Test your knowledge,wisdom,skills

[MadnessHero]

1.I found those files on my computer local disk (c:) hidden. It's strange I had this on my old

hard drive and I may have pick this up surfing but what I want to know is how did it get on my

brand new hard drive and at the time did not go on the internet yet it was on there how?

The files:

System Volume Information (folder)

hiberfil.sys

ntldr

pagefile.sys

autoexec.bat

boot.ini

IO.sys

NTDETECT.com

CONFIG.SYS

Recycler (folder)

I can't delete or view these files why??

I pull up windows Task Manager under processes found unkillable things running

2.I install windows xp though dos and it was acting strange during the format and creating

directory screen, then it load files that I never seen before. Also during the 39mins count down

blue color screen went black several times with mini dos screen and lasted 1 sec. each time. In

the past this NEVER happen before.Could some malware have hidden in the memory/ddr or

motherboard.

3.I have Western Digital hard drive w/ software that can format the drive but something cause it

to format 90% then end in error which result in a incorrect format. Again I believe it unknown

malware and yes the hard drive is new and updated.

They maybe out of order but the questions kinda link together can someone help me fix, replace

trash something.

[TheFlash428]

First off, pretty much everything you describe here is absolutely NORMAL.

Every single file you listed SHOULD be present on your hard drive if windows is installed--deleteing them would cause your OS to crash or not boot at all! If they concern you then go to folder options and make sure "DO NOT SHOW HIDDEN FILES" is selected because you obviously have no need to see them.

The screen flickering during setup is also normal--in fact I believe it actaully warns you at some point that this might happen.

The only thing I cannot answer is the question about the hard-drive reformatting, but at first though I would not suspect malware--especially if it is a new drive!

I don't say this very often, but I think you are too suspicious of Malware. If the subject of your post indicates that this was a test, then you should know that is not what this forum is about (in my opinion).

[cluberti]

TheFlash is correct - most of those are files critical to Windows operation (more or less).

System Volume Information - Contains volume data for the hard disk, including ntfs log flush files and cache data

hiberfil.sys - The file used to write data in RAM to the disk for storage when the machine is put into "hibernation".

ntldr - The Winodws NT kernel bootstrap loader. Delete this, and Windows will not load.

pagefile.sys - The paging file, or "virtual memory".

boot.ini - System boot information. You may get Windows to load without this file, but you should expect that it will not

NTDETECT.com - Another file involved in booting the Windows NT kernel - see above statement about ntldr

Recycler - The recycle bin

I pull up windows Task Manager under processes found unkillable things running

Which ones? You can't easily kill processes critical to Windows' operation (and if you do find a way, you'll likely bluescreen/bugcheck your box, as you seem to be describing)

[#rootworm]

I have Western Digital hard drive w/ software that can format the drive but something cause it to format 90% then end in error which result in a incorrect format

are you trying to format from windows? you can't format your system drive from windows because the drive can't be unmounted.

the cd which has the software on it is probably bootable, boot from the cd and run the software from there if you absolutely have to use that particular program to format.