Windows 7: External Hard Drive error ~$WV.FAT32

Hi,

I'm having troubles on opening my hard drive. 1st, there was this Shortcut virus that affected my external, i thought it was just a simple virus cause it just creates shortcuts of your files instead of getting to it directly. So after a day, i decided to fix it my self. But as always without asking, my Norton anti virus deleted the infected files right away when i plugged in the drive.

Now I can't open my Hard Drive, it states that "There was a problem starting ~$WV.FAT32, The specified module could not be found."

I've tried chkdsk/r x: but it always hangs or stops at 21 percent stage 4 of 5.


If possible, i really need to fix my external without losing the files. PLEASE help.

Hello Flippy lumpy I found this - have you run any malware scans at all?

"My removable device" shortcut virus.. - Microsoft Community

if not try Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyaware and ADWCleaner


http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

Can you please elaborate?

1. Does the external drive show in Disk Management?

2. Does the above error message display when you click on the drive to open it in Explorer or when you try to open a file/folder in the external drive?

Removing the shortcut virus would have been a simple job but Norton by deleting only the specified module without really deleting the autorun.inf file in the external drive has complicated it. Or so, I would think.

If you can see the autorun.inf file, select it press Shift+delete and send it to oblivion.

I would think if somehow we can see the file and delete it half the problem is solved.

ICit2lol -- Uhm yeah, the first time that i plug it on my laptop i conducted a virus scan which deleted some infected files. As i recall, i didn't see any complicated files infected. But the other day that i plug it, Norton has already deleted that FAT32.dll file, i can't remember much how the name goes. Can't open my norton right now to see the history. There's something wrong i guess, but it's something about the FAT32 file.

sorry for my bad English.

1. Yes! Status is: Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)

2. Yes it does, here how it looks like from the directory. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=fd69sm&s=6
and whenever i want to open it, http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2wmjadv&s=6

There's no autorun.inf on my drive, can't find it..even using CMD. But the autorun of my drive still Runs every time.


Sorry for my bad English.

Well Flippy Lumpy I am not acquainted with that brand hard drive so I don't know what software came with it plus (I don't know if jumanji would agree) that - I would be tempted to completely wipe and reformat that drive.

But I would like first to see what jumanji has to say to that so hold off for a while.

Now one thing you could do in the meantime to check the drive physically would be to run a surface check with the Partition Wizard.

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

See my pic to see how the drives will line up

As a by the by an easy way of making / loading pics is this How to Use the Snipping Tool in Vista

hmmmm.....ICit2, I don't think Letang is the brand name of the hard drive. It could be the name given by the virus.

And Flippylumpy, don't panic. I am still hopeful that all your files may be safe. We only have to find a way to get rid of the virus and then recover them.

1. Please upload the screenshot of how your external hard drive looks in Windows Disk Management. Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

(For any other screenshots too, please use the Windows Snipping Tool and upload it. Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums )

2. Was it FAT32 formatted by you in Windows 7?

These just to get the full picture.

Now just do this and report with screenshots.

Shut down your computer, unplug your external drive( if not done already ) and then boot.

Plug-in your external drive while pressing the left Shift key so that autorun is disabled.

Now run WinRAR and explore your external drive with it.

Post a screenshot of the contents.

( You may find autorun.inf file and other virus files which you need to delete selecting all those. But first let us see it.)

Well, I have done quite a bit of research on your problem and have chosen this as the easiest and best way to get rid of the rogues. If it does not work, we can try other methods.

hmmmm.....ICit2, I don't think Letang is the brand name of the hard drive. It could be the name given by the virus.

Yep J I wasn't real happy with it being called that unless it was some obscure brand eh?

John

Icit2lol

-Yeah, it's a Seagate external drive. I'm doing the surface check right now...but the calculated time remaining is 4 hours. I'll just post the screen shot after with the snipping tool sir.

Jumanji

Oh haven't said this...i renamed my drive to "Letrang", it is "Letter" in English. Sorry for the confusion.

yeah, thanks!
1.Here, it is the one named LETRANG (H)

% Free: 15%, Fault Tolerance: No, Overhead: 0%

2. Hm, nope. Never been formatted since i bought it last year.

What i did was by Open Archived, then changed the search by type to All archive to All format.
Then the shortcut to my drive showed up, when i try to open it. This error shows up

Now using the WinRar Navigation from the main screen, this what shows up.

The $RECYCLE.BIN was the only folder that i can open.


And by opening the The Shortcut file to my directory which is Letrang (466GB).Ink, this pops up again.