover my files with some of the programs on Hirens Boot Disk. I found a couple of HDD wizards that actually see the HDD, but the volume shown on the screen says "bad." I can view all of my files after a scan with a TestDisk partition recovery, along with a dozen 3.5mb boot files, and a bunch of "overlapped" files - I get the lost partition right in front of me, but after going through the whole operation, it comes up empty handed. I must be doing something wrong. Do I have to set the drive to another type or something? Like "logical" or "main?" I must be missing a step. Thanks for your help. My brain is pretty much fried at this point.

 

Please post your SMART data here using this tool.
I'll help you understanding the figures

 

Actually, that is about the average lifetime for an HDD being used as a boot drive. If you are going for a new drive, I highly recommend the Samsung PRO SSD line. The 256 GB version is about $130, the 512 is more expensive. If you have a lot of data, you can store it on a regular HDD of your choice. Run your apps and OS on the SSD, and save data on the HDD. As always, the three rules of data are:

1. Backup
2. Backup
3. Backup

@ Swordfish Museum:

Per forum rules and decorum, please start your own thread to address any issues you may have.

 

Thanks

 

Thanks for the advice!