No it wasn't lost due to the format; the "corrupt" folders and files just plain won't open or copy, etc. The only folders on the hard drive that came up as "corrupt" (that was not an anti-virus folder or exe) was these:

C:\Documents and Settings\TJ\Documents\Programming\
C:\Documents and Settings\TJ\Documents\Programming_Backup.7z
C:\Documents and Settings\TJ\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\
C:\Documents and Settings\TJ\Documents\Website\

And on my backup drives:

(Drive Letter):\Backups.7z
(Drive Letter):\Source\

Hence the reason I think somebody targeted me. How, I don't know. But I sure as am pissed off. I mean really, I don't DESIGN anything important, I just had a few encryption algorithms stored there, and my website doesn't have any "amazing" code, it's just a games website so I can play games past the firewall at work. Jeez, someone's either a REAL jerk or I'm really unlucky.

I guess it is a good IDEA to try and see if it will break another computer by plugging in my USB drive to another computer.

I'll post the results in a few minutes, I have an OLD laptop from 5 or 6 years ago I haven't used.

Okay, here's a pic of the first computer to fail, It's being formatted but it's still showing errors...



And here's a pic of the self test done by a computer that I plugged the USB hard drive into. (Sorry about the angle)



Somehow, some way, someone's managed to get the drive to physically fail (or at least think it's failed) and they put it on my computer. Curses.the first thing you should do is try to copy your source and such.


Also, when you plug in the drive, Hold shift to prevent autorun from occuring.I tried that at one point, it doesn't seem to make a difference. It apparently happens while it's installing the USB drivers for the device... So I guess the USB drive is probably a brick now, since I can't get it to format.

Well, although my problem isn't solved I'm guessing there's nothing more I can do other than buy new hard drives. Thanks for the help, at least I feel better.

EDIT: DBAN Just finished and saved the log to the A:\ drive. I don't have an A:\ drive.

Also, it sounded like it was still using the hard drive after DBAN had stopped running.

Is it possible somehow it's fooling the software into thinking it's on the A:\ drive, so the software isn't formatting a drive that would be considered a floppy? Something like that?doubt it.


Here's something you can try- most external drives simply have an IDE or SATA drive inside. You could open it up and put it inside a PC, see of that helps. Could be an issue with the USB board, since it seems to have issues after connection.


You did hold shift, right?


The A:\ drive was probably a RAM drive the boot disc created to save files.Yeah, but usually DBAN says "No removable device found" then some error about not saving the log. I've used DBAN ALOT because I'm constantly screwing up my computers with random code. I program random programs (not necessarily stable) to play with sometimes for fun. Hence the multiple backups, which I screwed up... The fact that it saved the log to a non-existent location scares me a bit lol. However, it does make me think I might be able to recover the DATA from one of my undamaged drives, if I can kill whatever the thing is running off of!!

Oh, and thanks for the tip about the external drive. That's great I had no idea you could just take it out and use it like a normal hard drive.