HardDisk (C ,D & E) Grayed and PC folder Grayed

[zak1001]

Hi,

I enabled  virtualization sometime back (1 week ) after receiving information on this forum. After that I downloaded 3 images on my PC through my email. Then I opened them. After that I was not able to access my C, D & E derives. PC folder was visible. But the mouse went into processing mode (circulating). I had McCaffe anti-virus so I was thinking myself why McCaffe not working because I suspected virus on my system through thse images which I downloaded from my email (I received those files on WhatsApp. I emailed them to myself through my mobile). So i downloaded AVAST antivirus and ran the scan. After that I could see the C , D, & E folders. Then I tried to accessing those files again & again I got the same problem. So I connected to McCaffe Support & in the meantime I ran the McCaffe Scan. This time it worked and I could access the file. But the McCaffe guy told me that he wanted to remote login on my PC & capture my desktop. So he did and viewed my PC. After that he told me that virus protection system was not enable for McCaffe. I asked him why? I got one month license. But he said that i have to call McCaffe o enable it. They asked me 179$ for 1 year and 120$ for 1 week. I said 'no' to him and shut down my PC because it was working. But when I opened it again. I again experienced the same problem. This time I can't even see the PC folder. This time I called HP and spoke to Mr SAM in Support. I asked his ID but he did not give me his ID.He gave me the ticket# [edit] & connected me to McCaffe. But he (Mr. Sam) gave me a wrong ticket & McCaffe people can't locate my case & in the meantime my line dropped. Then I again called HP & got the number [edit] to speak to McCaffe again. This time I got the ticket#[edit]& I was conneted to a very nice person & listened to me carefully & assured me that they won't charge me if its a virus problem. Again their technician did a remote login to my PC & checked everything by running softwares. After this he did a manual inspection of my PC & I saw that he uncheked some of hidden file option & then I could see my PC folder, my 'C' & 'D' & 'E' drives.

He said its a hard disk problem. It would come periodically. However, I am not facing this problem for last one week. But I am afraid about my laptop. So I want to download those files again & I want to see if I am getting that  problem or not. Because if its a hard disk problem I can't keep the laptop.

Please guide me how should I test my PC again with those fles? I had immediately removed the folder. But they are in my email. All email have virus scan facility. So it may not be a virus problem as the technician was saying.

Please guide me how to test my PC again with those files?

Zulfi. 

[WAWood]

@zak1001

What you need to do, in order to safely run the tests is the following:

1) Image of your setup stored on USB stick or external drive

2) Ability to restore your PC from that backup image after running the tests.

In this way, when you restore your PC, any trace of those files, or anything they did to your PC will be gone, as the entire OS partition gets overwritten from the image backup.

I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

[zak1001]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

You have explained me the whole process. But I still need to know following things:

1. How many USB derives I need?

2. What should be the size of each USB derive (bootable and backup)

3. When should I run the procedure of booting and restoring from USB? You mean when I can't see my derives. But I can login into the system and I can do the browsing. This means that I can acess internet. 

4. Do i need to perform any hard disk test? 

5. What you think, is my hard disk OK?

Please reply me. Thanks for your time. God bess you.

Zulfi.

[WAWood]

@zak1001

To answer your questions ...

1) One drive -- for an image backup of the entire OS

2) Already told you that -- in the paragraph beginning "My exprience using MR ..."

3) The image backup is in case something goes wrong with the testing -- if nothing goes wrong, you don't need to do a restore

4) Up to you, but the backup is in case something goes wrong with the testing

5) No idea ...