WD-2.5" USB 120GB HD, virus...help

I bough a Western Digital 2.5" HD from Buy.com a month ago. The problem i have is it's automatically created series of folders with weird names and i couldn't erase/delete it. i did a virus scan and found nothing. Please help. Now i can't even copy file to the hard drive. Thanks.

 

What, specifically, are the weird names?

 

If they are a random mash of alphabetical characters and numbers that are 20 digits long (or something like that), it's just temp folders for holding data for installation programs for example. Take a screen shot, post it here.

 

they're probably a result of windows update. windows update likes to leave behind folders with completely random alphanumerical names of about that lenght.

 

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p143/ttluv2004/Picture1.jpg

thanks

 

This dvd of yours wasn't possibly from anoter country, was it? ... that seems like an awful large number of folders for a dvd...

Failing that, my second guess would be filesystem corruption, and possibly hardware damage.

edit: if the files in the folders are the same sizes as dvd files would be, then i'd guess it's just some other language's characterset, being mushed into yours... that whole "square peg round hole" sort of effect. basically, the peg dies in the translation. very gory. eww.

 

i didn't created those folders, those are generated automatically after i leave the hard drive power on overnight. Now i can't copy/delete files to/from the hard drive. Any helps? Thanks.

 

hmm picture shows 221gb of files on a 120gb hd?

I used to work with in the fxp scene, and we usually create directorys that the users cannot delete nor access. But I have never seen extensions like that. It looks like the folders are some chinese characters which cannot be displayed.

Only thing I could think of now is to run a chkdsk /f /x y: or run the full sector scan to check if there is something wrong.

Oh actually you can try installing the East asian support it might let you read the files etc. In the past I have users which have chinese folders which they need to access but they are unable to because they got the english xp. Installing the support allowed them to access the files.

If all fails you might as well format and reinstall the whole OS.

 

It looks like the filenames are using the East Asian Language pack standard, which you do not have installed so it appears as gibberish. But since you are experiencing problems with the drive, I recommend you reformat and start over from scratch.

 

Thanks for all the help. As far as re-format the drive, i am okay to lose everything on the drive but i can't even do a format on the drive. Some of the files on the drive became corrupted. I think this is some sort of virus but just don't know what to do. It's creating a whole bunch of weird folders which can't be deleted and corrupt files. More suggestions will be appreciated. I just don't want to waste my time/money to return the product to the manufacture. Thanks.

Last solution will be just return to the manufacture for replacement, because Buy.com's return policy is only 14 days which is already over. That's if i can't fix it.

 

You can't reformat the drive? I mean using this option in Windows Explorer:



If you can't reformat it then you will have to send it to the manufacturer for an RMA.

 

Just curios, did u create the catcat1-7 folder ?

 

Delete the partition(s) and then install windows fresh. There are many ways to resolve this...

1) You could try partition magic, gpart (spelling?) or a similar program to delete the partition or format it.

2) You can put a windows xp cd during boot (make sure first boot device in bios) and follow instructions on the screen. When it shows your partition(s) delete it and then install xp fresh.

3) Use your recovery cd's. It probably warn you about everything will be deleted then just go ahead.

Many other ways but those on top of my head at the moment.

MORE screenshots will help especially of all your drive letters on the left window of explorer. Why is it allocated as y: (y drive)? How many drive letters do you see?

 

The WD passport drives have had a lot of quality issues. I had to return one already. It's probably a bad drive. See if you can return it or get a new one on warranty.