Is my system infected?

[Cloud]

Someone gave me a micro sd card that was giving problems and I put it in my machine and scanned for viruses using security essentials. Initial scans showed potentially unwanted software but it froze so I didn't get to finish scanning. I'd have to remove it every few seconds cuz by the time u right click or anything it would freeze. I eventually tried to format it but halfway through it just froze so I finally gave up on it.
I used my computer for the rest of the day and the next day when I started using it again it just froze, restarted it and got this message "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key" for about 3 restarts and then it gave me the option to start normally or in safe mode. I selected safe mode and after it booted and brought up the help file it froze again. I restarted and selected start windows normally and it came up and ran without any problems, used firefox at first, then switched to IE, then eventually chrome which is what I was using when it froze. I did a virus scan on C (didnt scan the sector reserved when I created the partition and formatted it) then I ran chkdsk which came back without any problems. Used it the entire day and it worked fine til in the night when my daughter bumped it and it froze, restarted and it worked fine. This morning I start using it and after a bit it froze again and it came back with the message "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key" so now i'm thinking of trying to reinstall windows and see if that helps.
Can my machine pick up a virus even tho I didn't run any programs from the flash drive and I didn't double click any folder to open, instead I stuck to the the left side of windows explorer for navigation?

[BUBBA]

Can my machine pick up a virus even tho I didn't run any programs from the flash drive and I didn't double click any folder to open, instead I stuck to the the left side of windows explorer for navigation?

well yea it can happen as u plug in the drive the autorun.exe runs instantly so virus for u... but i dont think that can cause u so much problems....

[Cloud]

By the way i'm using windows 7, never used vista so not too used to this stuff but wouldn't the UAC prompt me about sumn like an autorun? Reason I really wondered bout the virus thing is cuz the flash drive couldn't even be formatted and I started thinking about some boot sector type virus or sumn. So my problem may be a hardware one then?

[johno]

By the way i'm using windows 7, never used vista so not too used to this stuff but wouldn't the UAC prompt me about sumn like an autorun? Reason I really wondered bout the virus thing is cuz the flash drive couldn't even be formatted and I started thinking about some boot sector type virus or sumn. So my problem may be a hardware one then?

I think you diagnosed properly. Sounds like your boot sector got corrupted. Ive never dont a repair using windows 7 before, but boot from the cd and follow the instructions. should be a breeze.

[techie2000]

take a look at this:

You can use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) to troubleshoot and repair the following items in Windows Vista or Windows 7:

* A master boot record (MBR)
* A boot sector
* A Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store

Note When you are troubleshooting startup issues by using the Windows RE, you should first try the Startup Repair option in the System Recovery Options dialog box. If the Startup Repair option does not resolve the issue, or if you must troubleshoot more steps manually, use the Bootrec.exe tool.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

There is more to the article, seems this might be what you are looking for

[Cloud]

I tried a normal repair from the cd but didn't check if it worked, just used the bootrec.exe tool with the command prompt right after and so far it's working, if it decided to start today I wouldn't be able to do all i've done so far. If there are further problems i'll say so, otherwise consider this resolved. Thanks for all replies.

[Arch_Angel]

By the way i'm using windows 7, never used vista so not too used to this stuff but wouldn't the UAC prompt me about sumn like an autorun?

Just an FYI, Auto-run has been disabled in Windows 7. So autorun viruses won't work on Windows 7.

See here: http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive...windows-7.aspx

[Cloud]

Just an FYI, Auto-run has been disabled in Windows 7. So autorun viruses won't work on Windows 7.

See here: http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive...windows-7.aspx

Thanks for that cuz I was planning to follow up on whether it does.

[Powpow]

Yeah, Windows 7 asks you pretty much if you want to open anything it picks up before it does. Your problem does sound more like hardware rather than software though, cause you mentioned that your laptop got bumped by your daughter then it froze, so sounds like HDD delicate and has bad sectors.

[ruption]

That sound like ur hdd is dying or the cable is not properly plugged into ur hdd....u should try remove the case and ensure everything is intact.