Virus causes HDD to show up as "Generic Storage Device USB"

This post is a hybrid hardware/software/virus question:

I have run into two heavily virus/malware infected PCs this week where Windows (XP or Vista) would start; however most items (programs, My Documents, etc.) did not show in the options when clicking the Start (Windows icon) at the bottom left of the screen.

My plan of attack was to attempt to salvage documents, photos and other user files by removing the hard drive, inserting it into a docking station on a functioning PC and using a data recovery program.

Now for the problem:

When I insert the hard drive into the docking station, "My Computer" does not recognize it. When I go to CONTROL PANEL > COMPUTER MGT. > DISK MGT. the hard drive shows up with letter assignments ("G", "H") but zero capacity. When I click on properties, it comes up as "Generic USB Storage Device" (not "Seagate model xxx") and again shows zero capacity. If I attempt a driver update, none is available.

Given the above issue, I cannot access the drive using a recovery program or a disk utility such as SeaTools.

Since the malware-infested copy of Windows on the drive is FUBAR to the point of requiring a reformat and fresh install, I'd like to know if there is a way to get the working PC to recognize the drive when inserted into the docking station. If possible, this seems more time-efficient than running a series of malware removal tools from a boot disk on the infected PC itself.

Any ideas and/or suggestions on the best recovery software would be appreciated.

 

Hello,
Sometimes USB adapters or dockings stations do not recognize a particular drive. Is it possible to return the drive to the original computer and access it with something like Puppy in order to remove the data? Then do a reformat and install.

 

The first time this happened (a week ago), I ended up leaving the drive in the docking station on the non-infected PC and rebooted with SeaTools DOS (CD). In DOS mode, SeaTools found the external drive. It was unable to access the data but was able to reformat the drive

In the mean time, I'll give Puppy a try. Thanks for the tip.

 

Hi

As was already mentioned, Linux distros are often a good help to virus-embedded drives or drives with other issues that seem Windows-specific. Usually my first try at recovering data from a drive in Windows is using iCare Data Recovery (a program I was able to get a free license from through a limited time offer, and have subsequently bought since it's worked so well for so many drives I've encountered), BUT if it seems to me like a Windows-based issue, Linux (the Mint distro is my preference) is the OS I boot to to attempt data retrieval (not recovery, mind you). Linux is almost impervious to most any virus that exists, as most troubled teenagers and hateful idiots that write the viruses target them for Windows systems (not to mention, the DESIGN of Linux is simply anti-virus in and of itself... there have been maybe a handful of viruses that have affected a FEW Linux-based OS's in the last few decades... Linux mostly has a better implementation of the Windows User Account Control throughout the entire OS).

If Linux and iCare fail at the task I have with a hard drive, it's often a PCB (HDD controller board) gone bad, or the physical disk is malfunctioning. Obviously, in these cases, only a PCB replacement or professional data recovery center using clean rooms and dedicated hardware and trained techs can deal with the issues.

Also remember that when formatting a drive affected by a virus of these types, a regular format within Windows won't always get rid of the issue. I once had a Trojan embedded in the MBR of my hard drive. Several formats (using XP Setup from the CD) and re-installs later, I STILL had the dang thing. Only a complete wipe (DBAN or the likes) and FULL format using something like Partition Magic (bootable disk) can get rid of these pesky little things. I haven't had one of those since that one, and I used a bootable optical disk with some sort of disk management program (could have been the MFG's disk utility, I can't remember) to zero and completely format the entire drive.

I realize this is probably over the top for your situation, but it's always good to have extra information for future use, if nothing else!

 

I'm going to start experimenting with Linux. I have an older PC I'll set it up on until I feel comfortable setting up a VM or dual boot option.

In the mean time, I traced the initial problem in the post back to a defective eSATA cable. :heli

It's been one of those days...

 

Haha... yeah I had a defective ethernet cable that had me doing similar troubleshooting... I know how that goes.

Anyway, you don't need to INSTALL Linux. Both Puppy and Mint have "Live disks", which you boot from and can run Linux, without writing anything to the computer's hard drive. While I've installed Mint on a computer once, only for other reasons, the Live CD/DVD works just fine for the hard drive troubleshooting aspect, and most other things.