Ok, so my Windows 7 32-bit OS mustve caught a virus or something. MY desktop got cleared of all icons and shortcuts except for the Computer and Recycle Bin icons. My entire start menu is empty, like nothing appears in it at all except for the search bar, the power options, and my account picture at the top. My C:\ drive is completely empty but windows seems to be working somewhat fine. I keep getting approximately 30 "System message - Write Fault Error" popups at a time. They continue saying "A Write command during the test has failed to complete. This may be due to a media or read/write error. The system generates an exception error when using a reference to an invalid system memory address." It gives me 3 choices, Cancel, Try Again, Continue. I also have a window that pops up that says File Recovery and it tries running tests telling me i have crucial issues with my HD. My internet does not work on it and its very difficult to run anything on it. I read somewhere this was created by a virus, but i didnt read anything about it actually screwing up my laptop extremely. I also get these popup errors that tell me Drive Sectors can not be found and Device Initialization failed, though i can still log in just fine. None of these errors occur before sign in to my account, and only 1 or 2 of them carry over into another account. Please help.

It sounds like a failed/failing HD. I would download the drive checking utility from the drives manufacturer and run chkdsk as indicated below A- CHKDSK /R /F: Chkdsk disclaimer: While performing chkdsk on the hard drive if any bad sectors are found when chkdsk tries to repair that sector any data available on that sector might be lost. Run CHKDSK /R /F from an elevated (Run as administrator) Command Prompt. Do this for each hard drive on your system. When it tells you it can't do it right now - and asks you if you'd like to do it at the next reboot - answer Y (for Yes) and press Enter. Then reboot and let the test run. It may take a while for it to run, but keep an occasional eye on it to see if it generates any errors. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/guide-to-using-check-disk-in-windows-vista/ See "CHKDSK LogFile" below in order to check the results of the test. B- Elevated Command Prompt: Go to Start and type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes) At the top of the Search Box, right click on Cmd.exe and select "Run as administrator" C-CHKDSK LogFile: Go to Start and type in "eventvwr.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter Expand the Windows logs heading, then select the Application log file entry. Double click on the Source column header. Scroll down the list until you find the Chkdsk entry (wininit for Win7) (winlogon for XP). Copy/paste the results into your next post. MS-MVP 2010, 2011, 2012 Sysnative.com Team ZigZag

http://guides.yoosecurity.com/permanently-stop-system-message-write-fault-error-from-win-7-vista-or-xp/ Thats the website i saw where it spoke of this being a possible virus, though im starting to fall for it not being one since there are actually files and things missing from my laptop like the C drive being empty and my start menu having absolutely no options in it. Plus i cant run the Registry or Task manager without using command prompt. If this changes your answer a little let me know, otherwise ill continue with what you said at first and post the responses here shortly. Everytime i try running a CHKDSK scan, it tells me it cant with the parameters because "Cannot lock current drive." "Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process" I tried changing directories, etc, but still nothing seems to work with that.

I've seen a virus similiar to this before and the way I was able to fix it was to pull the hard drive out and connect it as a slave drive to another desktop pc. I was then able to run the chkdsk /r and virus scan on the infected drive and clean it up. I was also able to set all the files back to where they were no longer hidden. That's why everything looks like it's missing from your C: drive. They're not gone, just set to be a hidden file. Hope that helps. Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi, I also suggest you use the System File Checker tool to scan the system file after you checking for the virus. Hope this helps. Vincent Wang TechNet Community Support