HD drive won't load. Causes programs to not respond.

[BANANAMAN]

I have a WD brand 500GB HD which causes problems when i plug it into a machine that uses a window's OS. I can't access it's content since it always "freezes" up before it finishes "being found".

I remember having several empty folders I can't delete stored in it which always gives me messages such as "Folder is not empty" whenever i tried deleting them even though (visually) they're empty. I can't access it either to format it. Is it a hardware problem or a is it just infected with a virus/malware?

Any help is appreciated at this point.

 

[Slapshot136]

is it just infected with a virus/malware?

if you leave the computer off, and boot off of a bootable disk (most linux disks, a windows install disk, etc.) and try to format it, can you do it then?

 

[BANANAMAN]

How do I do that?

 

[Slapshot136]

How do I do that?

you need a disk that you can boot off of (burn a DVD if you don't have one), put it in the computer, then restart it - then from that (outside your windows install, and preferably with only the suspected drive connected), see if you can format it

 

[Wargasm]

More info regarding boot cd's https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
How is the harddrive set btw ? Slave/Master ?

Wargy
http://cctld.dk