Is this a real or a rogue message?

Vista Home Premium SP2 - this is on a laptop that had a recent hard drive format and clean install of Vista, new drivers, updates, etc. That was about 3-4 weeks ago. Upon booting to the desktop, a message appears stating to be issued by Windows, saying that the hard drive is failing. I haven't run the full factory diagnostic on it yet (that's next), and I just wanted to get an opinion as to whether this warning is legit. It looks A LOT like a rogue/fake message that accompanies the "Windows Vista Recovery" rogue virus (or the "WinXP Restore 2011" rogue virus).... a screen shot is attached....

THANKS!

 

Fake!

 

Dude... totally fake. I'm surprised YOU are asking this question! Head over to the malware removal department, follow the readme and post for the Xpertz to help you get it sorted, for sure!

 

I believe this is genuine. Detected by SMART.

http://ittrainingtips.iu.edu/pc-hardware/troubleshooting-hard-drive-problems/02/2011

 

I would run a manufactor hard drive check, before trusting a windows one.

 

@tgell, your link looks very much like a pretty version of the classic one shown by dlb.

I see no big grammar or spelling mistakes in the OP attachment, no comments about any other popups, etc. I'd have to treat it as genuine, especially with the only historical fact = it's just been wiped/reloaded.

Boot to the Seagate diag CD and test the drive.

 

If it's real, I've NEVER seen it before, and I've seen plenty of HDDs fail without that message ever popping up. They should either be consistent with it or do away with it, IMO.

 

I've seen the Windows SMART error once before, so long ago that I don't remember the full details, it was in the Deathstar era. The obvious difference between the attachment and the link is only because the Shell is different, Classic in the attachment, XP Style in the link.

SMART errors and failures are only one subset of what we users consider to be drive failures. I seem to recall reading many comments to the effect that Windows (XP then) was not very efficient at detecting them anyway - but then, neither were most BIOS SMART checking routines.

 

Yeah, I had NEVER seen this error before either, and I have seen Windows running on failing hard drives many, MANY, MANY times. The hard drive in question here is not making any noises, it boots quickly, Windows runs just fine, no lag, and the only sign of something being wrong is the error message upon loading to the desktop. So, my initial gut instinct was that it was a rogue, but after clicking on the various options I was given, nothing nefarious happened: no pop-ups, no demands for credit card numbers to "fix" the problems, and several malware scans all came up clean, and there was no disabling of the task mgr or internet problems, and all this points to "legit". And the clincher is: I did run a full diagnostic w/ the factory utility, and the drive IS failing. So, I guess we all learned something here!

LOL It was only after an MBAM quick scan came up clean, and after TDSSKiller came up clean, and after booting to a PECD and manually searching all the normal locations where the modern rogues hangout and finding nothing, that I decided I wanted some more input on this.

@ tgell: thanks for the link... the screen shots shown there are more-or-less identical to the one I have, except that the user is using the "Windows Classic" theme in Vista; the shots in your link are with the "default" Vista theme (or possibly Win7).

Thanks for all the input and interest everyone!!! This was a new one to me, and I thought I'd seen just about every legit Windows error message there was. :-o :innocent